Bellingham WA 8.28.09 by JoAnne Sylvia
This trip started with half of Team Care Force (myself, Cautchy Bailly, Susan Bensen and Grant Hooper) congregating at Gate 34 in Logan International airport for an extremely early flight from Boston to Wisconsin. During our layover we were sure to purchase some Wisconsin Cheese which was enjoyed by all. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express we met up with Care Force Program Managers Chris Farr and Vanessa Meisner. We were also fortunate enough to have Hannah Bratton, Sandy Jackiewicz, Jeremy Bleier, and Joe Dzerkacz from City Year Los Angeles serving on the event as well.
Our first day of prep work began with a tour of the Bellingham Boys and Girls Club. It is an after-school oasis in the middle of an industrial neighborhood filled with factories, warehouses and a large low-income housing development. We had the opportunity to sit down with the staff and learn about the kids that attend the Boys and Girls Club. You could feel the passion the staff had for the youth in their community.
Once our Home Depot order and Care Force 2 arrived, we got straight to work. The next few days were a blur of taping, tarping, cutting wood and organizing tools. Wednesday started out with a visit to a T-Mobile call center. It is a high energy and an employee friendly facility; it was easy to see how our partnership works so well together. Following the tour we headed back to the Boys and Girls Club and met up with our T-Mobile co-Project Coordinators. We were lucky to have a very motivated and energetic group of Project Coordinators who were all psyched for the service day in just 18 hours! After cleaning up, we went to a pizza place that the B&G Club staff raved about, and then off to sleep dreaming of murals, hammers, and solo cups filled with paint.
After our 150 volunteers arrived we woke up the neighborhood with our powerful physical training and were inspired by government officials and the GM of T-Mobile. After physical training our eight teams got to work outside and inside the facility. I can honestly say that the courtyard outside was about 10 times as bright as it was when we started after the addition of playground graphics on the sidewalk; panel murals on the chain link fence; and brightly painted benches. The freshly painted gym was ready for action with purple mountains majesty and action silhouettes of people running and jumping all around.
The much anticipated unveiling of the Huddle-up Zone was AWESOME. The group of Club kids had to be pulled out of the Zone later that afternoon so they could close the facility! The presentation of a check for $10,000 brought tears from everyone in the room and Linda, the director, was seen carrying the large check around for the rest of the day. We had a long, strong circle at the end of the day which included the B&G Club staff members, and we were all given membership cards to the Boys and Girls Club! Everyone enjoyed the opportunity to serve there and shared a mutual appreciation of all the hard work.
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