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)