Norwalk, CT Chronicle

by Mary Parker

Saturday October 18, 2008
After an incredible service day in Nashville, Tennessee with T-Mobile, Care Force was on the road less than 24 hours after arriving back in Boston. Allison, Hugh, Amy, and I were led by Care Force Project Manager, Vanessa Meisner, to Norwalk, CT to begin prep for the Pepperidge Farm service event. After packing up Care Force’s un-official mascot, the Dodge Caravan with Stow-N-Go capabilities, we departed south to Connecticut on a beautiful fall afternoon.

Sunday October 19, 2008
After a breakfast of meat and potatoes, Team Care Force and City Year New Hampshire headed out to our service site, the Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now, Inc. (NEON). NEON is a community action agency whose mission is, “To provide economically disadvantaged residents of the greater Norwalk area with the range of community, social, economic development and emergency assistance services needed to enhance the quality of life, increase self-sufficiency and reduce the incidence of poverty.” NEON fulfills its mission by running an after-school and HEAD Start programs, providing energy assistance, halfway housing, offering employment training, and various youth programs. Once City Year arrived to NEON we were greeted by the CEO and President of NEON, Joe Mann. Pepperidge Farm and NEON have partnered before on two previous projects, and NEON had honored Pepperidge Farm as Sponsor of the Year earlier that week.

After a quick circle, City Year quickly got to work! Allison led City Year New Hampshire through the art of taping and tarping, while Amy and Hugh did a Home Depot run because Home Depot does not do deliveries on Sundays (who knew!?), and I went on the biggest grocery store run to date with New Hampshire’s service leader Jodi.

After lunch City Year set out to build, stretch, and prime as many panel murals as we could before dinner. By the end of the day we were able to build and stretch close to 25 panel murals before departing for dinner at Black Bear Saloon. The group watched an exciting game between the Jets and Raiders that ended in overtime with a record-breaking field goal kick! Shortly after the game ended we retired back to the Norwalk Inn to rest up for the next morning.

Monday October 20, 2008
We got off to a strong start with an 8:30 a.m. circle. We finished taping and tarping the other parts of the building, and were able to get most of the panel murals sketched. Right before lunch, Jaimee Goodman, Corporate Partnerships Manager from Headquarters joined us at NEON. After lunch a 5 hour session of wood cutting commenced where two Team Care Force and two City Year New Hampshire corps members cut wood for 14 mural benches, 6 backed benches, 2 bike racks, 2 cubbies and 2 bookshelves by the day’s end!

Tuesday October 21, 2008
At morning circle the group had some new additions, Team Care Force corps members Joel Shuherk and David Alexander, whom had flown in from an event in Florida the night before. With two additional people everyone was able to complete the last few things of prep before lunch.

Wednesday October 22, 2008
Event Day!! At 6:30 a.m. sharp City Year circled and welcomed Senior Vice President of Program & Service, Stephanie Wu. After a powerful readiness check City Year headed to NEON to get ready for the arrival of Pepperidge Farm. At 7:30 a.m. half of the group stayed to continue with prep while another group departed to Pepperidge Farm Headquarters to help with registration and serve as bus captains.

Around 8:30 a.m. Pepperidge Farm began lining up to load the buses. Many of the folks coming to the event had served with City Year on the prior two events prior Norwalk. It was great to see people committed to continuing to provide service in their community. The morning program kicked off with powerful PT led both New Hampshire and Team Care Force. After an inspirational spirit break, the 140 volunteers were deployed to build 10 mural benches, paint several walls inside NEON, paint over 30 panel murals, sand and stain several wooden doors, build 2 picnic tables, 6 backed benches, 2 cubbies and add a fresh coat of paint to the entrance way to their single-person housing unit! After the volunteers departed, we stayed to finish attaching the stained doors back to their hinges. Once all of the doors were attached and appropriately hung throughout the building, City Year departed NEON feeling accomplished after a transformational day of service.