Reflection

I realize the last few months of my adventure in AmeriCorps I let my blog slip and be out dated! it got super busy and on top of that I did a writing class online at my college. I apologize!

First I will catch you up on Maine, then I will reflect on the greatest adventure ever! I miss Maine so very much! It was a blast and a great way to end the year. I suggested that if you have the chance to get to Maine, southern eastern part, in the fall you should! It was very relaxing and brought together the year. Our team continued to build rabbit habitats, clear trails, and maintain the ecosystem. I learned how to Make signs with a sign cutter thing, FYI I want this machine. I got really good at it, i would be happy to make it my new hobby.

This is my first sign I made and the machine:)! I ended up making around 10 and painted 20 total. I loved the fact that this was a job I could do well and rest my knee. Sadly I injured my knee and had to be on light duty the last 3 weeks in Maine. I was still able to work though, so that was a good outlet:)! The Wells NERR at Luadholm is an amazing place, there is over 7 miles of hike trails and goes right out to the beach and the Estuary.

Our last weekend in Maine we decided to invite over Badger 7, the team in Portland, Maine, and have a thanksgiving feast. I made my first two turkeys ever! They turned out amazing:) It was a great feast with apples to apples and fun football. We called it "AmeriThanksgiving"! One of the best thanksgivings I have ever had!

We came back to the Point to prepare for our last week in AmeriCorps NCCC! It was nice to come back and be with everyone to reflect on our time and enjoy the last week as a team that saw each other every day. We realized that even though we had our ups and downs we were a family. A dysfunctional normal every day family:) We realized we didn't need to see each other every day to be together. With this realization we realized we were not only Wolf 7, we were L is for L 7!

Eryn has grown so much this year! She turned 21 in the summer and is now participating in drinking olympics :) haha! Sometimes we grow in other ways than just service learning ;) I thought that with this being her first drinking olympics she needed all the support possible, this includes her sign! I like to think this sign is the reason she did so well! :)

The last night in NCCC we had a banquet that we all had to dress up for. We were served food, had awards, and saw our slide show of the year. We enjoyed one last meal as a team :) which is always the way to go.

Graduation from the program was nice, short, and tearful. I never knew I had to many tears! Our last team photo:) wolf 7!

This year has taught me so much! I will take everything I learned from it and will not only put into my everyday life, but into next year. This year gave me all the tools I will need for being Team Leader next year, putting on the green shirt and to lead a team! So this is not the end of my blog. I will continue this next year when I start in January!

Maine

I apologize for the month long break between updates! Its been CRAZY busy and on top of that I am taking an online writing class! YAY me... NOT! Anyways, We got to Maine on 9/17/10 and have enjoyed every minute of it! We still have about a month here and I don't want it to go by fast! This week one of our W7ers graduated early and is on her way to NOLA to work for SBP! Big congrats to her on the new job!

Maine is wonderful. To be here in the Autumn is amazing and outstanding. The colors are vibrant, the air smells clean, and its the same temp. as back home which is a wonderful feeling.

This is part of one of the trails we work on here in Wells Maine. SO BEAUTIFUL! I have never seen so many colors on leaves before. This day it was taken Ariel and I were measuring out how long each trail was. That was the best day of work, it was a monday, great way to start out a week!
Most of the team went to kareoke night at the local pizza place to sing, dance, and be merry. Drea brought the HOUSE DOWN!!!! Locals are still talking about her. Here Mercedes and I are enjoying every minute of it. This round Mercedes and I are roommates, I love her as a roommate. We watch hulu and listen to music and have crazy dance parties in our rooms. Its been so much fun. This past weekend we watched a bunch of Mercy episodes, i got her hooked!
Drea is a little beat after an early morning ISP in Portland Maine! Portland Maine is WAY different than home. Way smaller and New Englandier! Its a very cute costal town that I love!!!
Morris, Myself, and Jamie on the Hay ride our first day here in Maine. It was this cute Autumn festival/ farmers market.
Jamie, Myself, and Amanda went to Kennebunkport one day to explore and hiked along the beach! We had the best clam chowder ever and got a free rocking chair. The chowder here is amazing, way better than I have ever had in my life! I never want to leave this place with the best chowder in my life. I can promise you that my mom will tell you how much I LOVE CHOWDER!
We did a ISP in Lewingston Maine at the Dempsey challenge. Yes we met Mr. Dempsey, and I made friends with this crab! Sadly he was killed and eaten :( but I was told that he was YUMMY!
Wolf 7 love!
I was a Pumpkinfiddel princess for the day, with and awesome crown, nose earings, and crazy pumpkin to boot.
My goats and rabbit, that I must love so much!
We went to Boston for the day. We stopped here at a cemetary whear adams, handcock and reveer are placed. Drea and I are infront of Adams!
I love this Tree!!!!! It is the total coolest ever!
Me and my nose!
A sunny day at work on break!
This is our beach, like 10 minutes away walking! A great great place to go to relax and regroup!

DC: 9/11 day of Service.... With Obama!

I know it has been FOREVER since I updated this. So to start of the post I would like to share our day schedule with you!:

6am wake up

6-7am make lunch, eat breakfast, get dressed, pack backpack for day, make bed...

7am Leave for work site

7:30am Arrive at work

5:30pm get done with work, go home

6pm PT ( Physical Training)

7pm Cook dinner

7:30ish pm Eat dinner

8pm team meeting/ specialty work

10pm bed time, fall asleep to true blood or life then the sound machine on

to start the day back over tomorrow.

This week has been amazing in DC. We were working with Greater DC Cares. Our main goal was to deliver supplies to the sites that the day of service would be going on at. with free time we explored DC and all it has to over us:)

We went to the WWII memorial and I had to Stand in front of Oregon, Woot Woot. I also stood in front of the California one as well. But I must say that Oregon is home for me so I had to post this one:)
Amanda and Drea at a Pub giving the Amanda Super finger. Amanda sliced her finger this day. We then went to watch the Saints VS Vikings game. GO SAINTS!!! Yes they won :). It was good fun to hang out with the team in a relaxed setting :)
The team in front of Lincoln:) he approves of our team and what we do hahaha. This monument was amazing to be in. Later in the week We went to the American History Museum and I was amazed at Lincoln's life, things I had never learned in school. It made me realize how impressed I am by this President.
I had to Pose with the Monument to Nurses in 'nam'! I don't remember seeing this one last time I was at the memorial.

Drea and I went to the American History Museum and this exhibit was my favorite. They had a whole section for the history of " the Pill" and the controversy it stemmed. I had not known that they found ingredients in yams for the pill, that is so interesting to me.

Yes and Finally! To end the week on the BEST NOTE EVER! We met the President of the United States of America. Obama came to our work site and helped us paint the gym of Ron Brown Middle School. He was SO nice. We got to joke around with him and teach him the Eryn Kivo Jellyfish hand shake. He LOVED it. He also thanked us for all of our hard work and dedication to service for our country. We are the only team so far this year to Meet the President. It was such an honor to have, i will never forget it. I think that It is the HIGHLIGHT of my year:)

Who Dat?

This week was so amazing and fun! I started out at a new house with site supervising in insulation and drywall. My volunteers where mostly between the ages of 15-17 and 3 adults. I was so impressed by not only how much they got done, but how fast the caught on to the skills and that they wanted it to be perfect. I was so impressed by them! We finished insulating the entire house and drywalled half the house!

After an amazingly fabulous week at work, we topped it off with a Saints game. Not just any saints game, but their first home game. Yes it was a preseason game, but it was still a game that was amazing! They won of course and it was rad. I don't think I have ever been to a professional football game. It was hard to sit there at the game and not think of all the people who took refuge in the superdome during Katrina. It was a rush of emotion and excitement at the same time. An added bonus was that I saw Reggie Bush score and play:)

Sunday we went to the gulf coast of Mississippi in to Bay St Louis and Biloxi. It was a very rainy day with some KILLER lightening storm! We got to see the way Hurricane Katrina hit them. We, a majority of the country, only think of NOLA and the hurt that the city and Parish's are feeling. We need to know that it was not only them. It was a good reminder.

I can not believe how fast this round has gone. I have truly enjoyed every minute of it. This up coming week is going to be so powerful. Sunday 8/29/10 is the 5th anniversary of Katrina and we are working that much harder. We have a 7 day build week and also a 50 hour build on two houses. We have a lot of media coming, as well as important people. This week will be amazing and the BEST way to help with the efforts of rebuilding. I know most of you would love to be helping and the one way you can is by voting at gulf.refresheverything.com/sbp for our project to win money to continue to rebuild and help! 300 houses done and there are still over 800 people living in fema trailers waiting and wanting to go home.

Drea and Myself at the Saints Game! They won!

The Mississippi Beach on a rainy day

Saints Game!WHO DAT?

My group of Volunteers this Last week:)

Ashley and Myself at the end of a VERY hot day. Just a little sweaty and tired! The heat may have gotten to us just a little ;)

Leading, Exploring, and Music

This week of work was so much fun! I lead a group of volunteers with Ashley and Eryn! They came to us from NJ/NY! They got sooo much work done, I was very Impressed! They finished drywalling a whole house, that is very impressive. I also got to work in the office some, working of 5th year anniversary stuff for Hurricane Katrina. I can't believe that still after 5 years, families are still not home:(

This would be our group from NJ/NY! Team powerhouse/awesome
Ashley, Eryn, and Myself with the very last drywall pice! Ern and I started training on this house:)
This is a Yellow silk Spider! IT IS HUGE! and funny looking at the same time. I have never seen a spider like this before
If you look really closely you can see the Baby Alligator. Our team went on a hike through a national parks Bayou. It look like we were in a scene from True Blood. It was beautiful. We saw a lot of weird animals and some crazy awesome nature!
Last weekend we attended the Satchamo Summer Fest:) this is Kermet. His band is featured on the show Treme, and he is amazing. This festival is in remembrance of Louis Armstrong. They sang him happy birthday and all! It was some awesome jazz music:)

New Orleans, St. Bernard Project, Round 3

The start of this round started out great, and is continuing on that same route. We left on our way down to NOLA. The day we arrived was our wonderful Team Leaders birthday. We celebrated this and came to our housing here in NOLA. The housing is the best housing in spike history of wolf 7. The project we are working for is called St. Bernard project. We are working to rebuild the homes in the St. Bernard Parish that have been destroyed by hurricane Katrina. I am a site supervisor and specialist in Mold Remediation. I will be leading a group of volunteers in rebuilding these homes. I am loving this project more and more every day.

Jamie's birthday was a blast. We went to Juan's flying burrito to have dinner. We surprised him with his "Mini me" wold gift and a book.
Drea and I decided we needed a face mask and a beautification night before we started this project. It was amazing!
Myself and Eryn hanging up insulation. It is very itchy!
Here I am measuring out the drywall to cut so that it is a prefect fit!
Jon seems to be stumped by the measurements of the drywall!

End of Camden

Camden, Camden, Camden. What to say about Camden. I am very glad that I got the opportunity to live in a place like Camden. Its an experience that I will never forget. At the same time I am very glad to be back in Perry Point with clean fresh air. I no longer have to mask the sounds of gun shots with my fan or ear buds. I can sleep in an AC house, and can walk freely outside. I truly wish that there were more organizations in the city of Camden trying to help make it a better place. It needs money to help fix the roads and improve the crime rate. Something that Camden doesn't have. I am very happy tho to have worked with so many origination's that are trying to do the very things that need to get done. The New Jersey Tree foundation is doing an excellent job. Respond and its many Programs are as well. The Children's Garden with all of there work and the Community gardens they set up are amazing.

On a trip to Philly my team went to Independence hall. This was AMAZING. I felt surreal being in a place that is so historic. I can't wait to experience it with my Mom and Brother during the 4th.
Myself and Jess from the New Jersey Tree Foundation working on a tree planting. I love this woman. She is amazing and has such a great heart. I thank her for all she did for us while we were in Camden. Thank you Jess!
At the beach in Ocean City NJ. Part of the team walking the shore while Jamie is trying to catch a Frisbee. I know you can't see it and it looks like he is praising the sky, but it is there. While here at the beach 90% of the team got extremely sun burnt. Some of us were lobsters, while others were a lighter shade.
Our team was so lucky to be picked to go to the Outdoor Nation youth summit. It was fun to be in Central Park and partake in the summit. While there we, as a group of 400 millennial's, thought up solutions to get children and youth outside and active for the president to put in his and Michelle's lets move campaign. He will also look at these solutions to put into effect for our growing laziness as a country and find ways to motivate people.
On our last days in the Children's Garden we painted this as a memento of Wolf 7. We have a shout out to the other two units but they are not as cool as our Wolf! The paw prints all have our names under one and are red like apples out of a tree. This was designed by the lovely drea

Getting Things done for America... no matter what!

The last two weeks have been very interesting. I have healed from my shoulder injury :) YAY!!! Also got the flu :( boo and today a fractured my left foot at work, even bigger BOO! But that hasn't slowed down wolf 7 SUPERTROOPERS! In the last two weeks I have finished my 80 ISP hours YAY! I am over 80 and working towards 120 for the congressional award :). Our team is still working hard at the children's garden, we are experts in watering and weeding. Andrea and myself have gotten AmeriCorps 2 new sponsors hear in Camden. Something no other team has been able to do in the last 2 years. That is a huge thing for us to have done:) Also i have become a regular volunteer at the animal shelter here. I love the cats :) hopefully this week I can work with the dogs as well. That would be fabulous! The animals have the ability to make me happy and feel at home, even tho I am not.

Our team has also been to a press conference this last week. It was a great contact for our media rep and we got to me the Mayor. We are Teaming up with her for our day of service this round! :) Our team likes to work with the Mayor when it comes to our day of services!

Miss Heidi, the model!
Drea and the Kitten:)
Yes the animal shelter has a chicken :)