Care Force Chronicle- Washington, D. C.

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. 

Care Force Chronicle-Memphis

 by Florence Capinding


Downtown Memphis.

Partner: ARAMARK

Volunteers: 78

Service Partner: Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association

When: October 10-13, 2010

TCF: Florence Capinding, Dan Nemiroff, Steadman Graves; Project Manager Susan Bensen and Chris Farr

Reserves: Anna Dilernia- City Year Miami Senior Corps Member, Anthony Teague-City Year Miami Senior Corps Member, Lauren Fazah- City Year Headquarters Human Potential Coordinator

On this trip, we had the privilege of working with two reserves from the City Year Miami Team, Anna Dilernia and Anthony Teague, and one reserve from City Year Headquarters, Lauren Fazah. It was very refreshing getting to work with new people and hearing all the great things that are going on at various City Year sites. I think that is one of the things I enjoy most about this job. I have the opportunity to serve with other bright and idealistic individuals from across the United States.  

Lauren Fazah leading ARAMARK
volunteers in constructing picnic tables.

For this week's Care Force Event, we worked with ARAMARK volunteers at the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association. MIFA was founded in 1968 to find a solution for poverty and racial divisions in Memphis. Presently, MIFA engages the community to sustain the independence of seniors, transform the lives of families in crisis, and equip teens for success.  Some of their diverse and powerful programs include - delivering over 2,400 hot lunches to seniors on a daily basis, providing emergency funds for families suffering from an unexpected loss of income, and offering mentoring and life skills for teens in the college application process. MIFA serves over 60,000 individuals annually. ARAMARK volunteers worked in the neighborhood garden and recreation areas.

ARAMARK volunteers painted numerous
playground graphics in the recreation area.

One of my most memorable moments during the preparation week before the big event day was moving 600 pieces of lumber three different times and then measuring and cutting it. You would think this would be exhausting and a waste of time, but our positive can-do attitude made the work seem like it was nothing! And because of our preparation, once the event day finally came the ARAMARK volunteers were able to construct 10 picnic tables, 8 double planter benches, 8 raised planter beds, a sandbox, and a brick pathway for the community garden. I think this was the most construction I've seen on a single event day to date! All the items constructed were placed around MIFA’s housing projects, giving the area a welcoming atmosphere and a sense of community. ARAMARK volunteers also painted playground graphics and 30 panel murals which made the recreation area even more beautiful. It was a very transformative day!

 

Memphis BBQ. Yum.

Outside of work, the team and I gorged on Memphis BBQ. One of the restaurants we ate at was Jim Neely’s Interstate BBQ. They are known for their BBQ spaghetti. On top of ordering spaghetti, we also had BBQ salad, BBQ ribs, BBQ sandwiches, and lots of sweet tea. It was delicious! This Memphis trip will definitely be remembered in my mind.

*Thank you Lauren Fazah for the great photos!

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-Baltimore, MD

by Aundrea Dean

Partner: CSX

Volunteers: 130

Service Partner: Solo Gibbs Park

Where: Baltimore, MD

When: Saturday, October 9, 2010

TCF: Aundrea Dean, Emily Kean, Dylan Morrill, Phillip St. Clair

Reserves: Eric Hopkins, City Year New Hampshire Program Manager for Civic Engagement & Peter Lucke, City Year New Hampshire Senior Corps Member for Civic Engagement

Tuesday, October 5th started off as any normal day in the office for Emily, Dylan, Phillip and me. It was full of printing project descriptions, making color copies, and finishing project coordinator information packets. However, right at noon we left the office with bags in hand, headed to Logan Airport.

Care Force Project Manager,
Huw McDonald and CYNH
Senior Corps member, 
Peter Lucke at Opening
Ceremony.

After a morning of office work, followed by a trip to the airport and on a plane; we arrived in Baltimore, Maryland. And by coincidence, we ran into the Care Force Reserves for the trip: City Year New Hampshire’s Eric Hopkins and Peter Lucke, near the escalators at baggage claim. We all grabbed our bags, jumped on the bus to the car rental terminal, and finally piled into two black mini-vans ready for another great CSX project in a new city!

 
Bright and early, Wednesday morning, the team drove to Solo Gibbs Park in Baltimore’s Sharp-Leadenhall Historic Community to get started on preparing for Saturday’s big event. Upon arrival, it was clear to see that the park is located directly across from the Baltimore Ravens stadium, yet seems to have fallen on harder times. When we arrived we were greeted by Betty Brand Thomas, the President of Solo Gibbs Park. She informed us that the Sharp-Leadenhall neighborhood was one of the oldest African American communities in Baltimore.

She discussed its history, current state, and the plans for Solo Gibbs future. Ms. Thomas described how the community has tried to help the park by donating their own garbage cans, and does their own mini-service projects to enhance the park. Finally, she explained that the city once considered turning the park into a parking lot for the Baltimore Ravens stadium. Betty made it clear that this collaboration with CSX to refurbish this park was very important in helping bring some positive attention and awareness to Solo Gibbs Park.

CSX Volunteer adds
handprint to  Historic
Sharp-Leadenhall mural.

After the discussion with Ms. Thomas, Care Force 1, our intermodal tool container, arrived and the prep team was ready to get started. The entire team unloaded the wood from the Home Depot order, then divided up the tasks and began. Emily and Dylan cut and measured all of the wood, Peter marked spots in that park that needed to be landscaped, while Huw, Eric, and I walked through the park strategically deciding which benches needed to be repaired the most. Wednesday was a short prep day ending around 5 p.m. Thursday we arrived at the site bright and early once again and immediately began working. Emily and Dylan constructed one of the backed benches that she would be leading her volunteers through. Eric, Phil and I began taking apart one of the benches that I would be leading my volunteers through reconstructing. We figured out how many pieces of wood, nails, nuts and bolts it would take to rebuild the benches reusing the old metal frames currently in place. It all sounds easy but working with rusted nails, nuts and bolts made it a lot more difficult!

On the final day of prep, we arrived and a reporter from the local newspaper was on site ready to take pictures of the day of service. Even though he was a day early he allowed Emily to have a photo shoot with her bench. Then, the entire team worked on scrapping the paint off of the tennis court wall preparing for it to be sketched that night. The team ran a few errands, practiced for our opening ceremony, and again called it an early evening. Although it was an early evening we returned that night to sketch the murals on the tennis court walls.

Saturday, October 9, 2010, the Care Force team arrived at Solo Gibbs Park at 6 a.m. finishing up all the last preparation for the service event. Around 7:30a.m. the park began filling up with CSX volunteers, students from the U.S. Naval Academy, neighborhood adults and children, and volunteers from the Baltimore Ravens. Physical training, also know as P.T. kicked off opening ceremony. Once everyone was wide awake from P.T., service began. Emily led her team through the successful completion of building and staining seven benches and four picnic tables. Dylan and Peter guided their teams through landscaping and tree planting projects across the park. Phil directed his team in completing two large wall murals and Eric assisted his team in reconstructing the baseball field. Finally, my team was able to successfully refurbish eight of the original metal benches throughout the park. Overall the team was able to complete all of the tasks that we set out to be accomplished. Betty Brand Thomas was happy, the community members were excited, and most importantly the CSX workers enjoyed their day of volunteering.