By Dylan Morrill
Partner: T-Mobile
Volunteers: 90
Service Partner: Simon Elementary School
When: October 11-14 , 2010
TCF: Dylan Morrill, Phillip St. Clair; Project Manager Hugh Harlow
Reserves: City Year Washington, D.C. Senior Corps Members Evan Waldt, Maggie Smith, Dominique Griffin; City Year Washington, D.C. Corps Members Peter, Angello Brady, Levon Alston; City Year Washington D. C. Program Manager Stef Vestal
On Sunday, October 10, Phillip St. Clair, I, along with Hugh Harlow, Care Force Project Manager, arrived in Washington D.C. – hungry. Hugh had attended George Washington University and knew all about the city. He told us that Ben’s Chili Bowl was one of the best places to eat in D.C. – and it was! At Bens, there was a sign hanging up that read “The only people who eat free here are Bill Cosby and the Obama Family” After seeing this sign I established that a new life goal of mine will be to get on that list.; although, judging by the two people that are on it now, that may be pretty hard. After lunch, we made a Home Depot run and then ate at Meskerem, an Ethiopian restaurant in the heart of D.C. for dinner. It was a totally new experience for me to use a piece of ‘pancake-like’ Injera to pick up food from a community bowl. It was great food and I really liked trying something totally new.
The next day, we met up with Evan, Maggie, Angelo, Peter, Dominique, Levon, and Stef of City Year Washington, D. C. to begin service at Simon Elementary School. Simon Elementary is home to one of our City Year Whole School Whole Child teams from City Year D. C. For Phil and I, this was our first opportunity to serve with Care Force in a school where a City Year team serves daily. After meeting everyone, we quickly realized that three of our projects were taking place four floors upstairs from where are supplies were located. So our first act of business was to bring all of the tools and materials and all of the donated items from T-Mobile up four flights of stairs to the projects. It was hard work but we got it done; and we were all a bit stronger because of it. Thanks to the positive energy of the City Year D. C. team, our prep week got off to a great start. After we left Simon Elementary for the day, we freshened up at the hotel and made a quick trip to Home Depot before heading to dinner at The Ghana Café. Just like the Ethiopian food, this was a great new experience.
The next two days of prep work went by well. We primed all the walls, cut all the wood and sketched all the murals. We also made the occasional after hours Home-Depot and Target trips to pick up extra supplies which unfortunately meant we had to grab fast food for dinner. By the end of the day on Wednesday; we were 100% ready to lead a great T-Mobile huddle up service day.
On Thursday, our team arrived at the school very early to double check and double prepare. We had a final check in before the 90 T-Mobile volunteers arrived and spread out with our team number signs in the gymnasium. The first bus arrived and the volunteers swiftly walked into the gymnasium to find their teams. However, the second bus, with the rest of the volunteers was delayed. So all the City Year Project Coordinators lead team building activities with their group of volunteers until the others arrived. I was skeptical about being able to quickly organize a game of “human knot” with my fifteen volunteers so early in the morning. However, believe it or not, we finished it before any other group and my team really loved it.
After the second bus of volunteers arrived, we began our day of service. The day went by quickly and smoothly. On every Care Force trip I feel as though each hour of a service day flies by so quickly. This trip was no different and my project, the T-Mobile Huddle Up Zone, was completed before I knew it. In addition, by the end of the day we had built benches for an outdoor classroom, painted a large wall mural, created a tile mosaic, painted the Parent Room, enhanced the City Year Room, and made an Oasis Room. The school was completely transformed. At closing ceremony the principle of the school, Dr. Flamer, was visibly moved by the transformation. She was so grateful, in fact, that she had recruited a few of the schools children to make large signs saying “Thank You T-Mobile.” It was a pretty amazing sight to see the obvious gratitude on Dr. Flamers face at the end of the day and I can just imagine she will continue to do great things with the gifts that Care Force and T-Mobile have given the school.
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