By Emily Kean
Partner: T-Mobile
Volunteers: 150
Service Partner: Madison Square Boys & Girls Club Columbus Clubhouse
When: August 1-5, 2010
TCF: Aundrea Dean, Emily Kean
City Year New York: Nathan Arndt, Hudley Grisham, Jordan Kiley, Kasual Owens-Fields, Matthew Patrick, Dianna Yeung, Sarah Weber
Arriving in New York City was quite the adventure. Aundrea drove down from Boston with our project manager, Hugh Harlow, and I flew in from Chicago. After we arrived at our hotel in Englewood, New Jersey, we learned about our service partner, the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club’s Columbus Clubhouse. This Boys & Girls Club provides a safe place for children in the Bronx to go after school and during the summer. This clubhouse has over a 1,000 members and engages 160 youth on a daily basis; 90% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. Activities at the club include fitness, social recreation, and character and leadership development. In addition, the Boys & Girls Club is used during the day by a neighboring school that has outgrown its capacity and needed additional space.
Care Force and City Year New York Senior Corps Members started working at the Boys & Girls Club on Monday, August 2nd through Wednesday, August 4th. During our prep days we had to work around the schedule of the Boys & Girls Club since the facility was being used for their summer programming. Even though we had to work late, we did have the opportunity to interact with youth and staff at the club. Those interactions with the youth and staff at the Boys & Girls Club helped to make this long prep week worthwhile!
On Thursday, August 5, 2010, 150 T-Mobile employees from across New York and New Jersey arrived at 9am to the Madison Square Boys & Girls Clubhouse to help beautify and renew the interior of the building. We transformed the teen lounge into a T-Mobile Huddle up Zone, constructed 12 benches, painted the 2 game rooms, painted 4 of their programming rooms, painted panel murals for rooms throughout the facility, painted murals throughout the hallways, and sport themed murals in the gymnasium. When the youth and staff returned from their day they were shocked and excited about the transformation that had occurred.
During the closing ceremony at the end of the service day a T-Mobile employee said a thank you to all the volunteers who participated in the day as well as gave some perspective on how this transformation was going to impact the youth at the club. He knew this because he had grown up going to this Boys & Girls Club. It was such a reflective moment to think about how giving back to your community really does come full circle!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Team Care Force - Emily Kean
Read this short, personal bio to learn more about one of the senior corps members on Team Care Force. This week's bio covers Emily Kean, as she has written the upcoming Care Force Chronicle covering the T-Mobile event in New York City, New York.
Emily Kean
My name is Emily Kean and I am 23 years old. I am originally from Barrington, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago. While growing up, I had many opportunities to volunteer in Chicago and attend mission trips in the summer. Serving others has been an interest of mine from a young age and it drove me to study social work during college. It was during my junior year at the University of Iowa when I first heard of City Year. I went on a poverty immersion trip to learn about economic human rights, and how poverty affects individuals and their communities. On this trip, I had the opportunity to observe City Year Philadelphia during their Camp City Year, which offers students a fun and safe place to go during spring break. After witnessing the impact City Year had on the students and the community it worked in I decided I wanted to serve after graduating college. This is what brought me to City Year. After graduating from the University of Iowa with a BA in social work, I moved to San Antonio, TX to serve with City Year.
I served my corps year at City Year San Antonio on the MLK Academy Whole School, Whole Child Team. During the day our team would tutor 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in math as well as run after school programs. As well as serving in a school I also served as a team leader for our Young Heroes Team and helped to plan large scale service days on the MLK Service Day Committee and the Kingdom for Kids Playground Build committee.
The work City Year does is important because it builds corps members to be young leaders that in turn, help urban areas strengthen their community and support educational attainment with at-risk youth. City Year chooses to build community, provide strength to students, and a positive attitude for those students we work with. As a corps member, City Year has helped me to improve my leadership skills and develop professionally so I can go confidently into the world to make positive changes.
I am very excited to be serving as a senior corps member on Team Care Force. This year I hope to gain more experience with leading adult volunteers, planning large scale service events, and becoming a more decisive leader. I look forward to traveling around the United States and getting to work with new groups of people on every trip. I believe this year will push me to become more independent and flexible. Most importantly though, Team Care Force will help me serve communities and share with them the power of service and City Year.
 |
| Team Care Force Senior Corps Member, Emily Kean |
My name is Emily Kean and I am 23 years old. I am originally from Barrington, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago. While growing up, I had many opportunities to volunteer in Chicago and attend mission trips in the summer. Serving others has been an interest of mine from a young age and it drove me to study social work during college. It was during my junior year at the University of Iowa when I first heard of City Year. I went on a poverty immersion trip to learn about economic human rights, and how poverty affects individuals and their communities. On this trip, I had the opportunity to observe City Year Philadelphia during their Camp City Year, which offers students a fun and safe place to go during spring break. After witnessing the impact City Year had on the students and the community it worked in I decided I wanted to serve after graduating college. This is what brought me to City Year. After graduating from the University of Iowa with a BA in social work, I moved to San Antonio, TX to serve with City Year.
I served my corps year at City Year San Antonio on the MLK Academy Whole School, Whole Child Team. During the day our team would tutor 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in math as well as run after school programs. As well as serving in a school I also served as a team leader for our Young Heroes Team and helped to plan large scale service days on the MLK Service Day Committee and the Kingdom for Kids Playground Build committee.
The work City Year does is important because it builds corps members to be young leaders that in turn, help urban areas strengthen their community and support educational attainment with at-risk youth. City Year chooses to build community, provide strength to students, and a positive attitude for those students we work with. As a corps member, City Year has helped me to improve my leadership skills and develop professionally so I can go confidently into the world to make positive changes.
I am very excited to be serving as a senior corps member on Team Care Force. This year I hope to gain more experience with leading adult volunteers, planning large scale service events, and becoming a more decisive leader. I look forward to traveling around the United States and getting to work with new groups of people on every trip. I believe this year will push me to become more independent and flexible. Most importantly though, Team Care Force will help me serve communities and share with them the power of service and City Year.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Care Force Chronicle - Chicago, IL
By Dylan Morrill
Partner: CSX
Volunteers: 80
Service Partner: Riverdale Community Resource Center
When: July 27 - August 1, 2010
TCF: Phillip St. Clair, Dylan Morrill, Aundrea Dean, Florence Capinding, Steadman Graves, Emily Kean, Georgia Lawrence, Dan Nemiroff
This was our very first trip for Team Care Force and it was full of surprises, learning experiences and team building! We arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, July 27th at O'hare International Airport. That night, we chose to eat at Lou Malnati’s, a famous Chicago deep dish pizza restaurant. It was great!
Our service partner was the Riverdale Community Resource Center. The Center provides referrals and information to people in the Riverdale community looking for help with emergency situations. The Center works closely with people of all ages in the community with the goal of making Riverdale a better place to live and work in. They do this by offering job fairs, health and wellness awareness programs and various seminars throughout the year. Our plan was to lead CSX volunteers in providing the center with new and improved facilities for the local residents they serve.
We woke up Wednesday ready to serve our first day as members of Team Care Force 2011. However, while we were walking to the car, we noticed that the front window of one of our rental vehicles was completely smashed in and our GPS was stolen. Undeterred by the setback, we piled into the other car and drove to the service site while two people stayed behind to work out the problem. At the service site we worked hard all day to make sure that it would be a great day. Nothing was going to hold us back from getting our prep work done. After working tirelessly all day, we received a new rental vehicle just in time to final circle and go to dinner. The first prep day for Team Care Force 2011 went well despite its morning mishaps.
The next three days went by smoothly as well. Many of us learned how to use power tools like chop saws, drills, and augers for the first time. Although we were faced with daunting tasks that included digging 30 inch holes and cementing in the 30+ fence posts, we worked together and finished all of our prep work in a timely manner.
The service day on July 31st also had slow start because of the rainfall the night before, but ended up being a fantastic finish to our week. Due to the rain, we had to start a little later than we had planned. However, we were able to get a majority of the service projects completed and it looked amazing. We ended up building and staining 5 picnic tables and 2 planter benches. As well as planting 44 trees and painting 10 canvas murals and 3 wall murals.
The Riverdale Community resource center was delighted to see the transformative change. Specifically Allison, the director of the Community Resource Center, loved the service day and all the change that it brought. She loved the work that Team Care Force and CSX did so much that she actually wrote a letter to the mother of a member of Team Care Force explaining what great work he did during the week. At the end of the day, Allison pointed out that, one of the most amazing things that happened during the whole day actually happened before all the service began. It was the morning Physical Training that we did as a group with all the volunteers. She thought it was remarkable to see very different people in the community, with different beliefs, coming together as one in a powerful and loud demonstration of community service.
All in all, the first trip for team Care Force 2011 was amazing.
Partner: CSX
Volunteers: 80
Service Partner: Riverdale Community Resource Center
When: July 27 - August 1, 2010
TCF: Phillip St. Clair, Dylan Morrill, Aundrea Dean, Florence Capinding, Steadman Graves, Emily Kean, Georgia Lawrence, Dan Nemiroff
This was our very first trip for Team Care Force and it was full of surprises, learning experiences and team building! We arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, July 27th at O'hare International Airport. That night, we chose to eat at Lou Malnati’s, a famous Chicago deep dish pizza restaurant. It was great!
Our service partner was the Riverdale Community Resource Center. The Center provides referrals and information to people in the Riverdale community looking for help with emergency situations. The Center works closely with people of all ages in the community with the goal of making Riverdale a better place to live and work in. They do this by offering job fairs, health and wellness awareness programs and various seminars throughout the year. Our plan was to lead CSX volunteers in providing the center with new and improved facilities for the local residents they serve.
We woke up Wednesday ready to serve our first day as members of Team Care Force 2011. However, while we were walking to the car, we noticed that the front window of one of our rental vehicles was completely smashed in and our GPS was stolen. Undeterred by the setback, we piled into the other car and drove to the service site while two people stayed behind to work out the problem. At the service site we worked hard all day to make sure that it would be a great day. Nothing was going to hold us back from getting our prep work done. After working tirelessly all day, we received a new rental vehicle just in time to final circle and go to dinner. The first prep day for Team Care Force 2011 went well despite its morning mishaps.
The next three days went by smoothly as well. Many of us learned how to use power tools like chop saws, drills, and augers for the first time. Although we were faced with daunting tasks that included digging 30 inch holes and cementing in the 30+ fence posts, we worked together and finished all of our prep work in a timely manner.
The service day on July 31st also had slow start because of the rainfall the night before, but ended up being a fantastic finish to our week. Due to the rain, we had to start a little later than we had planned. However, we were able to get a majority of the service projects completed and it looked amazing. We ended up building and staining 5 picnic tables and 2 planter benches. As well as planting 44 trees and painting 10 canvas murals and 3 wall murals.
The Riverdale Community resource center was delighted to see the transformative change. Specifically Allison, the director of the Community Resource Center, loved the service day and all the change that it brought. She loved the work that Team Care Force and CSX did so much that she actually wrote a letter to the mother of a member of Team Care Force explaining what great work he did during the week. At the end of the day, Allison pointed out that, one of the most amazing things that happened during the whole day actually happened before all the service began. It was the morning Physical Training that we did as a group with all the volunteers. She thought it was remarkable to see very different people in the community, with different beliefs, coming together as one in a powerful and loud demonstration of community service.All in all, the first trip for team Care Force 2011 was amazing.
Team Care Force 2011 @ the White Sox game in Chicago
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Congratulations to Team Care Force 2010
On June 28th, 2010 the staff of Care Force and City Year Headquarters graduated the seven members of Team Care Force 2010. This incredible group of Senior Corps Members led over 7,300 volunteers at 50 community service events in 35 cities in 17 different states across the USA.
Congratulations Cautchy, Susan, Andrew, Kimberly, Grant, JoAnne and Ken!
We are incredibly proud of their hard work over the eleven months that they served with Care Force. Their humor, flexibility, positive "can-do" attitude, and desire to create change in the world was a constant reminder of the power found in young people. As a staff we were fortunate to have such a hard-working group consistently push our service to higher and greater inspirational standards. You will be successful in whichever direction you choose to pursue. We wish you the best of luck and know that you will always have a place within Care Force.
Team Care Force 2011
Care Force is proud to introduce the members of Team Care Force 2011!
These eight young idealists that will be traveling the country to engage our corporate partners in large-scale, high impact community service events. The members of our fourth team of senior corps are:
Florence Capinding from Hemet, CA and served at City Year Rhode Island
Aundrea Dean from Forest Park, OH and served at City Year Los Angeles
Emily Kean from Barrington, IL and served at City Year San Antonio
Steadman Graves from Boston, MA and served at City Year Boston
Georgia Lawrence from Middletown, RI and served at City Year Louisiana
Dylan Morrill from Newmarket, NH and served at City Year Little Rock
Dan Nemiroff from San Francisco, CA and served at City Year Miami
Phillip St. Clair from Raleigh, NC and served at City Year San Jose
Ken Wakwe, Program Manager, from Little Rock, AR & Team Care Force Alum
These eight young idealists that will be traveling the country to engage our corporate partners in large-scale, high impact community service events. The members of our fourth team of senior corps are:
Florence Capinding from Hemet, CA and served at City Year Rhode Island
Aundrea Dean from Forest Park, OH and served at City Year Los Angeles
Emily Kean from Barrington, IL and served at City Year San Antonio
Steadman Graves from Boston, MA and served at City Year Boston
Georgia Lawrence from Middletown, RI and served at City Year Louisiana
Dylan Morrill from Newmarket, NH and served at City Year Little Rock
Dan Nemiroff from San Francisco, CA and served at City Year Miami
Phillip St. Clair from Raleigh, NC and served at City Year San Jose
Ken Wakwe, Program Manager, from Little Rock, AR & Team Care Force Alum
Each week we will post a new "Care Force Chronicle" detailing one of our service events that Care Force will lead this year, written by a member of the senior corps. We will also be posting a short personal bio so you can read a little more about each of the senior corps members. This week's bio covers Dylan Morrill, as he has written tomorrow's Care Force Chronicle covering the CSX & Care Force service event in Riverdale, Illinois.
Dylan Morrill
My name is Dylan Morrill. I am 19 years old and originally from the small town of Newmarket, on the seacoast of New Hampshire. My parents, Carole and Chris, were great parents to me, as well as my two brothers, Ryan and Tyler. I graduated from Newmarket High School in 2009. I’m an avid soccer player and fan. In the fall of 2011, I plan to go to college to earn my undergraduate degree.
After graduating from high school, I served my first year with City Year in Little Rock, Arkansas as a Corps Member on a 10 person Whole School Whole Child team. As a team we tutored and mentored at an under-served elementary school. The year was hard, and in turn, very rewarding. I quickly discovered that the hard work I did, did not just affect me, or my resume; it affected the future of the kids in my school. If I did not do a good job on something, I would not get a bad grade; instead, the kids just would not get the education they deserve. If I did a good job on something, there would be no A’s, instead there would be smiling faces. Finding out the potential that comes with the realization that holding your own standards creates the best product is the most valuable thing I learned during my year in Little Rock.
This year I am no longer tutoring in an underprivileged elementary school in Little Rock Arkansas. Instead, I am flying around the country helping to lead large scale community service projects as a member of Team Care Force. This year I will lead volunteers in the implementation of service projects. Doing this, I hope to become an excellent leader and I hope to make a tangible difference in the lives of people all over the country; all while experiencing America from the lens of an ambitious 19 year old.
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