Reflection- 5 Favorite Photos of the Year

By Dan Nemiroff

A collection of my favorite photos from my year of service with Team Care Force:

Here is a great shot of the dirty, sweaty team after our first Care Force event in Riverdale, Illinois. We have come a long way since then, and it has been a pleasure getting to work alongside all of my teammates.

Here is a photo of the T-Mobile Huddle-Up Zone at Westview Elementary School in Miami. This was definitely one of the most challenging projects of the year, but also the most rewarding. I loved being able to help design the room, and take bring some of the students’ own ideas to life.

The December NVIDIA event in San Jose was one of my favorites. Uniting almost 1000 people (including my parents) for a day of service was an amazing accomplishment. I had a great time working with the NVIDIA folks. The picture on the left shows my team and I after finally finishing building a greenhouse at History San Jose, well after the sun went down.

One of the best things about this year has been being able to meet so many great people in different cities across the country. Here’s a picture of a Washington D.C. police officer speaking to some INC. Magazine volunteers before the event at the Boys and Girls Club in Washington D.C.

Reflection - A Typical Week in the Life of a Care Force Senior Corps Member

by Florence Capinding

Projects to be completed for this event: Construct an outdoor classroom, 5 benches, 2 cubbies, and 2 bookcases; Paint 3 classrooms, 3 hallways, 10 canvas murals, 2 outdoor wall murals, and 10 indoor wall murals; Assemble new furniture and new electronics for classrooms.

Day of Travel:

Hour 1 - Arrive at Boston Logan International Airport at 7 am East Coast time. Flight delayed.

Hours 3, 4, & 5 - Crying baby in the plane seat behind me.

Hour 12 - Arrive in a Midwest city at 9 pm central time. Drive to the hotel.

Hour 13 - Go to bed.

Prep Day 1

Hour 1- Wake up at 7 am. Eat breakfast at hotel. Eggs and bacon. I love bacon. Drive to service site.

Hour 2 - Arrive at service site. Service site is old. Faded. Underserved. Care Force circles as a team
and performs a readiness check—Timberland boots. Black or white socks. Pressed pants. Shirt tucked in.
Belt. Nametag. Heart. Mind. Smile. Soul. Can Do Attitude—then we meet the staff at the community center. Staff   thank us for coming. They all have big smiles and are very excited for the work we are going to perform there.

Hour 3 - Tape fixtures and tarp floor so paint will not get on them.

Hour 4 - Unload wood order from Home Depot for our construction projects. 400 pieces of lumber to be exact. Who needs the gym when you can just move pieces of lumber for your day job? Measure wood. Cut wood. Shop for groceries to make lunch for the week.

Hour 5 - Sandwiches for lunch.

Hour 6 - Measure and cut more wood.

Hour 7 - Measure and cut more wood. That’s right. More. I’m thankful for my team. Committed and hard working.

Hour 8- Kids arrive at center. They ask us what we are doing. We tell them we are preparing for a day of service. They smile and go to their afternoon programs.

Hour 10 - We end the day early. We debrief the day. Rose: I love the staff at the community center. Thorn: didn’t finish cutting wood. Drive to hotel.

Hour 11 – Team and I explore the city. Amazing city. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Taco Tuesday. Yum-o. Drive back to hotel.

Hour 15- Go to bed. Tired.

Prep Day 2

Hour 1 - Wake up at 7 am. Eat breakfast at hotel. Eggs and bacon again. But I love bacon so it’s okay. Drive to service site.

Hour 2 - We circle as a team and perform readiness check. Boots. Black or white socks. Pressed pants. Shirt tucked in. Belt. Nametag. Heart. Mind. Smile. Soul. Can Do Attitude.

Hour 3 - Finally cut the 400th piece of wood. Hooray!

Hour 5 - Sandwiches for lunch.

Hour 6 - Start sketching murals on walls. Lots of murals.

Hour 8 - Talk to the youth during their afterschool program. Play a round of kickball with them. Nice kids. Kids’ team beats my team at kickball. We share a glorious round of high-fives.

Hour 9 - Sketch more murals. Some in classrooms, some outside.

Hour 12 - Day ends late. We debrief the day. Rose: Playing games with the kids at the community center. Thorn: no thorns. Dinner at a BBQ restaurant. Baked mac n’ cheese, BBQ tips, and cornbread never tasted so good. Drive to hotel.

Hour 14 - Go to bed. Very tired.

Prep Day 3

Hour 1- Wake up at 7 am. Eat Breakfast at hotel. Don’t they have anything other than eggs and bacon? Oh that’s right. Sausage. Eat eggs and bacon. Drive to service site.

Hour 2 - We circle as a team. Boots. Black or white socks. Pressed pants. Shirt tucked in. Belt. Nametag. Heart. Mind. Smile. Soul. Can Do Attitude. Sketch murals again. This time on canvas.

Hour 4 - Start dividing paint for all the murals.

Hour 5 - Sandwiches for lunch. You can never get tired of sandwiches.

Hour 5.5 - Talk to the Staff at the community center about their programs. Great people. We share stories of running activities with youth. We share laughs about youth running us.

Hour 8 – Sketching complete. We begin sorting tools and materials for the big day tomorrow.

Hour 10 - Youth leave center. Move all 400 pieces of lumber to various locations for the different construction projects tomorrow. Gosh I’m going to have really muscular arms by the end of this year. Team agrees with me. I’m going to have really muscular arms by the end of this year.

Hour 13 - Drive to a department store to shop for furniture and electronics. Eat dinner in the food court inside the store. Salty pretzel hits the spot. We debrief the day. Rose: Everyone’s Can-Do attitude. Thorn: I smell bad. Drive back to hotel.

Hour 16 - Arrive at 11 pm. Go to bed. Exhausted.

Event Day

Hour 1 - Wake up at 5 am. The team and I go to IHOP because the hotel doesn’t start cooking eggs and bacon until 6. I order coffee. Lots of coffee. Drive to service site.

Hour 3 - We circle as a team and perform readiness check. Timberland boots. Black or white socks. Pressed pants. Shirt tucked in. Belt. Nametag. Heart. Mind. Smile. Soul. Can Do Attitude. Finalize moving all the tools/materials/furniture/electronics/paint to their final destination.

Hour 4 - Volunteers arrive at 9am. Greet volunteers. Perform physical training—Front, Side, Back, Side, Front. Jumping Jacks. Foot Fires— and begin a powerful day of service.

Hour 4.5 - Show my team of volunteers to the room they will be remodeling. Paint room.

Hour 6 - Paint 2nd coat.

Hour 7 - Lunch break. Check in with Program Manager, see how other projects are progressing.

Hour 8 - Assemble furniture. Assemble more furniture.

Hour 9 - Volunteers discuss where furniture should go.

Hour 9.25 - Mediate volunteers discussions before it is too late and newly assembled furniture is accidently thrown out the window in a brawl.

Hour 10 - Clean beautiful, newly remodeled room. My team of volunteers and I debrief the day. Some reoccurring roses I hear: “working with co-workers outside an office setting,” “making a difference in the community,” “volunteering can be fun,” “having the chance to get their hands dirty.” Some thorns I hear: “I’m going to be sore in the morning,” “I smell bad,” “I wish I could participate in a event with City Year more often.”

Hour 10.5 - Watch youth enter room and become overwhelmed with joy. More high-fives are shared.Watch staff and community members enter room and become overwhelmed with joy. Watch staff cry from joy.

Hour 11- Say sad Goodbyes to all the wonderful people I have met—community members, youth, my team of volunteers—in a brand new, enchanting city I have never visited before. Clean up any remaining messes around center.

Hour 13 – Dinner at a steak house. I order a salad. Too tired to eat a 16 oz steak. Get in some last minute sightseeing. Drive to hotel.

Hour 16 - Sleep like I’m dead.

Next Day

Hour 1 - Arrive in a Midwest city airport at 8 am central time. Flight delayed.

Hour 3, 4, 5 - Snoring person in the plane seat behind me.

Hour 10 - Arrive at Boston Logan International Airport at 8pm east coast time. Go home to my apartment. Happy, I get to sleep in my own bed.

Next Next Day

Hour 1 - Wake up at 7. Refreshed and rejuvenated.

Hour 2 - Commute to City Year Headquarters of Idealism.

Hour 3 - Begin researching the next event. Excited and with a heart full of grace.

Care Force Stone Soup

Each Wedenesday at City Year's Headquarters of Idealism, everyone in the building is invited to a "Stone Soup Sweet Wednesday" (SSSW) breakfast. City Year corps and staff members from every floor mingle, eat light breakfast foods, and drink coffee. 

The name "Stone Soup" is an allusion to one of City Year's founding stories. The Stone Soup story begins with a traveler, who is tired and weary from a long journey and happens upon a village. After asking several villagers for food and being denied, the traveler starts boiling a pot of water, put a stone in it, and passerbys become interested in the "stone soup." Members of the village begin contributing different ingredients to the soup, and soon there is a feast for a whole village. The story is a great reminder of how powerful it can be to engage and organize resources for everyone to share.

The Stone Soup tradition at HQ was founded in the fall of 2004 by Charlie Rose, Sean McDevitt and a few other dedicated bakers, and was inspired by staff member Philippe Taieb. It is a great community building initiative and a fun way to make connections across departments and teams. Throughout the year, different departments at HQ volunteer to host a SSSW, creating a theme and bringing in food and decorations.

This past Wednesday, April 6th, Care Force sponsored SSSW. We transformed the third floor into Care Force Studios and held live screenings of "Minute to Win It" and "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives." Our very own Program Manager, Ken Wakwe, acted as our host, Guy Fieri. Visitors enjoyed omelets, home fries, corned beef hash, pastries, and fruit kabobs and also took part in sixty-second challenges. It was a great time for everyone involved!

Check out the video below for the live footage of the event!

Preview: Care Force Training Video

You thought you knew how to tape and tarp a room....

You thought you were an expert on ladder safety....

...Until now!

Care Force is proud to present a preview of their first ever Taping and Tarping Training video.

Watch below to see a sneak peek of our final production coming soon!

Care Force Chronicle - New York, NY

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!

The following is a compilation video of a breakfast Care Force hosted on April 14th, 2010. Care Force used this opportunity to bring together everyone in City Year Headquarters using the powerful community atmosphere of Fenway Park.

Care Force Chronicle - Atlanta, GA

Thursday, October 14th, 2009 – Andrew Duffy

Care Force traveled to Atlanta, GA in October for a powerful week of physical service. In the city where “Every Day Is an Opening Day” our week opened with some damp and chilly weather. Representing Team Care Force were Susan Bensen, Kimberly Ferguson, Ken Wakwe and Andrew Duffy, all under the guidance of Project Manager, Hugh Harlow. Our trip was brightened by the addition of Reserves from City Year Miami; Project Leader Erin McCreary and Corps Member Neil Stanga. We were also luckily graced with presence of City Year Boston’s Admissions Manager, Jasmin Jimenez.

The ARAMARK service site for this project was The Atlanta Union Mission. They were chosen as the site for their long history of working with women and children. Established in 1938 as a refuge for homeless and hungry displaced by the Great Depression, the Mission has grown from a single shelter in downtown Atlanta to six facilities across the city. The sites provide emergency food and shelter, residential recovery programs and transitional housing for the residents of Atlanta. The Howell Mill Road Campus provides shelter for 264 women and children while also offering counseling, life skills training, and work therapy. In addition, the Mission runs a thrift store whose profits directly support the Mission’s program. There were two goals for the week, the first being to enhance the interior and exterior appearances. The second goal was to forge a relationship between the center and the local ARAMARK employees to optimize their ability to prepare clients for re-entry into the work place.



Seven projects were planned to help bring new energy to the center through indoor additions and outdoor enhancements. Though Mother Nature tried her best, the volunteers showed tremendous flexibility through inclement weather and were determined to see their day of service through. Team 1 assembled benches and picnic tables to maximize outdoor seating around the barbeque, as well as moving massive piles of mulch and dirt. Team 2 constructed bookshelves and cubbies to provide storage space in the classrooms used for counseling and group meetings. Team 3 built outdoor planter boxes that will be used as part of an outdoor classroom for the women of the shelter. Working at a feverous pace, Team 4 painted three classrooms a vibrant shade of green, along with Team 2’s bookshelves to create more welcoming spaces. Team 5 cleaned out the Mission’s donation closet and then built new storage for the area. Team 6 painted murals for the walls, and Team 7 gave a face lift to the center’s stairwell railings.


Though dampened shirts weighed them down, the spirit of the ARAMARK volunteers remained lifted. The volunteers worked through the weather and tight working spaces to complete all the projects within the allotted time. It is appropriate that the Atlanta Union Mission’s logo depicts a street lamp aglow with light, for the smiles on the clients faces will create a beacon of hope that will reach the darkest of corners throughout the city.

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.