CSX Leadership Project

Team Care Force is proud of our partnership with CSX and always enjoys the physical service and tree planting projects we perform with their employees. However, these service events are only one part of CSX’s commitment to City Year. As a National Leadership Sponsor, CSX funds 13 teams of City Year corps members working at sites across the country (Including TCF!). Additionally, CSX supports City Year winter and spring school vacation camps and acts as City Year’s Lead Safety Partner promoting safe practices and providing safety training programs including First Aid and CPR.

And that is not all…

This year, partnering with City Year, CSX brought together employees from different divisions of the company to provide over 7,000 youth with school supplies that they need to stay in school and on track to graduate. CSX is truly committed to working with City Year to help make communities more beautiful as well as improve the lives of children in schools.

Watch this great video below to learn more about the CSX Leadership Project that brought so much joy and valuable resources to schools in which City Year serves!

Care Force Chronicle- Washington, D.C.

CSX Volunteers participating in Physical Training (PT) 

By Aundrea Dean

Partner: CSX

Volunteers: 50

Service Partner: Anacostia Watershed Society
When: March 22-25, 2011

TCF: Aundrea Dean; Project Manager Hugh Harlow

Reserves: City Year Washington D.C. Corps Members: Craig Tinker, Peter Christophersen, Whitney Parnell, and Michael DeAugustinis

After working six and a half hours in the office on April 7, 2011, Hugh Harlow, a Project Manager for City Year’s Team Care Force walked over to my desk and says “Dean, it’s time to go!” I quickly changed out of my uniform and I was ready to go. So I thought. I forgot to pack another pair of shoes. Normally this would not have been an issue; I could just wear my Timberland boots. But this trip we were going to dinner with Tori Kaplan, the Director of Corporate Citizenship at CSX. Great, just my luck!

We decided I would buy a new pair of shoes once we got to Washington D.C. we gathered our stuff and head to the airport. Our plane departed the Logan Airport around 7 p.m. Because we were stuck flying behind a slow moving jet and abnormally high winds, what should have only been an hour flight to Washington D.C. turned out to be an hour and a half. This trip started off on a great foot.

CSX Volunteers clearing trash along the Anacostia River

Once we landed, gathered our things from baggage claim, and rented the car, we met up with Hugh’s sister, Magueritte, for dinner. It was nice being able to meet Hugh’s sister and hear all of the embarrassing childhood stories she was willing to share.

Friday April 8th, Hugh and I arrived at the City Year D.C. office to pick up Craig Tinker, Peter Christophersen, Whitney Parnell, and Michael DeAugustinis; City Year Corps Members that were assisting us with the event. We drove to Bladensburg Waterfront Park where we met with Eric Sibley from the Anacostia Watershed Society.

Eric enlightened our team about the importance of having the CSX volunteers participate in the river cleanup as part of the Earth Day Celebration. The Anacostia River has been polluted with sewage, storm water runoff, and litter for decades. The Anacostia Watershed Society continues to host events such as these and partakes in other initiatives with the purpose of restoring the Anacostia River and its watershed communities. Eric explained that service events such as this promotes awareness of the rivers issues and continues to build local support.



CSX Volunteers hard at work cleaning up the river



Saturday April 9th at 7:45 a.m. CSX employees from the surrounding D.C., Maryland, and Virginia areas begin arriving to participate in the river cleanup. At 8:30a.m. more than 50 CSX workers participated in City Year’s Opening Ceremony and began service. The volunteers were divided into three teams along the riverside. Two teams covered the farthest east and west’s points and one team in between. Equipped with safety goggles, gloves, and plenty of trash bags volunteers walked up and down the watershed collecting as much trash and recyclables as possible; many of them even went into the water to pickup trash.

After several hours of cleaning up the trash and debris from the river, volunteers were able to clearly see the results of their labor. Hundreds of full bags of trash were collected and removed from the river, making this a successful event. Feeling very satisfied with the work they just completed the volunteers were able to enjoy live music and grilled food as a part of the Earth Day Celebration the Anacostia Watershed Society was hosting at Bladensburg Waterfront Park.

The trip started off a little rocky for me, between forgotten shoes, a slow airplane, and a long work day. However, the trip was an overall success because the volunteers enjoyed themselves, the project was transformative, and Tori had fun!



Care Force Chronicle- Charleston, SC

By Florence Capinding

Partner: CSX
Volunteers: 38
Service Partner: Alliance for Community Trees
When: February 25-26
TCF: Phillip St Clair, Georgia Lawrence, Florence Capinding; Project Manager Huw McDonald

This was our first CSX trip for the year 2011. Although the event took place in late February, the weather in Charleston, South Carolina was just perfect!

This trip was a Trees for Tracks event with CSX. On our preparation day, Huw, Georgia, Phill, and I met Mike Sanders, the North Charleston arborist. He walked us through the planting site area and showed us where the various trees would go. He was just as ready for service as we were and it was inspiring!

On the day of the event, the CSX volunteers received a tree planting demonstration from Mike and from Leland Milstein, a Program Director from the Alliance for Community Trees. The CSX volunteers worked hard, planted 50 trees and laid pine straw around the trees in less than two hours. At the end of the event one of the volunteers stated:

“What a great way to get involved with the community. We even received immediate feedback when a community member stopped their vehicle and said thank you.”

Overall, it was a beautiful day to be outdoors working with co-workers, family, and friends. And I know the trees will also be beautiful when they grow.

After the CSX service event, we had the unique opportunity to go back to a Salvation Army where we completed a service event back in December. We saw that all of our projects—gym murals, mural benches, playground swing set, and rain garden—were still in great condition! The youth really utilized everything we had completed for them. Seeing the sustainability of our projects overwhelmed me with pride and joy.

Directly after visiting the Salvation army, we went straight to the airport. When we left Charleston, it was sunny and 68 degrees. In Boston the temperature was in the low 30s and it was beginning to snow. And even though I am not too fond of cold weather and snow, I know winter will soon be over, and with spring, Team Care Force will be blooming with service events and completing projects that will last for years to come. I can’t wait!

CSX Trees for Tracks volunteers in Charleston, SC.

Care Force Chronicle- Savannah, GA

By Aundrea Dean

Partner: CSX

Volunteers: 56

Service Partner: Savannah Tree Foundation

When: November 12- 13, 2010
TCF: Aundrea Dean, Emily Kean, Dan Nemiroff; Project Manager Christopher Farr

At 8:30a.m. Dan, Emily and I strolled into City Year headquarters with our overnight bags; besides the three of us and our Program Manager Ken Wakwe, the office was empty. The office was really quiet because the rest of the team was in Charleston, South Carolina. All week we had been working on information sheets for upcoming trips in Miami and San Jose. After finishing up the work that we started earlier in the week, Ken informed us that we would be able to leave at lunch to travel to the airport early for our 2 p.m. flight. As time was growing near for us to leave Emily realized that she left her ID at home, from this we should have known that this trip would be anything but ordinary for us!

Even though she left her ID at home, Emily made it to the airport on time; and Dan, Emily, and I were on our way to Savannah, GA. We arrived in Savannah around 7 p.m. and Chris, the Project Manager for the trip, was patiently awaiting our arrival. Once we all settled into our room we went out for a nice dinner at a local restaurant in Savannah’s Downtown Historic District. Over dinner we discussed everything that needed to be accomplished during Friday’s prep.



CSX volunteers breaking up the
roots before planting the tree.

The next morning, Friday November 12, everyone was up, dressed, had finished eating breakfast and was ready for first circle by 8:30 a.m.. For Emily, Dan, and I this was our first Trees for Tracks event with CSX. I was nervous and did not exactly know what was in store for us and knowing that we only had one day to prepare everything for the service event was a little nerve wracking. However, all my fears and worries went away once we arrived at Bazemore Park and Dee Mckoy-Hunter and her team met us. Her team had already unloaded the trees, pre-dug the holes for the trees, and the soil was on site. The only thing we needed to do, or so we thought was to move the trees to their designated planting areas and go through Chris’ extensive training on Care Force 1, our intermodal container. After moving trees across the park it was brought to our attention that the soil was too far from the tree planting area. Now we had to figure out the most efficient way to move ALL the soil to the trees- it was three huge mountains of soil. So as we were shoveling the soil into the back of a pick up that the park let us use, one of the park workers informed us that they had a Caterpillar Backhoe. The worker used the Caterpillar to start helping us move the soil while we loaded and unloaded 3 truck loads of soil. It took us at least three hours just to load and unload the truck. However, we enjoyed being able to ride back and forth in the back of the truck and hearing Dan speak Spanish with the park worker. Finally, there was a lesson to be learned, never assume anything or that a day will be easy or short on a Care Force trip!
After the crazy adventure with the soil and being saved by the guy with the Caterpillar; we were able to get started on our extensive lesson on Care Force 1. Care Force 1 is what we like to describe as our “home Depot on wheels” which was donated by our team sponsor, CSX. We spent hours going over ratchet straps, safety and other logistical things necessary to successfully and safely load and unload Care Force 1.



CSX Volunteers planting trees.

The following morning Saturday, November 13, the Care Force team and Savannah Tree Foundation volunteers met up at Bazemore Park around 6:20 a.m. in preparation for the CSX volunteers, to arrive around 7:30a.m. We set out the registration materials, welcome signs for CSX and the tools necessary for planting trees. Around 8 a.m. Dan, Emily and I grabbed our team signs and began gathering CSX volunteers to do Physical Training to get our powerful day of service started. After P.T. we heard from the Garden City Mayor, Tennyson Holder, as well as a speaker from CSX and from the Savannah Tree Foundation. Following their brief speeches, Chris did a quick logistical and safety overview and the work began.



Trees planted along pathway.

Each team started with tree planting demonstrations; Emily and Dan ran theirs while Patrick Grant, from the Savannah Tree foundation, led the example for my group since I had the largest team. Within the first forty-five minutes Emily’s team was able to plant all 17 of their trees. Her team began helping my team gather soil, planting, and watering trees. All 80 of the trees were planted, staked, and watered. The volunteers also moved and organized all of the materials to Care Force 1. Chris concluded the morning by allowing everyone that spoke in the morning to thank the volunteers for their participation in the day’s events; and showed them to the lunch area. Our team loaded the tools on to Care Force 1 and cleaned up the registration area. To conclude a perfect service day, as soon as we closed the doors to lock the container the driver pulled up to haul it away to the next service site.

We quickly made our way back to the hotel to get cleaned up and ready to head to the airport. By 5p.m. Chris, Emily and I were arrived in Boston and Dan was making his way to Miami to begin another event.

CSX Video- Baltimore, MD

Check out this video from the CSX Beyond Our Rails website about the Care Force project in Baltimore, MD!

Care Force Chronicle - Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia, PA – Saturday, September 26, 2009 – Susan Bensen

The trip began on an average Thursday in Philadelphia, but this event was not going to be an ordinary CSX service day because this event would mark the start of the CSX Trees for Tracks campaign! The goal of CSX’s Trees for Tracks is to plant one tree for every mile of train-track that CSX operates on over the next five years. “CSX is committed to making a positive impact on the communities in which we live and do business” said Tori Kaplan, CSX Director of Corporate Citizenship. "Not only does planting trees improve air quality and offset carbon emissions, but trees act as noise buffers, provide healthy homes for wildlife and add beauty to our world." Now before you get out your tape measures and calculators – I will save you the time and tell you, that will be a total of over 21,000 trees!

The resting ground of the first batch of trees was in the downtown area of Philadelphia at the Greenfield Elementary School. The school has been going through a three-year greening renovation and these 26 trees would be the final piece to the project. The staffing of the event included Senior Corps Members, Susan Bensen and Kimberly Ferguson and Project Managers, Hugh Harlow and Chris Farr.

Due to the nature of Trees for Tracks events – a brand new project and an overall new experience for everyone involved – prep included a lot of discovery. But even with all the new changes, Kimberly, Susan and Hugh had time than to see the sights that Philadelphia has to offer. They enjoyed Susan’s wealth of knowledge of Philadelphia as she had served her corps year in Philadelphia. They were also lucky enough to experience a true Philly classic at the place where “Cheese Steaks” were created, Pat’s King of Steaks, in south Philadelphia. Afterwards it was back to the service site to sort out all the different components and tools for a Trees for Tracks event. Even though there was only one day of prep – we were still busy.

The event day came fast and early for Team Care Force. The team departed from the Holiday Inn at 6:50 a.m. to reach the service site. There were a total of 79 CSX and community volunteers in attendance and after a quick breakfast and opening ceremony - they were off to service. The 26 trees were being planted in a forest-like patch – so all volunteers were able to serve in one centralized location. One team started on the left side and the other team started on the right side and planted the trees till they met in the middle. After a total of 44 hours and 26 trees planted later, the first ever CSX Trees for Tracks event was completed. The team wished farewell to the city of brotherly love and headed back to Boston that afternoon.