Social Butterfly

I won’t lie to you: AmeriCorps NCCC is hard. I mean, like, really hard. Waking up at the crack of dawn – tough. Physically working nonstop (save a 30 minute lunch break) for eight hours straight – tougher. Doing an hour of physical training, cooking for a team of eight, an hour long team meeting, kitchen clean-up, then room inspections – really tough. Doing all of these in one day – you’re joking, right?

Team Dressed in Ameri-Tux for Memorial Day

Needless to say, our days are full… to the brim. On any given day, Maple 4 spends at least nine hours together. Nine hours. For the past five months, at least one third of my time has been spent with a group of eight people I just met five months ago. Kind of a short time, considering I had gone to school with 140 of my high school graduating class of 150 since first grade.

I am going to deviate for a second. When we first entered the corps, we took an assessment called the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment. Theoretically, this “test” is supposed to tell you what kind of person you are so that you have a better idea of how you react to a given situation, leading you to think more about how you interact with your team. I am labeled as an Introverted Judge, meaning I recharge spiritually alone and I like everything to be organized and orderly.

So, spending nine hours a day with a group of people I basically just met and doing a job that changes every day doesn’t exactly sound like fun, right?

WRONG

The Team with Site Supervisor, Brian, at Vinton’s ‘Party in the Park’

I love my team. The two to three hours of down time I have before I go to sleep or the free weekends I have are the most boring hours of my life. When I’m not doing something with my team, I am thinking of different PT ideas or things to talk about or fun stuff we could do together. On weekends that we’re not out and about or doing ISPs, my skin crawls, I get cabin fever, I get restless. It doesn’t matter what you call it, I just know that the next time I see a teammate, I am going to have fun.

I love the nature of NCCC work. The rapid changes in jobs keeps me from getting bored. I don’t just paint walls. I scrape, paint, chainsaw, handsaw, dig, chop, pull, shovel, fill, dump, drive, lift, drop, cut, bury, plant, and climb.

“In our world, every storm has an end. Every night brings a new day. What's important is to trust those you love, and never give up. We must never give up hope!”

A priestess from Chrono Trigger tells us that with our team, there is only a brighter tomorrow.

~Phil

Greg’s Secret Fried Chicken Recipe

Greg tastes victory.












Once a week a cooking team of two members from Maple 4 has to cook dinner for the team. I love to cook fried chicken, it’s one of my favorite dishes. Our team eats it a lot when I cook. Our team leader, Darcy, goes grocery shopping for the team once every week. She asks for our recipes to be in by Saturday night, since she goes grocery shopping on Sundays. When I cook Fried Chicken the ingredients I ask for are: Flour, Chicken Breast, Vegetable Oil, and Accent Seasoning. My cooking partner Christina is a vegetarian so she handles the vegetarian part of the meals; we usually have veggie burgers or mac and cheese and a vegetable for the vegetarians. The meat eaters love my chicken and usually want more than one chicken breast. Once I get done cooking the chicken I have to clean up my mess since vegetable oil pops and splatters everywhere.

To cook my Fried chicken:
1. Clean the chicken
2. Season the chicken with accent seasoning and seasoning salt
3. Put chicken in flour
4. Fill a frying pan with vegetable oil
5. Throw the chicken in the frying pan on medium heat
6. Cook chicken for 45 minutes, flipping occasionally
7. Take chicken out of the pan and you have a delicious meal

~Gregory

Freshly Painted Hummel Shelter

The team finished with the Vinton community pool in time for its Memorial weekend opening. After this we moved to working at the Hummel shelter. The Hummel shelter was named after a veteran in Iowa that had passed away in the 60s. The Hummel shelter has different kinds of stuff going on there; people are able to rent it out for different events like weddings, parties, or school activities. There is a fake snake in the ceiling on the inside of the shelter to keep out birds.

Greg & Sam

We started on the shelter by pulling out all the tables on the inside near the windows. Before painting it we power-washed it inside and out and scraped paint. The Hummel shelter was all black but we painted it white. While some people were painting the walls on the inside others were pulling out weeds in flower beds around the shelter. Inside the shelter, there were eight picnic tables that we also painted.

After we painted the inside, everyone on the team painted the outside. It looks real nice. There was a birthday party there this past weekend. The people really liked the way the Hummel shelter looks.

Take risks
~Drew

Serving Around the Community: ISPs

Independent Service Projects (ISPs) are a way for all AmeriCorps NCCC members to find outside non-profit organizations to volunteer with. This has been a good way for our team to get more involved with other things going on in the community we are serving in. It gives us a chance to take a break from our main project that we are doing, forty hours a week, to do something a bit different.

Each AmeriCorps NCCC member must complete 80 ISP hours to graduate. This means that some weeks as an NCCC member you could be working up to 50-60 hours just with your direct project and ISPs hours combined.

These are some examples of ISPs we have done so far since being in AmeriCorps NCCC:
*March for Dimes (http://www.marchofdimes.com/) -All of our team worked at this event as race monitors. This required us to stand in various sections of the race and direct participants on where to go.

Drew, Diana and Gaby at Run for Shelter

*Run for Shelter (http://runforsheltercincy.org/)- This event was a 5k race and carnival. Our team was broken up into different groups and placed at different areas of the race. We helped pass out water to runners throughout the race in these different locations. After the race was over, our team got to help with a massive Easter egg hunt.

Adam from another AmeriCorps NCCC team and Phil as mascots for Tanager Place Summer Fest

*Tanager Place Summer Fest (http://www.tanagerplace.org/)-This was a event put on by Tanager Place to help raise funds for their program. It was a huge children’s festival filled games, blow up floats, hot air balloons and mascots. Team members got to volunteer with this by helping dress up as mascots and walking around the park passing out fruit snacks. We also got to help at the children's cereal tent give all guests free boxes for them to make their own cereal from various ingredients all donated by the General Mills factory located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

*Relay for Life (http://www.relayforlife.org/)- During this event, we were able to help set up various decorations around the Relay track field. Luminaries were displayed by our team around the field in memory of cancer patients. After these were set up, it was also our job to light each candle. We then helped with face painting, root beer floats and general clean up after the event ended.

*Cedar Valley Humane Society (http://www.cvhumane.org/)- This is a local organization that our team got to volunteer with this round. After a brief training of the facility, our team got to take out many of the dogs and run around with them outside. This was a great team morale booster.

These are just some of the ISPs our team has gotten to volunteer with so far. We have many more planned for the coming months and are well on our way to completing our 80 needed to graduate. As of the end of May, our team has done a total of 282 ISP hours. We will be sure to keep you updated as this number gets higher and higher.

~Gaby

Riding on Campus With Sam

Maple 4 is in Vinton for their second round project which means we are staying on the North Central Region campus at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. We were happy to hear we were getting a chance to stay in Vinton. Since there are only three teams on campus, each member of our team gets our own room and some personal space.

There are three main buildings on campus that serve as dormitories now for all AmeriCorps NCCC members throughout the term. The buildings are called Cottage, Palmer and Rice. The campus also has a very large gym that we can use for PT, an indoor pool, a track field and a playground.

Map of North Central Region Campus

Each building has two or three public lounges that people can hang out in and watch TV. The TVs are very nice flat screens. Palmer has wireless internet. Rice is closest to the gym, and Cottage has small rooms for quiet reading. In front of Palmer, there are also bicycles that are free for members to use. I like to bike between buildings and to places in Vinton.

Each team shares a kitchen with other teams. Maple teams 2, 3, and 4 share a kitchen on the first floor of Cottage. Maple teams 5, 6, and 7 share the kitchen on the second floor. The kitchens are very large with two stoves, three microwaves, three fridges and lots of cabinets. Maple 2 and 3 are not on campus so we get to use their kitchen space. It is very nice.

Every building has free laundry. You have to use your own soap, but we don't need any quarters.

The big building in the middle of campus is called Main. That is where the braille school staff works and where some blind or sight-impaired kids live. Sometimes we use their auditorium for our community meetings.

That is all.

~Sam

Uniforms Fit like a Glove

Howdy everybody! This is Diana. I'm here to talk about UNIFORMS!

Phil, Christina, Hillary and Diana model their uniforms (above)

I figure a couple of you out there are thinking “Uniforms? I want to know the exciting and interesting bits about AmeriCorps.” Truth is, one of the things I most anticipated when I got accepted was the uniform. I've never had to wear one, other than in high school choir and during a summer job, so I don't see it as a chore, but as something more exciting.

To me a uniform is tangible evidence that I have somewhere to belong. It shows that I am a part of something larger then myself, that this organization is proud to have me be a part of it and wants people to know that I'm representing them. The clothing is well made, and shows me that AmeriCorps NCCC cares that I'm protected in any situations they can foresee me getting into.

Greg posing on his throne wearing coveralls (above)

Here's a quick rundown of what we get, the majority of which we get to keep when we finish serving.
· 2 pairs of Khaki BDU slacks 1 pair of black BDU slacks
· 2 pairs of Khaki BDU shorts 2 gray long sleeve shirts
· 4 gray short sleeve shirts 1 gray sweatshirt
· 1 white polo 1 gray rugby
· 1 black adjustable belt 1 black fleece vest
· 1 gator 1 black beanie
· 1 tan fisherman's cap 1 pair steel-toed boots
· 1 pair of leather work gloves 1 reflector belt
· 1 set of safety goggles 1 set of earplugs
· The things we are issued, and have to return at the end of our term are:
· 1 winter coat 1 set of coveralls
· 1 hardhat 1 red pack for traveling
· A couple things we can get if we need them are things like rain gear and rain boots. We're issued PPE, which stands for Personal Protective Equipment that includes things like gloves, safety goggles, our helmet, earplugs, a reflector belt, and our steel-toed boots.

On a normal work day I wear one of the t-shirts and a pair of khaki pants or shorts, along with my black belt and steel-toed boots. This is our basic work uniform, which we wear everyday at work.

We also have something we call the AmeriTux which consists of the black BDUs, white polo, belt and steel-toed boots. We wear it to debriefings and special occasions, like during our Induction. I think our AmeriTux will be the last AmeriCorps NCCC uniform we'll wear, during graduation. It'll be an adventure getting there, that's for sure.

~Diana

Our Skate On

A perk of working for the Parks and Rec. Department are the free tickets to the Skate and Activity Center. Of course we had to pay our dues by cleaning off some roller skates and buffing the rink first.

Greg, Drew, Phil and Sam

Drew cleaning the floor

Later that night it was on like Donkey Kong. I have to give it up to Maple 4 for going out of their comfort zone. Most of the team hadn't been skating in years... or ever. So it was a big deal for the team to get out there and give it their all.

Then of course there is the M4 Dance Crew breaking it down—even during the threat of an imminent fall. That's dedication, people.

Team bonding just warms my heart.

~Darcy