Things are going really well here. Thursday and Friday I was in training for most of the day. The training was really varied, and covered things like the rules and policies of AmeriCorps and this campus, van driving safety, equal opportunity, the culture of disaster relief and the opportunities we have to earn awards for our service. It was a long time to be in a classroom setting, but everything I learned was interesting and important, and the presenters tried to go through it as quickly as possible. Thursday and Friday I rotated through another temporary team: Fire 2, led by Arthur. He helped me shorten the AmeriCorps issue belt that used to wrap around me twice, and he took our team to Chipotle for bonding time. It was really nice! For the next few days, I'll be on Fire 3 led by Christine. It's a lot nicer than I thought it would be to rotate through these temporary teams. I thought it would be a little stressful, but it actually makes things easier. It gives me a chance to focus my attentions on getting to know one small group of people at a time instead of everybody at once.
On Thursday a lot of us gathered in the lobby of the residence hall to watch the vice presidential debate. So many of us are first time voters! It's really exciting. Last night, I got my first mail at my new address from my mom and Andrea Ferrier. It made me so happy. Thank you, guys! Also last night, we all had the chance to carve pumpkins together. I shared one with some friends, and it turned out pretty awesome.
From left: me, Chelsie, Reggie, our awesome pumpkin, random photobomber, Roxanne.
All the pumpkins outside Walsh the next morning.
NCCC requires that Corps members complete 80 hours of independent service projects (ISP's). This doesn't mean they have to be projects you do completely alone, instead they are just projects that you have to choose, initiate or give up personal time for. Today I got to do my first ISP!
Other AmeriCorps members and I went and helped prepare Washington Park for winter. It is a beautiful park with many flower beds... they've won awards from the city of Denver! The group that maintains the park needed help pulling out the dead annuals and then spading the soil of the beds so that water and air can get in and it will be easy to plant new flowers next spring.
It felt good to get my uniform dirty for the first time, and be outside after a long week of indoor training! All the people we interacted with were very nice. Many people from the community came out to help, I even saw some children and a woman with an oxygen tank. We also saw people just out enjoying the park with their families, dogs or bikes. It feels good to know that it is such a popular place and the work we did will help people continue to enjoy it.
When we were headed back to our vans, the head honcho of the Southwest Region campus, Ken Goodson, made a surprise visit. He and his daughter brought us homemade, warm chocolate chip cookies. It made us feel so appreciated!
There were tons of geese at the park! Chris, remember when we went on a "wild goose chase" at Charlton? They made me think of you! :) I didn't chase any though!
Here's what part of the park looked like before we began. It was too big to get a picture of the whole thing! I can tell that it must be gorgeous in the spring and summer. I hope we can come back and help again.
Everybody hard at work.
Some of the people I got to work with for the day.
Tonight I'm exploring downtown Denver with friends and tomorrow I get to hike for the first time in the Rockies! I'm so excited. Hopefully I'll have lots of great pictures to post!
Love,
Rachel
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