As of today's date there are exactly 21 days until the Americorps NCCC journey comes to an end. Three weeks from today, I will be boarding an airplane in Baltimore, MD and flying back to Crystal Lake, IL. Of course saying goodbye is the hardest thing especially when you have created so many special friendships with the people in the last 9 plus months. I am trying not to think of that at the moment, but when other people bring up the countdown til the finish it is hard. But aside from all the excitement of finishing, bare with me because there is SOO much to tell within this blog from what has happened from disaster and what our Raven 3 was doing (which was answering phone calls at the EOC) to what I am currently doing with another team in St. Marks, FL. Hang on....the ride might be long and bumpy :)
Last time we left off was if I recall about getting extended down in Galveston, TX until the 11th of October. We found out on October 5th that Chris Quaka and the rest of the other Perry Point upper staff gave us an extension to stay down on disaster for another month or until November 5th. Most of the teams 4th rounds end on October 29th, but they wanted Raven 3 to stay down 7 days after that and finish up down there. Myself and teammate Joni had other feelings regarding the situation. So we expressed our feelings to Andrea and our team leader arranged a team meeting to talk about logistics and how things were going to be for the remainder of 4th round. As we sat in a circle we went around getting each other's feelings on it. When it got to me, I felt that our time spent down in Galveston, TX was more than enough. There is a reason why team's are sent on disaster for 30 days and we fulfilled so much. We definately made an impact on the community of Galveston and as well as the state of Texas. Texas now knows, if they didn't before, what Americorps NCCC is all about and the great things we do. Joni was in the same boat as me as we shared similiar reasonings. A couple days later Andrea came back and pulled Joni and I aside to talk about our options. One option was to serve the rest of the time in Galveston with the team OR we could join another team. Those teams being either going to St. Marks, FL and working on trails or going to Ocean Springs, MS working with construction. After getting about 2 days to really think about each situation and what I really wanted to do, I decided to switch teams. There were several reasons that balled up into one on why I decided to change. Personal issues, individual team issues with me and some other members, etc.
Back tracking a couple of steps...our Raven 3 team after working with EOC and answering phone calls, once that office was dying down to the point of receiving a few calls here and there, we were told that the office was going to be closing down. Closing down meant our team had to search for job elsewhere. Elsewhere led us to helping out at one of the Point of Distribution places on the island for 4 days. We teamed up with some of the Army and Air Force people and handed out bottled water, ice and hot meals to residents on the island. We were scattered in the EOC office still but only 2 of us were working per day. One in the morning from 8 AM-3 PM and then someone would relieve that person and work from 3 PM- 11 PM. Working with the military men and women was a lot of fun. We learned what they actually do and still got great work out hoisting the heavy waters and several ice bags. Beautiful weather was also a plus when we were working. On top of the rewarding work, the customers that drove up in their cars were super excited and thanked us immensely. Once the P.O.D. was taken down on that Saturday, we were searching yet again for more work.
We settled upon that next day, teaming up with the Red Cross. At the Red Cross we were thrown right in the mix with riding and serving meals in the ERV trucks. It was a great experience because we switched riding with drivers everyday to meet new Red Cross volunteers. I had a great crew each and every time I rode with someone. Everyone in the RC is so nice and polite and you have to enjoy the people you work with to enjoy the experience. I met 4 people that I still keep in touch with today! It is crazy in a matter of a couple days and working with someone for 2 days you can become so close. First ride I was on I was with Stan and we did bulk distribution and went around to the assigned neighborhoods and gave out breakfast foods, paper towels, water, baby formula, snacks, etc. to the people/workers in need of the supplies. In the afternoon of that day we got radioed to serve hot meals in an area that there was a fire. In the end, there wasn't really a fire but we still spent a couple hours feeding the people within the area. It was fun because they were so thankful! For the remainder of the time working with the Red Cross, I was put on hot meal serving both in the afternoon and at night. We ended up working from 8:30 AM to 8 PM when the truck came back and after clean up. Long and tiring days indeed. (side note...I am nearing almost 2000 service hours come time for graduation!)
Along with riding in ERV's we also were at the loading dock making sure all the ERV trucks had enough food on board. Also we were helping a man named Keith unload items from semi-trucks such as toys, drinks, canned goods, etc. That kind of work was a lot of stop and go, I preferred being on the truck and staying active. Joni and I were working with the ERVs until we left with Raven 5....going back to that story now, I came to Andrea the next night and told her I wanted to switch teams and join the team going to Ocean Springs, MS. but she said I can only go with Jenna B's team (Raven 5) to St. Marks, FL. I was upset, but in the end it worked out. We are supposed to be getting back at Perry Point, MD on Halloween giving 13 days to say goodbye and hang out with friends, compared to getting back on November 8th and having 5 days to say adios! I think in the end I made the right decision.
The morning I left my team (and it was not because of betrayal of the team being i was the Assistant Team Leader), Raven 5 traveled over to Metairie, LA for the night and camped out in hotel. I got the chance to head down to New Orleans and see some of my other Americorps friends that were in for the weekend or had been working at Camp Hope. It was a great time catching up with them. Next morning we packed up our stuff and left for St. Marks. We arrived to our destination on Sunday and unpacked. Very beautiful and woodsie-like which was a good site to visit. In relation to Tallahassee we are about 35 minutes away. The housing when we arrived was called the "Garage Majahl"...it was basically a run-down garage turned into a living space with a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and 2 bedrooms with 4 bunks in each. Some of us decided to sleep in the bunks, while others chose to pitch a tent outside and live outside. I am not much of a bug person, so I decided to stay inside...good decision because of all the chiggers and ticks...
TO BE CONTINUED!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
In the 2nd week of Disaster Relief down in the "heart" of Texas
Hola! Estoy aqui! HOORAY! Anyways, last post left off with answering phone calls in Galveston, TX for the Emergency Operations Center. Well we have been doing that ever since but in flucuating hours and weird schedules. One minute we are working 12-hour shifts for three days, then we have been told we are going to be working in 3 shifts of 8-hours. What I mean is that the first pair of Raven 3 come in from 7AM- 3PM, while then the next three teammates relieve them from 3PM-11PM, and then finally the last two (who happen to be myself and Joni) answer the phones from 11PM-7AM. We are starting to get the hang of getting use to the hours. I have especially gotten accostumed to staying up the wee hours of the morning, which definitely makes it difficult to sleep during the day. First couple nights I think I only got 3 hours a sleep per night just because my body was not use to staying up so late. I mean in college I was up late for other reasons like studying, hanging out with friends, or simply being "slap-happy". But in this situation it was working for 8 hours and then sleeping in the Dispatch corner of their office on air mattresses with all the lights on...talk about pretty hard to get some quality shut-eye! Joni and I managed to do just fine though. Even the Dispatch employees kept really quiet when they were working in consideration for us. Although, not only were the lights on in the office BUT there was this screeching, loud pitched tone that was buzzing all the time against the wall. It happened to be the alarm system. Oh well!
So like mentioned before, we were on our 12 hour shift for about 2 days until we got switched to 8 hours. My shift to be completely honest is very boring because no one really is awake to call that early in the morning or during that time. We average on our shift roughly 9 calls per night. It is usually a race to see who can answer the call first. We even have bets on when the first call will ring AND how many will dial the EOC number. On the contrary, it seems like the afternoon and morning shifts seem to get the most calls and have been ringing off the hook these last couple days. Officials have finally opened up the Galveston Island for residents to come back in only one condition...if they obey the curfew. The curfew was from 6PM-6AM but has been bumped up 2 hours to 8PM-6AM. If or any residents disobey this mandate, that means the people of Galveston will be fined $2,000! WOW! That is a ton. Totally not worth it!!
Joni and I have really gotten to know the 2 ladies that have been with us. Mary and Carolyn are super sweet. They, sadly, are victims of the Hurricane. They are currently living in the San Luis hotel about 10 minutes from the station because their houses were affected by the storm. Both are in the process of working things out with FEMA and the Red Cross. It has been really fun hanging out with them watching movies, making power point presentations, and doing Mad Libs with them both. They even have gotten a taste of Joni and I dueting to RENT songs and Sonny/Cher "I Got You Babe".
Slowly but surely more and more stores and places are opening up for people. Kroger, Walgreens, Walmart, and some gas stations are open during the day. We have been able to go out to those places for health and wellness runs and has been great. Our living accomadations now have been switched from the Dispatch small office corner to camping in tents in the Airport parking lot. We were in the Dispatch room for about a week. Now there are 2 other Perry Point teams that are with us doing logistic work with the Forestry department. We couldn't fit all 3 teams in the office so we had to pack up and move our belongings. But all 3 teams are in the parking lot on air mattresses, about 3 people per tent. The disadvantage thing for me when I get the chance to lay down and go to bed is that I am actually sleeping during the day...which means while the heat is blazing down in between 85-90 degrees, I am sweating profusely. Luckily and fortunately there is a nearby air-conditioned tent I have stayed in the last 2 nights.
Food has been wonderful as the Salvation Army is supplying all the meals. What usually happens is we will get breakfast in the morning and then sack lunches and then get in line to get dinner. Tons and tons of organizations are here donating food, water, ice and any other neccessity. It is an easy commute, actually a 20-step walk, to the food line during the day. A breakfast and dinner buffet is set up in the parking lot near us for us to get food during the alotted times. We have gotten a couple toiletry packages both from the Army and Red Cross. Those things definitely come in handy! We have been exposed to the television cameras a couple times while here on the island. Not sure if we made the news or not or the editors used our shots in their stories. On the parking lot there is also free laundry services, very warm shower trailers, and cordial people to talk to. Serveral volunteers from all over have come to help with the relief. I got the chance to talk to a couple of them, one from Mexico, another from Alabama, and one from Arizona...all sharing and coming together in that same bond...helping re-build! It is great to see the ammount of support that is down here.
Our latest update on how much longer we are staying in Galveston is until October 11th. We are then going to be assessed and probably either finishing up 4th round in Galveston OR heading to our orginal project in Baton Rouge, LA. We are not sure, it is basically based on what Chris Quaka (the Wolf Unit Leader) says and we abide by his ruling. Andrea wants to stay down here and finish what we started, but I could careless really what we end up doing to be honest. I just want to help people the best we can and wherever the need might be. Obviously Baton Rouge is needing it hardcore after the tornados during Gustav destroyed a lot of homes and properties, but at the same time Galveston is in shambles as well. I think our Raven 3 team is saying is we are wanting to do more challenging work other than just answer phones all day. We actually want to get our hands dirty. We are just waiting in the wings for further details from the head officials on the island.
As we enter the weekend, we are finally getting a day off which is Sunday. We plan on leaving the island and venturing out to Houston, TX area or somewhere to do something fun. We can't really do anythign in the parking lot where we are staying or leave anywhere because of the curfew, so hopefully we can spend the day with laughter and fun. I will try to send an update on what is going a couple more times before we leave the island. All in all, it has been a great time being the first Americorps team down in Galveston and assisting the victims to our best ability, BUT I would hope after when the phones completely die down we can do more. It is sad not seeing the whole team work together on the site. The rotating shifts is totally messing up our social time with the team. Hopefully we can all sit down and have a nice relaxing time together and re-group. The EOC should have only 2-3 people on shift answer calls at a time, instead of 5-6.
Hope you all understand what we are doing is very rewarding at the same time helpful for these people who are suffering. It is amazing some of these stories people tell you and basically open up to you in times like these. Sometimes I am on the phone with people for 10 minutes just because they are lonely and need someone to chat with. Most of the residents vacated to Austin or Dallas or even out of state. You get great joy out of helping them cope and get through it. Hopefully in the near future that the city will get power throughout and have running water in all areas. There has been a lot of mis-information given by the law enforcement people, the mayor, and even the higher up authorities. It is making the people upset and confused usually resulting in them yelling and expressing their anger towards us answering the phones. We can't do anything about it other than open up an ear or two and get them through it.
More happy faces and less frowns is what is needed on the island.
Chianakas out!
So like mentioned before, we were on our 12 hour shift for about 2 days until we got switched to 8 hours. My shift to be completely honest is very boring because no one really is awake to call that early in the morning or during that time. We average on our shift roughly 9 calls per night. It is usually a race to see who can answer the call first. We even have bets on when the first call will ring AND how many will dial the EOC number. On the contrary, it seems like the afternoon and morning shifts seem to get the most calls and have been ringing off the hook these last couple days. Officials have finally opened up the Galveston Island for residents to come back in only one condition...if they obey the curfew. The curfew was from 6PM-6AM but has been bumped up 2 hours to 8PM-6AM. If or any residents disobey this mandate, that means the people of Galveston will be fined $2,000! WOW! That is a ton. Totally not worth it!!
Joni and I have really gotten to know the 2 ladies that have been with us. Mary and Carolyn are super sweet. They, sadly, are victims of the Hurricane. They are currently living in the San Luis hotel about 10 minutes from the station because their houses were affected by the storm. Both are in the process of working things out with FEMA and the Red Cross. It has been really fun hanging out with them watching movies, making power point presentations, and doing Mad Libs with them both. They even have gotten a taste of Joni and I dueting to RENT songs and Sonny/Cher "I Got You Babe".
Slowly but surely more and more stores and places are opening up for people. Kroger, Walgreens, Walmart, and some gas stations are open during the day. We have been able to go out to those places for health and wellness runs and has been great. Our living accomadations now have been switched from the Dispatch small office corner to camping in tents in the Airport parking lot. We were in the Dispatch room for about a week. Now there are 2 other Perry Point teams that are with us doing logistic work with the Forestry department. We couldn't fit all 3 teams in the office so we had to pack up and move our belongings. But all 3 teams are in the parking lot on air mattresses, about 3 people per tent. The disadvantage thing for me when I get the chance to lay down and go to bed is that I am actually sleeping during the day...which means while the heat is blazing down in between 85-90 degrees, I am sweating profusely. Luckily and fortunately there is a nearby air-conditioned tent I have stayed in the last 2 nights.
Food has been wonderful as the Salvation Army is supplying all the meals. What usually happens is we will get breakfast in the morning and then sack lunches and then get in line to get dinner. Tons and tons of organizations are here donating food, water, ice and any other neccessity. It is an easy commute, actually a 20-step walk, to the food line during the day. A breakfast and dinner buffet is set up in the parking lot near us for us to get food during the alotted times. We have gotten a couple toiletry packages both from the Army and Red Cross. Those things definitely come in handy! We have been exposed to the television cameras a couple times while here on the island. Not sure if we made the news or not or the editors used our shots in their stories. On the parking lot there is also free laundry services, very warm shower trailers, and cordial people to talk to. Serveral volunteers from all over have come to help with the relief. I got the chance to talk to a couple of them, one from Mexico, another from Alabama, and one from Arizona...all sharing and coming together in that same bond...helping re-build! It is great to see the ammount of support that is down here.
Our latest update on how much longer we are staying in Galveston is until October 11th. We are then going to be assessed and probably either finishing up 4th round in Galveston OR heading to our orginal project in Baton Rouge, LA. We are not sure, it is basically based on what Chris Quaka (the Wolf Unit Leader) says and we abide by his ruling. Andrea wants to stay down here and finish what we started, but I could careless really what we end up doing to be honest. I just want to help people the best we can and wherever the need might be. Obviously Baton Rouge is needing it hardcore after the tornados during Gustav destroyed a lot of homes and properties, but at the same time Galveston is in shambles as well. I think our Raven 3 team is saying is we are wanting to do more challenging work other than just answer phones all day. We actually want to get our hands dirty. We are just waiting in the wings for further details from the head officials on the island.
As we enter the weekend, we are finally getting a day off which is Sunday. We plan on leaving the island and venturing out to Houston, TX area or somewhere to do something fun. We can't really do anythign in the parking lot where we are staying or leave anywhere because of the curfew, so hopefully we can spend the day with laughter and fun. I will try to send an update on what is going a couple more times before we leave the island. All in all, it has been a great time being the first Americorps team down in Galveston and assisting the victims to our best ability, BUT I would hope after when the phones completely die down we can do more. It is sad not seeing the whole team work together on the site. The rotating shifts is totally messing up our social time with the team. Hopefully we can all sit down and have a nice relaxing time together and re-group. The EOC should have only 2-3 people on shift answer calls at a time, instead of 5-6.
Hope you all understand what we are doing is very rewarding at the same time helpful for these people who are suffering. It is amazing some of these stories people tell you and basically open up to you in times like these. Sometimes I am on the phone with people for 10 minutes just because they are lonely and need someone to chat with. Most of the residents vacated to Austin or Dallas or even out of state. You get great joy out of helping them cope and get through it. Hopefully in the near future that the city will get power throughout and have running water in all areas. There has been a lot of mis-information given by the law enforcement people, the mayor, and even the higher up authorities. It is making the people upset and confused usually resulting in them yelling and expressing their anger towards us answering the phones. We can't do anything about it other than open up an ear or two and get them through it.
More happy faces and less frowns is what is needed on the island.
Chianakas out!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
58 days of Americorps REMAINING!!!!
Where to begin...where to begin??? Oh yeah...I remember now...I left off from last post with my mini Spike experience in Delaware, Fall Break, applying to become a Team Leader, and the craziness with my 4th round project. Now bare with me...this yet again will be another long blog because so much has happened within the last month and a half.
First off, when Summer of Service program ended at the tail end of July this summer, we were allowed a 9-day summer break. I chose to head back home in Crystal Lake to visit the family and friends. While being home I got to sleep in my bed, work at my Dad's warehouse for some extra cash, mowed the yard, hung out with my next door neighbors (including seeing the new 2 month-old baby Charlie), and finally earning some ISP hours with my local park district. All in all, home was the same...nothing had changed other than it was nice to be home after an absence of 7 months. Good to catch up with high school friends and visit the neighbors.
I flew back after my 9-days were up and arrived in Perry Point ready to see what needed to be done before all the 3rd round teams came back. I knew that I wasn't going to be heading back to my Raven 3 team so it was an adventure to find out what actually the campus had in store for the CL's. We were told when we came back to our houses that 17 of us crew leaders were going to drive down to Delaware and work with the Delaware State Parks for about 8 days. That was such a wonderful experience. Since we were all close as crew leaders it made the work easier and more fun. They had placed us in 3 work groups that did various of tasks in those 6 work days. Not only was the work rewarding, but we also lived 5 minute walking distance to the beach. Work days consisted of beginning at 8:30 AM and ending at 3 PM...which gave us enough sunlight to walk down to the beach and soak up some rays. The different jobs they gave us to peform were: painting stables, working and cutting down shrubs, getting rid of invasive species, and did some clear trailing. Overall, it was a great time performing those tasks in Delaware. Our living conditions were in a camp house where guys slept in a room full of bunk beds and the girls slept in a seperate room on the other side of the building with bunk beds. We went shopping for groceries and cooked our own meals UNLESS it was lunch in which our sweet sponsor, Rob, bought all of us some sub sandwiches and sandwich wraps with chips. Very amazing person he was...Rob worked with Americorps before and is the program coordinator and volunteer coordinator in the Delaware that sets up people like Americorps NCCC and others that are wanting to help out in the immediate area. Some other cool things I did while I was there were: putting up a twine fence with PVC pipes along a selected area of the Delaware beach that protected any predators from attacking the endangered species, also I assisted with clearing high grasses in order to create a railroad track for a cannon at Camp Henlopen. In conclusion, the Delaware mini spike project was rewarding and basically like another vacation just in the fact we had easy work hours and a beach waiting for us after.
Next came, the decision to become a team leader for the up and coming 2009 Americorps NCCC campaign. I was convinced to sign up and apply to be one thanks to several outside sources. One being Summer of Service, working with those kids changed my mind from being on the fence 50/50 to being more like 70 percent YES and 30 percent NO. My experience with the 5 week program was wonderful and something I really enjoyed. My next encounter came from talking to other friends and Americorps peers that were applying for next year's excursion and they really told me how awesome it will be to be on "team green" and have a group of ten 18-24 year olds. So what I ended up doing on my 8 day fall break was spend time filling out the application for Team Leader Perry Point next session. I am kind of excited to see if I actually get the position because I think it will be a challenging, yet an amazing leadership chance to really booster up the resume. And it doesn't hurt to serve your country for another 10 months, I figure that I am young and capable to do so, so why not give back now...right?
Along with filling out the TL application, I got to hang out with some friends I really didn't hang out with during our CTI training which was different and awesome at the same time. I lived with one of my house mates and we tried to make the time spent productively. I teamed up with 4 other friends and traveled down to Baltimore, MD and worked at an ISP at a place called Moveable Feast. Basically what we did was clean the kitchens and storage rooms that made it more accessible for the cooks/chefs to prepare meals for clients that are suffering from illnesses/cancer and even females with breast cancer. We worked there for 8 hours and then later that night walked to where the Baltimore Orioles played and caught a baseball game there. We got 20 dollar seats and ended up sitting about 18 rows from the 1st base dugout...super fun even though the Orioles are super bad!! On thursday night of fall break I ended up going out with some friends still in Perry Point to celebrate our friend Katie's 21st birthday. It was very informal with a cake and one large gift in a bag which I picked up and bought from the Dollar General store. She loved all the little nick-nack gifts because all pertained to the type of personality she possesses. Later that weekend, I volunteered to drive a shuttle van to pick up fellow Americorps members at the Baltimore airport. I did that on Sunday.
I completely forgot to mention that my team leader, Andrea, appointed me as the team's ATL for 4th round AND when I went to the ATL meeting the next morning (before fall break) and found out that I was selected along with 45 other NCCC Perry Pointers to attend the White House south lawn and watch President Bush speak on volunteerism. When that day came along the ones that got selected were SUPER stoked and eager to potentially meet the President. Monday rolled around and all that were chosen to attend the White House gathered in the morning in the 15-passenger vans and headed to DC. We arrived to DC around noon and walked toward the mounds and mounds of people waiting in line to get into the south lawn. After waiting for about an hour in the hot, sweltering heat we realized this long line was not moving an inch, so we ended up walking in front of everyone and seeing if Americorps was on the list. After several Corps members attempted to check their name on the list, the national director of NCCC came by and attempted to get us all in. We later came to a conclusion that someone back in the Perry Point office completely messed up and didn't follow through with our trip and failed all of us. We all looked like fools not getting into the President's speech. Super bummed out. People were sympathetic when they walked out from the speech and said they had talked about Americorps...and that point we were irritated. BUT...instead of completely doing nothing, one of the White House representatives offered for all 50 of us to go and get the tour of the White House and take pictures. Now this wasn't the actual White House, it was more like a house that had different rooms dedicated to past-Presidents and where they hung out, ate, or dined in. I will be posting the pictures on facebook in the near future. When we got back from the busy day of basically nothing, it was funny to hear all the jeers and laughter from our buddies back in Perry Point after hearing about what had happened.
NOW...onto the important stuff...and that is 4th Round! WAH-WOOO!
We had our project brief before we left for fall break and we were orginally going to go to Baton Rouge, LA and work with Habitat for Humanity and build houses for 6 weeks. We heard all but good things about this Habitat chapter and were super stoked to help out. Even though it would have been my 3rd time in Louisiana, I knew this project was going to be radical! The day of the White House, we get informed by Andrea that instead of going to Baton Rouge, Raven 3 has been called on disaster down in Texas and needed to deploy the next morning. When Wednesday hit of that week, we packed up our belongings and shoveled items in the van and headed for a 3 day hike to Dallas, TX. First place we stopped in was Bristol, VA on Wednesday night, then on Thursday we slept on a gym floor in Jackson, MS. which then reminded me of Michelle's experience of sleeping in locker rooms during Hurricane Katrina 3 years ago (that was a riot because it was a correctional facility for the Mississippi St. campus), and then finally we arrived to Dallas on Friday and placed air mattresses on the gym floor of a housing place called Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. We were catered heavily with free food and drinks and even dessert. Now don't be confused about the name of the church, it happened to be that the Lovers Lane name came from the name of the street the Methodist Church was on! Silly how our minds think :)! Anyways, at this point we had 4 other Perry Point teams with us staying in the gym at one time. As we were waiting out for the Hurricane to touchdown in the Texas area, we stayed put in Dallas and waited for further word from headquarters and our Point of Contact. Saturday and Sunday of this past week was used to relax and rest up for the up and coming disaster weeks or constant working. On Monday of this week our Raven 3 team got appointed to work at a Volunteer Center of North Dallas where we answered phones and called volunteers that wanted to help out with Hurricane Ike in anyway they could. Our job was to re-call back the people that didn't have all their information filled out from the e-mail application they submitted a couple days ago. The organization was very gracious and thankful that we were able to assist them the best we could during these times of sorrow. All 7 of us Raven 3 team manned the phones for the whole day on Monday. We were prepared to work with them temporalily until this Wednesday. When we arrived to work this morning we were continuing with the phone answering and computing into their systems computers when all the sudden Andrea informs us that we have been called down for disaster in Galveston, TX where the storm hit the hardest. We were told we were the only Americorps team heading down there to help as of now. More would be called in the future, but for now our Raven 3 team's job is running a call center for evacuees that were affected by the hurricane.
What the people in Galveston, TX is having us do is be on shifts of 3 and 4 to answer phone calls and assist people with problems and guiding them the right direction during this tough time. Myself, Joni, and Stan volunteered to work the graveyard shift answering calls from 8 PM-8 AM. Then the next shift, Zac, Meredith, Bill, and Andrea takes 8 AM- 8 PM. So we will be on the move basically like firefighters until further notice. It might be that we could be here the whole round helping the best we can. I have slowly gotten comfortable with answering phones and being patient with these enraged citizens of Galveston. I am trying to help as best as I can. Some are snotty which is understandable, but as a whole people are very grateful we are attempting to help them with their situations.
More to come throughout the next week or so. I will try to inform you all more about the experience of working with phones (since this is my first time with this kind of job) and all the positives and negatives with the evacuees.
Hope you enjoyed another long version of my blog! Like mentioned before, a lot was covered and I did my best to inform the best I could (even though it was hard to think back 2 months ago), but I managed even when it is 3 AM on a Wednesday morning :) I am keeping the head up and leaving a smile on my face in times like this...
Chianakas OUT!
First off, when Summer of Service program ended at the tail end of July this summer, we were allowed a 9-day summer break. I chose to head back home in Crystal Lake to visit the family and friends. While being home I got to sleep in my bed, work at my Dad's warehouse for some extra cash, mowed the yard, hung out with my next door neighbors (including seeing the new 2 month-old baby Charlie), and finally earning some ISP hours with my local park district. All in all, home was the same...nothing had changed other than it was nice to be home after an absence of 7 months. Good to catch up with high school friends and visit the neighbors.
I flew back after my 9-days were up and arrived in Perry Point ready to see what needed to be done before all the 3rd round teams came back. I knew that I wasn't going to be heading back to my Raven 3 team so it was an adventure to find out what actually the campus had in store for the CL's. We were told when we came back to our houses that 17 of us crew leaders were going to drive down to Delaware and work with the Delaware State Parks for about 8 days. That was such a wonderful experience. Since we were all close as crew leaders it made the work easier and more fun. They had placed us in 3 work groups that did various of tasks in those 6 work days. Not only was the work rewarding, but we also lived 5 minute walking distance to the beach. Work days consisted of beginning at 8:30 AM and ending at 3 PM...which gave us enough sunlight to walk down to the beach and soak up some rays. The different jobs they gave us to peform were: painting stables, working and cutting down shrubs, getting rid of invasive species, and did some clear trailing. Overall, it was a great time performing those tasks in Delaware. Our living conditions were in a camp house where guys slept in a room full of bunk beds and the girls slept in a seperate room on the other side of the building with bunk beds. We went shopping for groceries and cooked our own meals UNLESS it was lunch in which our sweet sponsor, Rob, bought all of us some sub sandwiches and sandwich wraps with chips. Very amazing person he was...Rob worked with Americorps before and is the program coordinator and volunteer coordinator in the Delaware that sets up people like Americorps NCCC and others that are wanting to help out in the immediate area. Some other cool things I did while I was there were: putting up a twine fence with PVC pipes along a selected area of the Delaware beach that protected any predators from attacking the endangered species, also I assisted with clearing high grasses in order to create a railroad track for a cannon at Camp Henlopen. In conclusion, the Delaware mini spike project was rewarding and basically like another vacation just in the fact we had easy work hours and a beach waiting for us after.
Next came, the decision to become a team leader for the up and coming 2009 Americorps NCCC campaign. I was convinced to sign up and apply to be one thanks to several outside sources. One being Summer of Service, working with those kids changed my mind from being on the fence 50/50 to being more like 70 percent YES and 30 percent NO. My experience with the 5 week program was wonderful and something I really enjoyed. My next encounter came from talking to other friends and Americorps peers that were applying for next year's excursion and they really told me how awesome it will be to be on "team green" and have a group of ten 18-24 year olds. So what I ended up doing on my 8 day fall break was spend time filling out the application for Team Leader Perry Point next session. I am kind of excited to see if I actually get the position because I think it will be a challenging, yet an amazing leadership chance to really booster up the resume. And it doesn't hurt to serve your country for another 10 months, I figure that I am young and capable to do so, so why not give back now...right?
Along with filling out the TL application, I got to hang out with some friends I really didn't hang out with during our CTI training which was different and awesome at the same time. I lived with one of my house mates and we tried to make the time spent productively. I teamed up with 4 other friends and traveled down to Baltimore, MD and worked at an ISP at a place called Moveable Feast. Basically what we did was clean the kitchens and storage rooms that made it more accessible for the cooks/chefs to prepare meals for clients that are suffering from illnesses/cancer and even females with breast cancer. We worked there for 8 hours and then later that night walked to where the Baltimore Orioles played and caught a baseball game there. We got 20 dollar seats and ended up sitting about 18 rows from the 1st base dugout...super fun even though the Orioles are super bad!! On thursday night of fall break I ended up going out with some friends still in Perry Point to celebrate our friend Katie's 21st birthday. It was very informal with a cake and one large gift in a bag which I picked up and bought from the Dollar General store. She loved all the little nick-nack gifts because all pertained to the type of personality she possesses. Later that weekend, I volunteered to drive a shuttle van to pick up fellow Americorps members at the Baltimore airport. I did that on Sunday.
I completely forgot to mention that my team leader, Andrea, appointed me as the team's ATL for 4th round AND when I went to the ATL meeting the next morning (before fall break) and found out that I was selected along with 45 other NCCC Perry Pointers to attend the White House south lawn and watch President Bush speak on volunteerism. When that day came along the ones that got selected were SUPER stoked and eager to potentially meet the President. Monday rolled around and all that were chosen to attend the White House gathered in the morning in the 15-passenger vans and headed to DC. We arrived to DC around noon and walked toward the mounds and mounds of people waiting in line to get into the south lawn. After waiting for about an hour in the hot, sweltering heat we realized this long line was not moving an inch, so we ended up walking in front of everyone and seeing if Americorps was on the list. After several Corps members attempted to check their name on the list, the national director of NCCC came by and attempted to get us all in. We later came to a conclusion that someone back in the Perry Point office completely messed up and didn't follow through with our trip and failed all of us. We all looked like fools not getting into the President's speech. Super bummed out. People were sympathetic when they walked out from the speech and said they had talked about Americorps...and that point we were irritated. BUT...instead of completely doing nothing, one of the White House representatives offered for all 50 of us to go and get the tour of the White House and take pictures. Now this wasn't the actual White House, it was more like a house that had different rooms dedicated to past-Presidents and where they hung out, ate, or dined in. I will be posting the pictures on facebook in the near future. When we got back from the busy day of basically nothing, it was funny to hear all the jeers and laughter from our buddies back in Perry Point after hearing about what had happened.
NOW...onto the important stuff...and that is 4th Round! WAH-WOOO!
We had our project brief before we left for fall break and we were orginally going to go to Baton Rouge, LA and work with Habitat for Humanity and build houses for 6 weeks. We heard all but good things about this Habitat chapter and were super stoked to help out. Even though it would have been my 3rd time in Louisiana, I knew this project was going to be radical! The day of the White House, we get informed by Andrea that instead of going to Baton Rouge, Raven 3 has been called on disaster down in Texas and needed to deploy the next morning. When Wednesday hit of that week, we packed up our belongings and shoveled items in the van and headed for a 3 day hike to Dallas, TX. First place we stopped in was Bristol, VA on Wednesday night, then on Thursday we slept on a gym floor in Jackson, MS. which then reminded me of Michelle's experience of sleeping in locker rooms during Hurricane Katrina 3 years ago (that was a riot because it was a correctional facility for the Mississippi St. campus), and then finally we arrived to Dallas on Friday and placed air mattresses on the gym floor of a housing place called Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. We were catered heavily with free food and drinks and even dessert. Now don't be confused about the name of the church, it happened to be that the Lovers Lane name came from the name of the street the Methodist Church was on! Silly how our minds think :)! Anyways, at this point we had 4 other Perry Point teams with us staying in the gym at one time. As we were waiting out for the Hurricane to touchdown in the Texas area, we stayed put in Dallas and waited for further word from headquarters and our Point of Contact. Saturday and Sunday of this past week was used to relax and rest up for the up and coming disaster weeks or constant working. On Monday of this week our Raven 3 team got appointed to work at a Volunteer Center of North Dallas where we answered phones and called volunteers that wanted to help out with Hurricane Ike in anyway they could. Our job was to re-call back the people that didn't have all their information filled out from the e-mail application they submitted a couple days ago. The organization was very gracious and thankful that we were able to assist them the best we could during these times of sorrow. All 7 of us Raven 3 team manned the phones for the whole day on Monday. We were prepared to work with them temporalily until this Wednesday. When we arrived to work this morning we were continuing with the phone answering and computing into their systems computers when all the sudden Andrea informs us that we have been called down for disaster in Galveston, TX where the storm hit the hardest. We were told we were the only Americorps team heading down there to help as of now. More would be called in the future, but for now our Raven 3 team's job is running a call center for evacuees that were affected by the hurricane.
What the people in Galveston, TX is having us do is be on shifts of 3 and 4 to answer phone calls and assist people with problems and guiding them the right direction during this tough time. Myself, Joni, and Stan volunteered to work the graveyard shift answering calls from 8 PM-8 AM. Then the next shift, Zac, Meredith, Bill, and Andrea takes 8 AM- 8 PM. So we will be on the move basically like firefighters until further notice. It might be that we could be here the whole round helping the best we can. I have slowly gotten comfortable with answering phones and being patient with these enraged citizens of Galveston. I am trying to help as best as I can. Some are snotty which is understandable, but as a whole people are very grateful we are attempting to help them with their situations.
More to come throughout the next week or so. I will try to inform you all more about the experience of working with phones (since this is my first time with this kind of job) and all the positives and negatives with the evacuees.
Hope you enjoyed another long version of my blog! Like mentioned before, a lot was covered and I did my best to inform the best I could (even though it was hard to think back 2 months ago), but I managed even when it is 3 AM on a Wednesday morning :) I am keeping the head up and leaving a smile on my face in times like this...
Chianakas OUT!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Summer of Service Experience (hold onto your seat)
WOAH! So much to catch you all up in this blog! So hang on for the long, bumpy, but yet amazing ride that will entail about the last 2 months of my Americorps NCCC experience. In this portion, I will be talking about as a whole how the Summer of Service program went (i.e. things we did in the program, how my Jazz 2 team was, projects, etc.). Later in upcoming blogs I will talk about my summer vacation and what I did over that and what some of us crew leaders did AFTER our summer break on a Delaware mini-spike.
First, where I left off from last update was the fact of how unfortunate the 4th of July fireworks were in downtown New Orleans. Pathetic would be the word to describe it. After the holiday and one last time to sleep-in before the 17 hour days began, we got mentally prepped for our stations for when the 14-17 year olds came the following day. I was the “floater” crew leader in which I was suppose to help guide the parents into their parking places and then pointed to what station to go next. Then they had me carry belongings upstairs for the kids and get them situated in their rooms. In their rooms, the kids had a big trash bag of uniform essentials such as: 4 t-shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of pants, a belt, couple pairs of socks, gloves, goggles, and really nice steel-toed boots. Other crew leaders were helping with IDs, signing in, answering any question from the parents, and assisting any of the higher up staff throughout the day.
The teams were revealed from the beginning. I was hoping they were going to do something creative with it or at least the 3 crew leaders per team figure out something fun to do with it. I know for when they introduced our Raven 3 team, they put candy in a bag with our names on it, and there was a clue on the bag, then the corps members had to gather up everyone with the same candy/clue and then together figure our what room their TL’s were sitting in. If we had in turn did that with the 14-17 year olds, I think they would have had a great time with it trying to think and it would have been a wonderful ice breaker to the program. Well, of course that didn’t happen…instead we said hello to our group of ten in the chapel of the Dillard University church. To introduce all the crew leaders, all 30 CL’s put on a community meeting where I was in the starting 5 basketball skit where we ran out in our retro-80’s uniforms with statistics and did a little “jig”! Too funny!!! Other skits that we put on were: Gary Flinger (parody of Jerry Springer), Stan’s Angels (parody of Charlie’s Angels), a dance-off between two teams of 5, and finally Hollywood moments where two crew leaders came out and acted out a scene from a famous movie. As a whole, the meeting went ‘ok’, not the best, we were kind of unprepared. Some of the 2-year kids got a kick out of it, but others were staring with blank looks. After the meeting we got acquainted with our team, JAZZ 2! Will, Bre and I introduced ourselves more in depth and then we went around the circle to talk about each other and played a little ice breaker game. After the game, we had them get up and play “human knot”. That was definitely a funny site to see J! What was unfortunate though, after we reported back into the chapel…we were informed that one of our participants, Stephen, was going to leave the program due to the face he was too old for the program. He had just turned 18 in May, but upper staff didn’t allow it. So, right away we were already down one person.
Soon after Stephen packed up his things and was picked up, Sean (our unit leader) informed the three of us that we were going to receive a new girl from the Blues Unit that wanted to be switched because she didn’t get along with one of the girls on her team from the get-go. Jazz 2 then had: Ardell, Derek, Demi, Robert, Davion, Ashira, Dijon, Dwayna, Brent, and Jasmaine! Four guys and six girls. Pretty much all teams were split to almost half guys and half girls which was good. I later noticed in the program there had been LOTS of family members, cousins, brothers, sisters, etc.
Day 1 was coming to an end and the beginning of SOS had truly started. For the next 3 days of that week consisted of different training for the kids and basically getting to know them at a personal level so that they felt comfortable. Most of these kids had worked at a job before, so the work came easy to them, others were basically there and going through the motions. All in all, our Jazz 2 team became tight-knit from the beginning was good to know. Three of them had been second timers. They all grew closer to each other trying to find out comparisons in music, sports, or maybe having mutual friends. The first day of our first project was set on that Friday. Our first project was mowing lawns for the nearby Dillard University neighborhoods. They wanted us to revitalize the area and make it a better place to live and cleaner. In some cases, some of the family members living in the houses were unable to afford to get their lawn trimmed, so they called upon us volunteers to take care of it. When Friday rolled around, we were all prepared to head out to the worksite when all the sudden we receive a call back from our sponsor telling us they have nothing for us to do today and that we would pick up with orientation and work the next Monday. WHAT!!! Unprofessional is what that sponsor was! We were all devastated we weren’t working today.
Luckily when we reported back to the upper staff, we ended up working that day and switching projects for the time being. We headed over to the organization called NENA in which we did things similar to the Dillard University project. We ended up mowing about 10 yards during the morning and then continued for a little bit in the afternoon. We had an awesome sponsor in Leroy who really enjoyed working with youth and rebuilding New Orleans. He wanted to see the kids work hard and realize the impact they are having on the surrounding neighborhoods. Very powerful and influential man.
So continuing on with the first project, we arrived at Dillard and worked with them the following five days the next week mowing, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and many more revitalizations. Later on in the week our kids became cranky and complaining a little because of the unbearing heat and humidity. It was playing a toll on all of us and it was uncomfortable. We fortunately had plenty of water and Gatorade and even at times the fellow neighbors brought out our kids fluids to replenish their bodies. We accomplished a lot in the five days and it later showed on our quantifiable at the end of the program. The Dillard University program had ample amount of tools and instruments to use to get the job done, BUT had a really unprofessional approach to things and handling volunteers. The three of us crew leaders had to report to Sean about these things so they could be changed for the next two teams coming in. It really must have worked because the teams that followed us, didn’t have as many problems as we did…which means word got through!
Moving on to our second work project. We then were assigned to work with the Animal Rescue of New Orleans for one week. We got to walk dogs, clean their cages, socialize and clean cat’s cages, and do whatever Robin wanted us to do. Roughly there was 50 dogs and over 160 cat/kittens. The crew leaders and I put together a little word search sheet for the team to figure out where we were going. All had to put their heads together. They had such a great time at ARNO working with the dogs and cats. Not even one complaint on cleaning the bathroom filled cages! WAH-WOO!
I must mention before continuing that the program was orchestrated further than just waking up and going to work everyday. Work days went from usually 8:30 AM-4 PM. But before the day began there was mandatory physical training for an hour. All the participants had to do PT for 5 days a week. We introduced many new sports that they never even heard of. For example: ultimate Frisbee, soccer, cabbage ball, softball, etc. The crew leaders even at night time when work was over (around 10:30 PM) relieved our stress by working out to Sweatin to the Oldies Richard Simmons style! When worked ended we ended up having team time and showering up for dinner. After dinner the kids had member development classes they signed up for. Classes were taught by us crew leaders and even sometimes the participants taught a thing or 2 to their fellow friends. Some of the classes consisted of: swimming, origami, dancing, games, yoga/karate, arts and crafts, and several others. The classes usually took place on every Wednesday and Thursday.
Going back to the worksites…after work about 2 time a week we would take the kids to either McDonald’s or take them to get sno-balls. Sometimes we would be generous and pay for them, but majority of the time it was coming out of their pockets. At this time, I was thinking about my Raven 3 team a lot. They were in Washington D.C. basically doing the same thing we were doing with our kids. They ran a summer camp for kids a little bit younger than the ones we had, but instead of doing volunteer work with them, Raven 3 got to take them on field trips, Great America theme park, swimming, sporting games, etc. I was UBER jealous! It was so difficult to keep in touch with them. Working 16-17 hour days really plays a toll on the body and keeping motivated. My work weeks were usually around 100 hours at the end, it was sickening but I knew from this experience I wouldn’t have to worry about graduating with not enough hours.
Our third project we got assigned was lowernine.org. This was the kid’s least favorite project. It was alright because it dealt with construction, but the site supervisors were never on site. I think it was not very good because the organization was fairly new and were experimenting with things. They were assigning tasks to our kids that should have been handled by older and more experienced volunteers. Jazz 2 did it happily. Luckily we were only there for 4 days. At the middle of the week, all projects were done and everyone reported in for graduation practice. Five Jazz teams and five Blues Unit teams gathered and us crew leaders looked at each other and were shocked that the program is nearly over. Graduation took place on that Friday and it was roughly about 1.5 hour. I got the chance to meet some of the participants families. Jam packed auditorium in which had several participants that participated in the graduation. One was the grand MC of the show, 3 gave SOS experience speeches, and 1 recited a poem he wrote dealing with SOS. Jules Hampton stole the show with how long and boring his opening speech was. He pretty much thanked everyone BUT the crew leaders…made us upset.
At the end of the hoopla, we took one final picture with everyone in the program and sadly said goodbye to the team/people you became close with for the past 4 weeks. I didn’t shed any tears but some of the girl crew leaders ended up sobbing a little. It was tough to say goodbye because some of them really had their heads screwed on correctly and had a direction in life after SOS ended. Majority of the ones I ended up talking to were talking about attending college, which was so great to hear.
In conclusion, it was such a rewarding SOS program for the 4 plus weeks we helped with it. The crew leaders became super close and now I have 29 solid friend I can rely on whenever. There was not one single person that had a problem with anyone on the crew leader team. Everyone gained several new leadership ideas that will be passed on to many people they encounter. I definitely know I surely did. I am glad and fortunate I was given the opportunity to be apart of SOS 2008 in New Orleans and be able to help and give input on how the program was and what things that needed to be changed and what ones should remain the same. Being a leader will increase my confidence to future careers dealing with workers an how to handle them in a professional manner. With a couple things that irked me from time to time (whether being upper staff undermining crew leader authority or lacking sleep from day to day), all in all the SOS program really changed me as an individual and as a leader. I am glad I got so much out of it that in turn I will take what I have learned and bring it back to my Raven 3 team J
Soon to come…Delaware St. Park mini spike with 17 crew leaders and the future to come with my 4th round project! Eeeek…Americorps is nearly over…2 months left!!!
Chianakas out!
First, where I left off from last update was the fact of how unfortunate the 4th of July fireworks were in downtown New Orleans. Pathetic would be the word to describe it. After the holiday and one last time to sleep-in before the 17 hour days began, we got mentally prepped for our stations for when the 14-17 year olds came the following day. I was the “floater” crew leader in which I was suppose to help guide the parents into their parking places and then pointed to what station to go next. Then they had me carry belongings upstairs for the kids and get them situated in their rooms. In their rooms, the kids had a big trash bag of uniform essentials such as: 4 t-shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of pants, a belt, couple pairs of socks, gloves, goggles, and really nice steel-toed boots. Other crew leaders were helping with IDs, signing in, answering any question from the parents, and assisting any of the higher up staff throughout the day.
The teams were revealed from the beginning. I was hoping they were going to do something creative with it or at least the 3 crew leaders per team figure out something fun to do with it. I know for when they introduced our Raven 3 team, they put candy in a bag with our names on it, and there was a clue on the bag, then the corps members had to gather up everyone with the same candy/clue and then together figure our what room their TL’s were sitting in. If we had in turn did that with the 14-17 year olds, I think they would have had a great time with it trying to think and it would have been a wonderful ice breaker to the program. Well, of course that didn’t happen…instead we said hello to our group of ten in the chapel of the Dillard University church. To introduce all the crew leaders, all 30 CL’s put on a community meeting where I was in the starting 5 basketball skit where we ran out in our retro-80’s uniforms with statistics and did a little “jig”! Too funny!!! Other skits that we put on were: Gary Flinger (parody of Jerry Springer), Stan’s Angels (parody of Charlie’s Angels), a dance-off between two teams of 5, and finally Hollywood moments where two crew leaders came out and acted out a scene from a famous movie. As a whole, the meeting went ‘ok’, not the best, we were kind of unprepared. Some of the 2-year kids got a kick out of it, but others were staring with blank looks. After the meeting we got acquainted with our team, JAZZ 2! Will, Bre and I introduced ourselves more in depth and then we went around the circle to talk about each other and played a little ice breaker game. After the game, we had them get up and play “human knot”. That was definitely a funny site to see J! What was unfortunate though, after we reported back into the chapel…we were informed that one of our participants, Stephen, was going to leave the program due to the face he was too old for the program. He had just turned 18 in May, but upper staff didn’t allow it. So, right away we were already down one person.
Soon after Stephen packed up his things and was picked up, Sean (our unit leader) informed the three of us that we were going to receive a new girl from the Blues Unit that wanted to be switched because she didn’t get along with one of the girls on her team from the get-go. Jazz 2 then had: Ardell, Derek, Demi, Robert, Davion, Ashira, Dijon, Dwayna, Brent, and Jasmaine! Four guys and six girls. Pretty much all teams were split to almost half guys and half girls which was good. I later noticed in the program there had been LOTS of family members, cousins, brothers, sisters, etc.
Day 1 was coming to an end and the beginning of SOS had truly started. For the next 3 days of that week consisted of different training for the kids and basically getting to know them at a personal level so that they felt comfortable. Most of these kids had worked at a job before, so the work came easy to them, others were basically there and going through the motions. All in all, our Jazz 2 team became tight-knit from the beginning was good to know. Three of them had been second timers. They all grew closer to each other trying to find out comparisons in music, sports, or maybe having mutual friends. The first day of our first project was set on that Friday. Our first project was mowing lawns for the nearby Dillard University neighborhoods. They wanted us to revitalize the area and make it a better place to live and cleaner. In some cases, some of the family members living in the houses were unable to afford to get their lawn trimmed, so they called upon us volunteers to take care of it. When Friday rolled around, we were all prepared to head out to the worksite when all the sudden we receive a call back from our sponsor telling us they have nothing for us to do today and that we would pick up with orientation and work the next Monday. WHAT!!! Unprofessional is what that sponsor was! We were all devastated we weren’t working today.
Luckily when we reported back to the upper staff, we ended up working that day and switching projects for the time being. We headed over to the organization called NENA in which we did things similar to the Dillard University project. We ended up mowing about 10 yards during the morning and then continued for a little bit in the afternoon. We had an awesome sponsor in Leroy who really enjoyed working with youth and rebuilding New Orleans. He wanted to see the kids work hard and realize the impact they are having on the surrounding neighborhoods. Very powerful and influential man.
So continuing on with the first project, we arrived at Dillard and worked with them the following five days the next week mowing, pulling weeds, planting flowers, and many more revitalizations. Later on in the week our kids became cranky and complaining a little because of the unbearing heat and humidity. It was playing a toll on all of us and it was uncomfortable. We fortunately had plenty of water and Gatorade and even at times the fellow neighbors brought out our kids fluids to replenish their bodies. We accomplished a lot in the five days and it later showed on our quantifiable at the end of the program. The Dillard University program had ample amount of tools and instruments to use to get the job done, BUT had a really unprofessional approach to things and handling volunteers. The three of us crew leaders had to report to Sean about these things so they could be changed for the next two teams coming in. It really must have worked because the teams that followed us, didn’t have as many problems as we did…which means word got through!
Moving on to our second work project. We then were assigned to work with the Animal Rescue of New Orleans for one week. We got to walk dogs, clean their cages, socialize and clean cat’s cages, and do whatever Robin wanted us to do. Roughly there was 50 dogs and over 160 cat/kittens. The crew leaders and I put together a little word search sheet for the team to figure out where we were going. All had to put their heads together. They had such a great time at ARNO working with the dogs and cats. Not even one complaint on cleaning the bathroom filled cages! WAH-WOO!
I must mention before continuing that the program was orchestrated further than just waking up and going to work everyday. Work days went from usually 8:30 AM-4 PM. But before the day began there was mandatory physical training for an hour. All the participants had to do PT for 5 days a week. We introduced many new sports that they never even heard of. For example: ultimate Frisbee, soccer, cabbage ball, softball, etc. The crew leaders even at night time when work was over (around 10:30 PM) relieved our stress by working out to Sweatin to the Oldies Richard Simmons style! When worked ended we ended up having team time and showering up for dinner. After dinner the kids had member development classes they signed up for. Classes were taught by us crew leaders and even sometimes the participants taught a thing or 2 to their fellow friends. Some of the classes consisted of: swimming, origami, dancing, games, yoga/karate, arts and crafts, and several others. The classes usually took place on every Wednesday and Thursday.
Going back to the worksites…after work about 2 time a week we would take the kids to either McDonald’s or take them to get sno-balls. Sometimes we would be generous and pay for them, but majority of the time it was coming out of their pockets. At this time, I was thinking about my Raven 3 team a lot. They were in Washington D.C. basically doing the same thing we were doing with our kids. They ran a summer camp for kids a little bit younger than the ones we had, but instead of doing volunteer work with them, Raven 3 got to take them on field trips, Great America theme park, swimming, sporting games, etc. I was UBER jealous! It was so difficult to keep in touch with them. Working 16-17 hour days really plays a toll on the body and keeping motivated. My work weeks were usually around 100 hours at the end, it was sickening but I knew from this experience I wouldn’t have to worry about graduating with not enough hours.
Our third project we got assigned was lowernine.org. This was the kid’s least favorite project. It was alright because it dealt with construction, but the site supervisors were never on site. I think it was not very good because the organization was fairly new and were experimenting with things. They were assigning tasks to our kids that should have been handled by older and more experienced volunteers. Jazz 2 did it happily. Luckily we were only there for 4 days. At the middle of the week, all projects were done and everyone reported in for graduation practice. Five Jazz teams and five Blues Unit teams gathered and us crew leaders looked at each other and were shocked that the program is nearly over. Graduation took place on that Friday and it was roughly about 1.5 hour. I got the chance to meet some of the participants families. Jam packed auditorium in which had several participants that participated in the graduation. One was the grand MC of the show, 3 gave SOS experience speeches, and 1 recited a poem he wrote dealing with SOS. Jules Hampton stole the show with how long and boring his opening speech was. He pretty much thanked everyone BUT the crew leaders…made us upset.
At the end of the hoopla, we took one final picture with everyone in the program and sadly said goodbye to the team/people you became close with for the past 4 weeks. I didn’t shed any tears but some of the girl crew leaders ended up sobbing a little. It was tough to say goodbye because some of them really had their heads screwed on correctly and had a direction in life after SOS ended. Majority of the ones I ended up talking to were talking about attending college, which was so great to hear.
In conclusion, it was such a rewarding SOS program for the 4 plus weeks we helped with it. The crew leaders became super close and now I have 29 solid friend I can rely on whenever. There was not one single person that had a problem with anyone on the crew leader team. Everyone gained several new leadership ideas that will be passed on to many people they encounter. I definitely know I surely did. I am glad and fortunate I was given the opportunity to be apart of SOS 2008 in New Orleans and be able to help and give input on how the program was and what things that needed to be changed and what ones should remain the same. Being a leader will increase my confidence to future careers dealing with workers an how to handle them in a professional manner. With a couple things that irked me from time to time (whether being upper staff undermining crew leader authority or lacking sleep from day to day), all in all the SOS program really changed me as an individual and as a leader. I am glad I got so much out of it that in turn I will take what I have learned and bring it back to my Raven 3 team J
Soon to come…Delaware St. Park mini spike with 17 crew leaders and the future to come with my 4th round project! Eeeek…Americorps is nearly over…2 months left!!!
Chianakas out!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Is Summer of Service graduation REALLY tomorrow??
Hello all once again! I have procrastinated to the point of not posting a blog in nearly a month and a half! That means my last update was roughly 5.5 weeks ago...EEEK! It is not that I am putting the updates off, but it surely has been a hectic and busy last couple weeks in Americorps NCCC. But here I am back again with some time before taking the Summer of Service Jazz 2 team to their last day of work, which only happens to be a half-day. But that is beside the point considering ALL the things that have taken place prior to today that date back to the end of 2nd Round AND Mid-year transition review and training back at Perry Point, MD.
I will now tell you what has occured (to the best of my rememberance) from last update to the current present today. Let's go back to memory lane...
Dating back to the end of our 2nd round in New Orleans, LA working with Habitat, our Raven 3 squad hopped into the 15 passenger van and headed north to Maryland. First stop though was in Nashville, TN where we spent a night in the hotel with a couple other teams. It seemed it was a short visit considering all the stops our van made on the ride home. We arrived at the hotel roughly around 8 PM. That gave us enough time to unpack our neccessary clothes and swim suits, then to turn back around and go to sleep preparing for another 10 hour van ride in the morning. All went smoother than I thought. Corps members/friends began talking about what they were doing for their summer breaks. While me and the other crew leaders that had applied and made the S.O.S. 3rd cut were flapping their gums about how the program itself was actually going to be like. I got lucky and ended up knowing almost 90% of the crew leaders. Friends had their flights booked for home on the 27th of June and seemed to have every day of their break mapped out.
In between the time we arrived back to Perry Point and the time the Corps members went home, all NCCC had mid-year training. Training included: resume building course, introduction to AmeriCorps VISTA, team building exercises, a mini job fair, and many more options for people to choose from. At that time people were dreading the meetins hardcore. But at the same time Raven 3 was preparing to be split up for 3rd round. In actualality it seemed like all units and their teams were not going to be full strength due to several composite teams. Teams such as: SOS, lifeguarding, fire fighting, and also several disaster teams in the midwest. Some people were even sent during mid-year to go and help with disaster in the 4 main states that were flooded (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin). Bill from our team was top on the list so we left for disaster in Iowa, Stan and I made the crew leader team, and Zac was chosen to fight wildland fires in Virginia. If you carry the 1, mulitple by 3, and divide by 4, you will find out that Raven 3 was entering 6 members that included the team leader (Andrea) to Washington D.C. for 3rd Round. The 6 were heading to the nation's capital to work and help out with a children's summer camp. Kids ages ranged from 6-14. Our team got to take them on field trips, play with them different activities, take them swimming and to Six Flags theme and basically run the summer camp for the next 8-9 weeks, once of course they came back from their Summer Break on July 7th.
In the meantime, the SOS crew leaders had to postpone all summer plans and flights home until AFTER the program was over. The SOS program ran from July 6th thru August 1st. CL's spent the days before driving back down to New Orleans to train and prepare to lead a team of 10 African American 14-17 year olds. These guys/girls currently live in New Orleans region, whether from up-town, in the city, the West Bank, etc. all came for one purpose and that was to serve their community. The different trainings that 30 of us crew leaders had were: member development, safety, how to handle that age range of kids, and many more useful techniques in management. We received several paper work that we could refer back to if needed at any point. On the last day before traveling down, the crew leaders had a "mock" training with real life situations that MIGHT occur with the teams. Team leaders acted them out and we as crew leaders had to practice by explaining and pointing out what the problem was and how to solve it. While in the trainings we broke off into our 3-some of co-crew leaders. I was chosen to work with 2 people from the Badger Unit. Their names were Will Wong and Bre Klubben. I had known Bre from the first week of CTI, but did not know who Will was. I remember Will because they recognized him before 1st Round started as being a very good chef (PS. I don't know and can't be the judge of that because I have not eaten his food yet). But I was really happy I would be working with Bre and thought that we would work perfectly fine together.
After finding out who we were working with for the next month, we packed our belongings and hopped into the vans and headed downward for NOLA for another 20 hour drive. It was very nice ride because there was less stops AND there was actual room to rest your legs for potential naps. We finally arrived down in NOLA on July 2nd and got situated in Dillard University's dorm Williams Hall. Pretty nice dorm suites we got to stay in where Will and I were on one side and Steve and Will Wetzel manned the other side of the suite. Dillard University is known for having predominantly all African American enrollment ever since it's existence in the 19th century. We ended up then having more trainings that then led into the 4th of July in which the crew leaders headed downtown to watch the fireworks. Honestly, the worst display of fireworks that I have ever seen. I have to say that baseball game fireworks were 5 times better than the ones firing up in downtown New Orleans. Disappointment for the out-of-towners that came to visit.
To be continued...(I have taken you through what has happened from the dates June 21st thru the 4th of July, when I get back later today I will explain how the Summer of Service program is going and how we are almost done with it!!, hang tight)
I will now tell you what has occured (to the best of my rememberance) from last update to the current present today. Let's go back to memory lane...
Dating back to the end of our 2nd round in New Orleans, LA working with Habitat, our Raven 3 squad hopped into the 15 passenger van and headed north to Maryland. First stop though was in Nashville, TN where we spent a night in the hotel with a couple other teams. It seemed it was a short visit considering all the stops our van made on the ride home. We arrived at the hotel roughly around 8 PM. That gave us enough time to unpack our neccessary clothes and swim suits, then to turn back around and go to sleep preparing for another 10 hour van ride in the morning. All went smoother than I thought. Corps members/friends began talking about what they were doing for their summer breaks. While me and the other crew leaders that had applied and made the S.O.S. 3rd cut were flapping their gums about how the program itself was actually going to be like. I got lucky and ended up knowing almost 90% of the crew leaders. Friends had their flights booked for home on the 27th of June and seemed to have every day of their break mapped out.
In between the time we arrived back to Perry Point and the time the Corps members went home, all NCCC had mid-year training. Training included: resume building course, introduction to AmeriCorps VISTA, team building exercises, a mini job fair, and many more options for people to choose from. At that time people were dreading the meetins hardcore. But at the same time Raven 3 was preparing to be split up for 3rd round. In actualality it seemed like all units and their teams were not going to be full strength due to several composite teams. Teams such as: SOS, lifeguarding, fire fighting, and also several disaster teams in the midwest. Some people were even sent during mid-year to go and help with disaster in the 4 main states that were flooded (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin). Bill from our team was top on the list so we left for disaster in Iowa, Stan and I made the crew leader team, and Zac was chosen to fight wildland fires in Virginia. If you carry the 1, mulitple by 3, and divide by 4, you will find out that Raven 3 was entering 6 members that included the team leader (Andrea) to Washington D.C. for 3rd Round. The 6 were heading to the nation's capital to work and help out with a children's summer camp. Kids ages ranged from 6-14. Our team got to take them on field trips, play with them different activities, take them swimming and to Six Flags theme and basically run the summer camp for the next 8-9 weeks, once of course they came back from their Summer Break on July 7th.
In the meantime, the SOS crew leaders had to postpone all summer plans and flights home until AFTER the program was over. The SOS program ran from July 6th thru August 1st. CL's spent the days before driving back down to New Orleans to train and prepare to lead a team of 10 African American 14-17 year olds. These guys/girls currently live in New Orleans region, whether from up-town, in the city, the West Bank, etc. all came for one purpose and that was to serve their community. The different trainings that 30 of us crew leaders had were: member development, safety, how to handle that age range of kids, and many more useful techniques in management. We received several paper work that we could refer back to if needed at any point. On the last day before traveling down, the crew leaders had a "mock" training with real life situations that MIGHT occur with the teams. Team leaders acted them out and we as crew leaders had to practice by explaining and pointing out what the problem was and how to solve it. While in the trainings we broke off into our 3-some of co-crew leaders. I was chosen to work with 2 people from the Badger Unit. Their names were Will Wong and Bre Klubben. I had known Bre from the first week of CTI, but did not know who Will was. I remember Will because they recognized him before 1st Round started as being a very good chef (PS. I don't know and can't be the judge of that because I have not eaten his food yet). But I was really happy I would be working with Bre and thought that we would work perfectly fine together.
After finding out who we were working with for the next month, we packed our belongings and hopped into the vans and headed downward for NOLA for another 20 hour drive. It was very nice ride because there was less stops AND there was actual room to rest your legs for potential naps. We finally arrived down in NOLA on July 2nd and got situated in Dillard University's dorm Williams Hall. Pretty nice dorm suites we got to stay in where Will and I were on one side and Steve and Will Wetzel manned the other side of the suite. Dillard University is known for having predominantly all African American enrollment ever since it's existence in the 19th century. We ended up then having more trainings that then led into the 4th of July in which the crew leaders headed downtown to watch the fireworks. Honestly, the worst display of fireworks that I have ever seen. I have to say that baseball game fireworks were 5 times better than the ones firing up in downtown New Orleans. Disappointment for the out-of-towners that came to visit.
To be continued...(I have taken you through what has happened from the dates June 21st thru the 4th of July, when I get back later today I will explain how the Summer of Service program is going and how we are almost done with it!!, hang tight)
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sorry for the LONG delay, lots to talk about!
As the song says "Let's give them something to talk about!" I for sure have MANY things to talk about. Hey there! How is everyone doing? Looking for the latest low-down on how things on my end are going? Well here it goes...I am back with another update after a combination of laziness and being super busy in the last couple weeks of 2nd Round, Summer of Service Training, and being back in Perry Point for mid-year. I will be telling in paragraph format on how the last 3 weeks of work went and then will end the blog with how this past week went. Hang onto your seats, it is going to be a bumpy ride!
Picking up where I left off last blog, Tallahasse, FL was tons of fun. I posted a couple pictures from our environmental boat tour on facebook if you care to check them out. Meghan and I came back to our Camp Hope establishment on that Monday (considering of course we had the day off being that Habitat works tuesday-saturday) and went around spreading our happiness of the trip to everyone that stepped in our path. All week consisted of more roofing work. We focused clearly on shingling, putting on the drip edge, and decking of the roofs. They filtered in a couple volunteers throughout the week which was nice because all of them were very productive and eager to work. It was a church group this week from Indiana and Springfield, IL. Later in the week our team got together and watched When the Levees Broke, an informational movie about the destruction of Katrina. It really was intense to actually see the pain and suffering the city went through. Several victims were interviewed and for me it was really eye-popping to see the difference between what the media shows on the different news channels compared to being there in the heat of things. We got more volunteers on Saturday of this week which happened to be sponsored by Target. They were a group of males and females that were guidance counselors gathered down in New Orleans for a conference. The perks from them were: they were also super nice AND we got some free Target items from their goodie bags they didn't want. Definately a double positive! All in all, this week was full of excitement and hard work, not to mention the days beginning to get warmer and warmer. Humidity down in the Gulf is unbearably uncomfortable, but we learned to be flexible (as our Raven 3's new quote is..."we are flexible from the 'f' to the second 'e'").
The next week was a continuation of great times. The weekend was full of ISP's and working in the Camp Hope kitchen serving dinner to the volunteers. Similar to last week, there was a bunch of decking, sub fatia, drip edging, putting on the ridge vent and basically touching up all the houses on Louisa, Desire, and Piety. I had a blast being up on the roof this week as well because it gives great satisfaction to see how much you can accomplish in one day. My roofing team was able in the end to re-build 8 decks by the time we left. More volunteers on our work site came to help. Them too were a huge support and that is why we were able to accomplish a lot. I love learning the construction terms and picking up new techniques from day to day.
Last week of work/birthday week is our next stop. It was sad to know that our time in New Orleans was near over. During the week we were decking 9 hour days, running volunteers, and even helped a fellow New Orleans woman and her family apply for a new house. Miss Margaret has been living in a FEMA trailer since the hurricane. She is a really nice and amazing person. We worked on the street where she lost everything, including the houses her family members were in. What Margaret did for all of us AmeriCorps NCCC people and volunteers was opened up her trailer to supply us with water and cool off in the air conditioner. No matter if you knew her or if you were a complete stranger, she accepted everyone. The deal with her FEMA home was that they were going to take it away from her at the end of 2008. So to say thank you for all the things she did for us, several of us NCCC teamed up and put together an application, a video, and a wrote paragraphs to Extreme Makeover Home Edition in efforts to getting her a house along with the other 4 family members that are living with her. I am praying that she gets one...you should all have the chance to meet this wonderful woman. Around Tuesday of the week, CBS New Orleans news came to the Upper 9th where we were working and did a news story about NCCC and about her. I got interviewed by the report, but didn't make the editing cut. Although, I am shown in the news article. If you would like to check it out the link is...
http://www.wwltv.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=255527&shu=1
We ended up on that Thursday going to see a minor league baseball with the Habitat staff which was a lot of fun. Live baseball is so much fun. It was on the eve of my 23rd birthday and we all decided to be dropped off downtown New Orleans for one last hang out before we drove back to Perry Point. On Friday, we went to work and roof (our last day of the SPIKE) and it began to rain in spurts. It was disappointing, but we still made the day fun. Came back later in the day and got ready for a BBQ that was put on by our sponsor. We all gathered at the St. Bernard Park and cooked, grilled, and chowed down a delicious meal together. A great way to celebrate a birthday for sure. My team surprised me with a birthday cake that night and I actually got to cut the cake with not your typical butter/serrated knife, but instead sticking with the construction theme, I got a reciprocating saw and sliced it! Very creative AND good times. I have pictures to prove :) Anyways, the last week of work was very rewarding but yet it was sad to be leaving. I get the luxary of coming back to NOLA for Summer of Service. During this week also our Raven 3 team performed some Service Learning and went to Mardi Gras World where we got the chance to see what kind of floats and characters are made for the Mardi Gras parades. Very fun and interesting. Pictures are posted on facebook!
What a great 2nd Round project indeed! The Raven 3 squad had a great time. We found out where our 3rd Round project was goign to be and that is Washington DC doing summer camps for inner city children for 6 weeks and then for the remaining 2 going to Delaware State Park for environmental work. Currently there will be 3 people missing from the team next round. One includes myself, Stan (also Summer of Service but is in the running to be a Team Leader in the Badger Unit), and Zac (who will be going on fire composite team). That leaves the team number down to 6. Teammate Bill got called for disaster in Iowa with all the flooding. It is devastating to see the destruction of the floods.
Now...finally onto this past week! What an exciting time being back in Perry Point and seeing everyone again. Tons of people to talk and catch up with and friends you haven't seen in 7 weeks! Ok so here we go...
SUNDAY
- this was a travel day and we traveled from Knoxville, TN to Perry Point that literally took 13 hours. The trip should have been quicker, but with several stops and visits made the adventure longer
- returned back into new houses with new roommates, now I am on 3rd street instead of 2nd with one of my old housemates and close friends as well as 3 other really nice guys; I get my own room which is nice and peaceful
- went to sleep early getting prepared for a busy SOS training week that begins Monday
MONDAY
- SOS training begins in the morning and they told us a run down of the program and did various activities
- everyone on the staff is super cool and easy to work with, I am excited because there is not one person who is a "debbie downer"
- right from the start we got along, I had the advantage of knowing 25 of the 30 crew leaders before just from being socialable to them during our CTI training back in Feb.
- found out that CL's will be working roughly 90-100 work weeks! Geez...Dad that is longer than your 75 hour work weeks :)
TUESDAY
- more SOS training today for the whole day, while my other Raven 3 team was preparing for their debrief from the 2nd round project
- we had a presenter come in and talk about Common Ground and how to handle tensions within a team and other important tools to know in handling children 14-17.
- we all loved the man and recommend him for other events
- we found out what Unit we are in, I am in the Jazz unit
- more and more teams start to filter into the Village in Perry Point
WEDNESDAY
- Day 3 of SOS training was yet again a great time, slowly learning everyone's name and getting to know them personally since we will be stuck together for the next 5 weeks
- today's focus was on scenarios and how to deal with problems that may occur
- itching to find out who the other co-crew leaders we will be working with
THURSDAY
- the staff finally finds out who we will be working with, I am put with Bre (a previous friend of mine since February) and Will Wong. Will is really nice and super motivated, Bre is also ready for this so I am ready to see how solid the squad will be. Jazz 2!
- another presenter came in to talk about supervisory skills, it was alright...nothing too exciting but there was a lot of information given
- later in the day I had a CAPping meeting that basically was a catch-up and check-in on how the previous round went
- played some wicked softball later that night which made me super stoked since I miss baseball!
FRIDAY
- last day of SOS training was today and we also did 1 on 1 scenarios given by Team Green in efforts to make us feel more comfortable with handling adversity and the adolescents
In conclusion, SOS training was super fun and I can't wait to see what else is in store later down the line. We will be staying with the kids in dorms at Dillard University. I am ready...bring on the next challenge! As you can see it has been a hectic last month, but let me assure you that I will try to give weekly updates on how the SOS program is going. In itself, I think that it will be enjoyable and for sure rewarding.
Thank you for taking the time to read this MONSTROUS blog about my AmeriCorps in the past month. Looking forward to writing very soon with more great news and stories to share!
PS. Congratulations to our next door neighbors, Cheryl and Bob for their new baby on June 18th!
PSS. Happy belated Father's Day AND Happy 83rd Birthday Papoo!
PSSS. GO CUBS! Keep on winning :) Seeing them win surely keeps me motivated!
Picking up where I left off last blog, Tallahasse, FL was tons of fun. I posted a couple pictures from our environmental boat tour on facebook if you care to check them out. Meghan and I came back to our Camp Hope establishment on that Monday (considering of course we had the day off being that Habitat works tuesday-saturday) and went around spreading our happiness of the trip to everyone that stepped in our path. All week consisted of more roofing work. We focused clearly on shingling, putting on the drip edge, and decking of the roofs. They filtered in a couple volunteers throughout the week which was nice because all of them were very productive and eager to work. It was a church group this week from Indiana and Springfield, IL. Later in the week our team got together and watched When the Levees Broke, an informational movie about the destruction of Katrina. It really was intense to actually see the pain and suffering the city went through. Several victims were interviewed and for me it was really eye-popping to see the difference between what the media shows on the different news channels compared to being there in the heat of things. We got more volunteers on Saturday of this week which happened to be sponsored by Target. They were a group of males and females that were guidance counselors gathered down in New Orleans for a conference. The perks from them were: they were also super nice AND we got some free Target items from their goodie bags they didn't want. Definately a double positive! All in all, this week was full of excitement and hard work, not to mention the days beginning to get warmer and warmer. Humidity down in the Gulf is unbearably uncomfortable, but we learned to be flexible (as our Raven 3's new quote is..."we are flexible from the 'f' to the second 'e'").
The next week was a continuation of great times. The weekend was full of ISP's and working in the Camp Hope kitchen serving dinner to the volunteers. Similar to last week, there was a bunch of decking, sub fatia, drip edging, putting on the ridge vent and basically touching up all the houses on Louisa, Desire, and Piety. I had a blast being up on the roof this week as well because it gives great satisfaction to see how much you can accomplish in one day. My roofing team was able in the end to re-build 8 decks by the time we left. More volunteers on our work site came to help. Them too were a huge support and that is why we were able to accomplish a lot. I love learning the construction terms and picking up new techniques from day to day.
Last week of work/birthday week is our next stop. It was sad to know that our time in New Orleans was near over. During the week we were decking 9 hour days, running volunteers, and even helped a fellow New Orleans woman and her family apply for a new house. Miss Margaret has been living in a FEMA trailer since the hurricane. She is a really nice and amazing person. We worked on the street where she lost everything, including the houses her family members were in. What Margaret did for all of us AmeriCorps NCCC people and volunteers was opened up her trailer to supply us with water and cool off in the air conditioner. No matter if you knew her or if you were a complete stranger, she accepted everyone. The deal with her FEMA home was that they were going to take it away from her at the end of 2008. So to say thank you for all the things she did for us, several of us NCCC teamed up and put together an application, a video, and a wrote paragraphs to Extreme Makeover Home Edition in efforts to getting her a house along with the other 4 family members that are living with her. I am praying that she gets one...you should all have the chance to meet this wonderful woman. Around Tuesday of the week, CBS New Orleans news came to the Upper 9th where we were working and did a news story about NCCC and about her. I got interviewed by the report, but didn't make the editing cut. Although, I am shown in the news article. If you would like to check it out the link is...
http://www.wwltv.com/video
We ended up on that Thursday going to see a minor league baseball with the Habitat staff which was a lot of fun. Live baseball is so much fun. It was on the eve of my 23rd birthday and we all decided to be dropped off downtown New Orleans for one last hang out before we drove back to Perry Point. On Friday, we went to work and roof (our last day of the SPIKE) and it began to rain in spurts. It was disappointing, but we still made the day fun. Came back later in the day and got ready for a BBQ that was put on by our sponsor. We all gathered at the St. Bernard Park and cooked, grilled, and chowed down a delicious meal together. A great way to celebrate a birthday for sure. My team surprised me with a birthday cake that night and I actually got to cut the cake with not your typical butter/serrated knife, but instead sticking with the construction theme, I got a reciprocating saw and sliced it! Very creative AND good times. I have pictures to prove :) Anyways, the last week of work was very rewarding but yet it was sad to be leaving. I get the luxary of coming back to NOLA for Summer of Service. During this week also our Raven 3 team performed some Service Learning and went to Mardi Gras World where we got the chance to see what kind of floats and characters are made for the Mardi Gras parades. Very fun and interesting. Pictures are posted on facebook!
What a great 2nd Round project indeed! The Raven 3 squad had a great time. We found out where our 3rd Round project was goign to be and that is Washington DC doing summer camps for inner city children for 6 weeks and then for the remaining 2 going to Delaware State Park for environmental work. Currently there will be 3 people missing from the team next round. One includes myself, Stan (also Summer of Service but is in the running to be a Team Leader in the Badger Unit), and Zac (who will be going on fire composite team). That leaves the team number down to 6. Teammate Bill got called for disaster in Iowa with all the flooding. It is devastating to see the destruction of the floods.
Now...finally onto this past week! What an exciting time being back in Perry Point and seeing everyone again. Tons of people to talk and catch up with and friends you haven't seen in 7 weeks! Ok so here we go...
SUNDAY
- this was a travel day and we traveled from Knoxville, TN to Perry Point that literally took 13 hours. The trip should have been quicker, but with several stops and visits made the adventure longer
- returned back into new houses with new roommates, now I am on 3rd street instead of 2nd with one of my old housemates and close friends as well as 3 other really nice guys; I get my own room which is nice and peaceful
- went to sleep early getting prepared for a busy SOS training week that begins Monday
MONDAY
- SOS training begins in the morning and they told us a run down of the program and did various activities
- everyone on the staff is super cool and easy to work with, I am excited because there is not one person who is a "debbie downer"
- right from the start we got along, I had the advantage of knowing 25 of the 30 crew leaders before just from being socialable to them during our CTI training back in Feb.
- found out that CL's will be working roughly 90-100 work weeks! Geez...Dad that is longer than your 75 hour work weeks :)
TUESDAY
- more SOS training today for the whole day, while my other Raven 3 team was preparing for their debrief from the 2nd round project
- we had a presenter come in and talk about Common Ground and how to handle tensions within a team and other important tools to know in handling children 14-17.
- we all loved the man and recommend him for other events
- we found out what Unit we are in, I am in the Jazz unit
- more and more teams start to filter into the Village in Perry Point
WEDNESDAY
- Day 3 of SOS training was yet again a great time, slowly learning everyone's name and getting to know them personally since we will be stuck together for the next 5 weeks
- today's focus was on scenarios and how to deal with problems that may occur
- itching to find out who the other co-crew leaders we will be working with
THURSDAY
- the staff finally finds out who we will be working with, I am put with Bre (a previous friend of mine since February) and Will Wong. Will is really nice and super motivated, Bre is also ready for this so I am ready to see how solid the squad will be. Jazz 2!
- another presenter came in to talk about supervisory skills, it was alright...nothing too exciting but there was a lot of information given
- later in the day I had a CAPping meeting that basically was a catch-up and check-in on how the previous round went
- played some wicked softball later that night which made me super stoked since I miss baseball!
FRIDAY
- last day of SOS training was today and we also did 1 on 1 scenarios given by Team Green in efforts to make us feel more comfortable with handling adversity and the adolescents
In conclusion, SOS training was super fun and I can't wait to see what else is in store later down the line. We will be staying with the kids in dorms at Dillard University. I am ready...bring on the next challenge! As you can see it has been a hectic last month, but let me assure you that I will try to give weekly updates on how the SOS program is going. In itself, I think that it will be enjoyable and for sure rewarding.
Thank you for taking the time to read this MONSTROUS blog about my AmeriCorps in the past month. Looking forward to writing very soon with more great news and stories to share!
PS. Congratulations to our next door neighbors, Cheryl and Bob for their new baby on June 18th!
PSS. Happy belated Father's Day AND Happy 83rd Birthday Papoo!
PSSS. GO CUBS! Keep on winning :) Seeing them win surely keeps me motivated!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Half-way done with 2nd Round...Tallahassee was a BLAST!
"Oh lay, Oh lay, Oh lay, Oh lay...feelin hot, hot, hot!" The lyrics to this song really describes the type of week it has been starting on Sunday the 18th of May. The sun rays are surely shining down in the Gulf and southeast areas! What I mean is that New Orleans and our Habitat area has gotten to the point of average temperatures of 85 degree and humidity of at least 90! And when I visited Tallahasse, FL the temperature seemed to jump 10 more degrees! But all in all, it was super fun and relaxing.
Now onto the exciting work days we had this past week! With one rain day, we still managed to get the best out of everyday. I decided to be in the roofing group so I am hoping to become a master/professional roofer by the end of the project. To this day, we only have 2 weeks and 4 days until our mid-year transition back to Perry Point. It is insane how yet again this project seems to zip right by. By the time we know it, it will be time for mid-year and more trainings and then moving onto summer break for some, while the 30 crew leaders for S.O.S have to stick around Perry Point for to be transfered back to New Orleans for 4 weeks. I was one of the 30 selected to be a crew leader. The team assembled is wonderful and I know for a fact we will all get along just fine.
Below is the breakdown from this past week and what my team and I did...
MONDAY
- with the day off (since Habitat workers work from Tues-Saturday), we as a team went to the Audobon St. Park and relaxed
- layed down to attempt to tan and went to a coffee shop nearby
- walked around the downtown area
TUESDAY
- went back to work with the Habitat crew and staff, there are about 5 AmeriCorps teams at the Upper 9th Ward building houses
- got the orientation and tool safety training, and then in the afternoon we all split up into groups...half went to work on roofing and the other half helped with the siding and painting
- I chose roofing and had a blast...a little scared at first climbing on a roof, but I overcame those fears quickly
- I got to assist with working on the decking (this is when you put up 8 by 4 sheets of OSB board that are held together with nails and h-clips to secure safety and prevent heavy winds) with one of the 25 houses the groups are going to be putting together
- after work went to pick up teammate Bill from the airport and celebrated his 25th birthday as a team, he was very surprised
- came back from the day with an impromptu concert that night by seeing a Greenday side project band for 20 dollars called "The Foxboro Hot Tubs", very awesome concert!
WEDNESDAY
- woke up and arrived to work before 7 AM (got to sleep in 2 more hours than last week :)) and got put into 5 different permanent groups
- I stuck with roofing along with teammates Zac and Nicole...I love being on the roof and getting the tan, it is very rewarding, but yet steamy
- the other team members divided themselves out in the other 4 categories: exterior siding, interior work, interior painting, and logistics
- I am glad to be soaking up the wonderful Nahlins weather day in and day out!
- today I worked with the decking and sub fatia (the trim around the perimeter of the roof), now that is a blast, conquered my other fear today of balancing on a wobbly ladder AND reaching out and hammering nails close to the edge...hooray for me!
THURSDAY
- Habitat work yet again for a couple hours in the morning until it got rained out
- I left at 9:30 with a group of NCCC people to a focus group to talk about problems and concerns with SPIKE projects, as well as positives
- I ended up speaking up a lot about it and really enjoyed the gathering, we now officially can roll up our sleeves while we work :) NO more tan lines and farmer's tans!
- got back and relaxed the rest of the day, then with a couple friends went out and saw Indiana Jones (very bad movie, I don't recommend you seeing it)
FRIDAY
- a nice and hard 9 hour work day with roofing work and shingling and decking and tarpapering, it was a good time
- Scott, our site supervisor, put me in charge while he was gone...felt nice leading the 20 of us roofing
- preparing ourselves and learning as much as we could for the several volunteers coming in next week, roughly 300
- got packed up and cleaned up for leaving with Meghan to Tallahassee for the weekend!
- the trip took about 6 hours with a gas fill up and traffic jam...not too bad, arrived in FL at 12:30AM and met up with her friend from FSU
Saturday and Sunday consisted of relaxing in Tallahassee, going to St. George beach, and visiting a Nature Reserve boat ride and learned about the wetlands of FL...very entertaining indeed. I got super burnt from the beach and hurt all over. Tons of Aloe Vera needs to be put on constantly to prevent the aches and pains. Got back to Camp Hope today and just updating you people on what has been happening. This next week of work consists of several volunteers filtering in and out of Habitat building AND even the AmeriCorps people being put in charge of teaching the volunteers what to do. It should be a great week and full of happy people willing to help. I know I get more and more hyper everytime I get the chance to hop on the roof and work. There are 5 of us that are labeled Team Viper and we do this little mantra before and after work that is tons of fun, a close bond has been formed with me and some of the site workers. The Habitat staff is super nice as well, it is awesome to work with people that make the work fun! More to come and more houses to build. The goal that they want us to do is finish all the houses down in the Upper 9th Ward (which is about 25) before we leave for next round. It can be done...it WILL be done...I will guarantee it WILL get done :)!
Now onto the exciting work days we had this past week! With one rain day, we still managed to get the best out of everyday. I decided to be in the roofing group so I am hoping to become a master/professional roofer by the end of the project. To this day, we only have 2 weeks and 4 days until our mid-year transition back to Perry Point. It is insane how yet again this project seems to zip right by. By the time we know it, it will be time for mid-year and more trainings and then moving onto summer break for some, while the 30 crew leaders for S.O.S have to stick around Perry Point for to be transfered back to New Orleans for 4 weeks. I was one of the 30 selected to be a crew leader. The team assembled is wonderful and I know for a fact we will all get along just fine.
Below is the breakdown from this past week and what my team and I did...
MONDAY
- with the day off (since Habitat workers work from Tues-Saturday), we as a team went to the Audobon St. Park and relaxed
- layed down to attempt to tan and went to a coffee shop nearby
- walked around the downtown area
TUESDAY
- went back to work with the Habitat crew and staff, there are about 5 AmeriCorps teams at the Upper 9th Ward building houses
- got the orientation and tool safety training, and then in the afternoon we all split up into groups...half went to work on roofing and the other half helped with the siding and painting
- I chose roofing and had a blast...a little scared at first climbing on a roof, but I overcame those fears quickly
- I got to assist with working on the decking (this is when you put up 8 by 4 sheets of OSB board that are held together with nails and h-clips to secure safety and prevent heavy winds) with one of the 25 houses the groups are going to be putting together
- after work went to pick up teammate Bill from the airport and celebrated his 25th birthday as a team, he was very surprised
- came back from the day with an impromptu concert that night by seeing a Greenday side project band for 20 dollars called "The Foxboro Hot Tubs", very awesome concert!
WEDNESDAY
- woke up and arrived to work before 7 AM (got to sleep in 2 more hours than last week :)) and got put into 5 different permanent groups
- I stuck with roofing along with teammates Zac and Nicole...I love being on the roof and getting the tan, it is very rewarding, but yet steamy
- the other team members divided themselves out in the other 4 categories: exterior siding, interior work, interior painting, and logistics
- I am glad to be soaking up the wonderful Nahlins weather day in and day out!
- today I worked with the decking and sub fatia (the trim around the perimeter of the roof), now that is a blast, conquered my other fear today of balancing on a wobbly ladder AND reaching out and hammering nails close to the edge...hooray for me!
THURSDAY
- Habitat work yet again for a couple hours in the morning until it got rained out
- I left at 9:30 with a group of NCCC people to a focus group to talk about problems and concerns with SPIKE projects, as well as positives
- I ended up speaking up a lot about it and really enjoyed the gathering, we now officially can roll up our sleeves while we work :) NO more tan lines and farmer's tans!
- got back and relaxed the rest of the day, then with a couple friends went out and saw Indiana Jones (very bad movie, I don't recommend you seeing it)
FRIDAY
- a nice and hard 9 hour work day with roofing work and shingling and decking and tarpapering, it was a good time
- Scott, our site supervisor, put me in charge while he was gone...felt nice leading the 20 of us roofing
- preparing ourselves and learning as much as we could for the several volunteers coming in next week, roughly 300
- got packed up and cleaned up for leaving with Meghan to Tallahassee for the weekend!
- the trip took about 6 hours with a gas fill up and traffic jam...not too bad, arrived in FL at 12:30AM and met up with her friend from FSU
Saturday and Sunday consisted of relaxing in Tallahassee, going to St. George beach, and visiting a Nature Reserve boat ride and learned about the wetlands of FL...very entertaining indeed. I got super burnt from the beach and hurt all over. Tons of Aloe Vera needs to be put on constantly to prevent the aches and pains. Got back to Camp Hope today and just updating you people on what has been happening. This next week of work consists of several volunteers filtering in and out of Habitat building AND even the AmeriCorps people being put in charge of teaching the volunteers what to do. It should be a great week and full of happy people willing to help. I know I get more and more hyper everytime I get the chance to hop on the roof and work. There are 5 of us that are labeled Team Viper and we do this little mantra before and after work that is tons of fun, a close bond has been formed with me and some of the site workers. The Habitat staff is super nice as well, it is awesome to work with people that make the work fun! More to come and more houses to build. The goal that they want us to do is finish all the houses down in the Upper 9th Ward (which is about 25) before we leave for next round. It can be done...it WILL be done...I will guarantee it WILL get done :)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
