Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 30, 2005
"help, my leg is stuck under this tree."
Hey guys,
I know it's been awhile. I worked 56 hours last week and made 100 dollars. Go federal government..WOOHOO! Class XII was officially inducted into AmeriCorps NCCC on Saturday. We had a good time and a few tears (come on, you know I'm a crier.) My family sent me a fruit basket that was really sweet. Saturday night I went out with 11 other girls to a club that wanted to charge us $18 to get in and $5 for a miller light in a 12oz cup. You do the math. Cassie talked them down to 10 bucks a head and $5 for a miller light was out of the question. We just ended up dancing a lot to classics such as "I like big butts." Saturday 26 of us loaded up for an independent service project in Virginia. Every year around Halloween, Caledon state park holds a haunted hayride to raise money for the park. We were part of the event staff. We had to dress up as various characters along the hayride, and the park charged 5 bucks a head to go through it. It was a blast. We actually got 10 hours of service work and free pizza to scare people! My job was to be a hiker that's leg is stuck under a tree. I plea with the hayriders to pick me up, I just need to cut my leg off in order to go. (I'm a little drastic..and crazy) The person hiding behind the tree then proceeds to squirt the hayriders with a water gun, simulating the incidental blood squirting from my leg. Other people had to pretend to be frankenstein, shipwrecked ghouls, that kid from the ring coming out of the well, scarecrow/jack-o-lanterns mixed in with fake scarecrow/jack-0-lanterns, so as to freak out the unassuming hayrider. They ended up raising about 1500 dollars! We had a lot of fun. I'm posting a few pictures........enjoy!
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Marvin Gaye Park
Hey guys, Yesterday and the day before my team spent all day working on a park in the DC area. "Washington parks and people" paired with other sponsers is working to change the park's name to "Marvin Gaye park". Marvin Gaye grew up near this park and it is said that it inspired many of his songs. The park's previous name was Heritage park, also known as Needle park; last year they found 7,000 hypodermic needles when they cleaned. My group, house 5, cut down trees with hacksaws and drug them out of a ravine, chopped branches, and cleared brush all day Friday. Saturday we planted and mulched several trees to improve the area. Some of the other teams picked up trash, fixed up a community center, and planted grass. The neighborhood around the park has one of the highest percentages of children in the DC area. We helped make them a safer, greener place to play. I was proud of my team, they all worked thier butts off. It was nice to see all the work we got done.
I'm going to apply to the Clinton school of public service masters program for the Fall. If you are in NCCC they will double match my ed award, making it free. It's only a year and a half, so I'd get a free masters in a short amount of time. I figure if I like what I'm doing now so much maybe I should just get a masters in it. Here's a magazine article and a picture.
From USA Weekend
In the nation's capital, a steady, chilly rain accompanied more than 200 Make A Difference Day volunteers as they put finishing touches on a reclamation effort that began almost 5 years ago. Among the accomplishments in the Watts Branch Park area: A night club where Motown singer and D.C. native Marvin Gaye once performed transformed into a community center, landscaping at an outdoor amphitheater, trail improvements and mulch at the base of 1,000 trees. "It was the worst part of the worst park in the capital, the most crime-ridden park," said volunteer organizer Steve Campbell. "This is a dream come true."
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Katrina
Okay, I"m just going to warn you, this entry is upsetting. If you don't want to read about a first hand account of hurricane Katrina, stop now.
Today during training, a man who had survived hurricane Katrina spoke to us. He lived near the French quarter with his three cats. He walks with a cane and had just had just been released from the hospital from a recent surgery when he heard the storm was going to hit. Most people just thought the storm was really an empty threat, like the way people are always saying one of these days an earthquake is going to break off a piece of California. New Orleans had been through dozens of hurricanes that sounded this bad, none of them had done this. He said there wasn't any information on the news about what people should do and by the time the rains hit, the day before the storm, the 3 ways you can get out of new Orleans were already covered in water. This flooding happened every time it rained, making the roads virtually impassable, and besides, he didn't have a car.
When the hurricane actually hit, it looked like the Wizard of Oz outside. He saw tree limbs broken like twigs and at one point, a car blew by. When it stopped late at night, the entire city was dark and there was no water or electricity. The next day a grocery store opened the doors and told everyone to take whatever they needed. He grabbed a case of baked beans, and ended up having to eat them for a week. That same day, the looting began. People stole guns and while he was shut up in his house he could hear numerous gun shots throughout the day. Through his window he saw 2 thugs beat up an old lady with a baseball bat to steal the gallon of water she had. Looters were hunting down cops and opening fire. Three days after the storm, THREE DAYS, some people showed up in a government vehicle. This was the first time he came out of his house only to find people dead in the streets including a woman and her baby in a pile of rubble.
The took him to the convention center where he met a woman who had climbed on her roof with her elderly mother, her 8-month-old baby and a 16 oz bottle of water. They waited on her roof for 4 days when she turned around and her mother was gone. In her haste to find her mother she accidentally dropped the baby into the water. In five seconds she lost her mother and her child but she waited on her roof for 4 days for someone to help them.
After a week, he got on a helicopter and was told he would be taken to Washington D.C. After he got here, he called a man who was helping animals in houses and apartments and trying to reunite them with their owners. The man called him back and told him he had found one of his cats, simba, and had arrangements to send the cat to D.C. Animal planet is airing a show about reuniting Katrina victims with there pets and this man is in the episode on the weekend of Thanksgiving.
He told us he was glad we were going to help, and that New Orleans was a great lady, and that we should take care of her for him.
As you can imagine, I was in tears. I just didn't really understand what had happened there. It seemed so simple, like they should have just left, and that yeah, people were looting, but no big deal. To hear him talk about it, really changed my perspective on the whole thing. I just wanted to share it with you.
Today during training, a man who had survived hurricane Katrina spoke to us. He lived near the French quarter with his three cats. He walks with a cane and had just had just been released from the hospital from a recent surgery when he heard the storm was going to hit. Most people just thought the storm was really an empty threat, like the way people are always saying one of these days an earthquake is going to break off a piece of California. New Orleans had been through dozens of hurricanes that sounded this bad, none of them had done this. He said there wasn't any information on the news about what people should do and by the time the rains hit, the day before the storm, the 3 ways you can get out of new Orleans were already covered in water. This flooding happened every time it rained, making the roads virtually impassable, and besides, he didn't have a car.
When the hurricane actually hit, it looked like the Wizard of Oz outside. He saw tree limbs broken like twigs and at one point, a car blew by. When it stopped late at night, the entire city was dark and there was no water or electricity. The next day a grocery store opened the doors and told everyone to take whatever they needed. He grabbed a case of baked beans, and ended up having to eat them for a week. That same day, the looting began. People stole guns and while he was shut up in his house he could hear numerous gun shots throughout the day. Through his window he saw 2 thugs beat up an old lady with a baseball bat to steal the gallon of water she had. Looters were hunting down cops and opening fire. Three days after the storm, THREE DAYS, some people showed up in a government vehicle. This was the first time he came out of his house only to find people dead in the streets including a woman and her baby in a pile of rubble.
The took him to the convention center where he met a woman who had climbed on her roof with her elderly mother, her 8-month-old baby and a 16 oz bottle of water. They waited on her roof for 4 days when she turned around and her mother was gone. In her haste to find her mother she accidentally dropped the baby into the water. In five seconds she lost her mother and her child but she waited on her roof for 4 days for someone to help them.
After a week, he got on a helicopter and was told he would be taken to Washington D.C. After he got here, he called a man who was helping animals in houses and apartments and trying to reunite them with their owners. The man called him back and told him he had found one of his cats, simba, and had arrangements to send the cat to D.C. Animal planet is airing a show about reuniting Katrina victims with there pets and this man is in the episode on the weekend of Thanksgiving.
He told us he was glad we were going to help, and that New Orleans was a great lady, and that we should take care of her for him.
As you can imagine, I was in tears. I just didn't really understand what had happened there. It seemed so simple, like they should have just left, and that yeah, people were looting, but no big deal. To hear him talk about it, really changed my perspective on the whole thing. I just wanted to share it with you.
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