New Hampshire - Making Our Way to the Mountain

On January 8^th, we left Rutgers at 8am for a long drive to our destination: Crotched Mountain School in Greenfield, New Hampshire.  On the way up, we bonded listening to mix CDs and eating lunch at a small restaurant in Massachusetts.  We were excited, but none of us really knew what to expect from the week that was to come.

 

               
When we arrived, we had orientation with our contact, Jeanette.  She was eager to make us feel welcome and explained to us everything we needed to know about a typical school day at C.M.  She had assigned each of us to a different classroom of students with mental and physical disabilities.  We were assigned a classroom based on our major and would be volunteering there from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the next five days.

Jeanette told us that by the end of the week, Crotched Mountain would hold a special place in our hearts.  After just one week, those words definitely rang true.

 

            
  On our first night there, we gathered around the table in our common area to discuss our thoughts about the week ahead of us.  Most of us were apprehensive because we didn’t have experience working with children with disabilities, and we wanted to make sure we did the best job possible.  Our site leaders, Nick and Phyllis, assured us that everything would go smoothly. 

The Most Certain Joy in Life: Change (NOLA)

Change. This one word sums up so much of our experience down in New Orleans, Louisiana this past winter break. We were called upon because something needed to change. Some six years have passed since Hurricane Katrina released her deadly grasp on the city yet there is still so much recovery and revitalization to be done. Luckily, with the help of the Alternative Break program and the ever-generous staff at the United Saints Recovery Project, twelve very special individuals had their chance to "be the change they seek to see."

The first work day began with a brief history of the United Saints organization by the founder himself, Daryl Kiesow. Before we were given the chance to choose our project for the day another staff member, Victoria, stepped up to deliver a few words of wisdom. She told us that we may find ourselves getting caught up in the mechanics of the hard work but urged us to remember that "there is a face behind each brush stroke, a person in need of help with no one to turn to but you." Little did I know that these words would be instilled in my mind for the entirety of our week of service.

Our first project was painting the exterior of a Ms. Blanca Fuentes. United Saints site supervisor, Mitch, oversaw our project and started off with a demo about ladder-safety and before we knew it, we were being asked to climb a 25-feet tall ladder. Not everyone tried, and I certainly wasn't going to (heights aren't really "my thing") until Molly stepped up to plate. She came on the trip last year and said she hadn't even tried to make the climb. Mitch had asked, "So what changed from last year?" to which she responded, "2012 is the year I conquer my fears." I was suddenly filled with inspiration and I wasn't the only one - it spread like wildfire and just about everyone ended up climbing up that ladder. Which meant two great things: one, several fears were conquered, and two, we had a ton of people that were able to paint the second floor of Blanca's house!

 

And so our busy days began, we had a long job ahead of us. The front porch had woodwork and needed to be scraped free of any pre-existing paint chips before we could even begin applying the primer. So a group of us set out to scrape away while another began climbing up to the top rung of those ladders to apply primer to the siding. We worked on Blanca's house for the majority of the week, each day getting closer and closer to our goal and learning more and more about each other at the same.

One of the greatest parts about this trip, and more specifically this project, was how we were able to connect with Blanca. She was constantly around, always smiling engaging us in conversation. Blanca even gave us a little taste of her Honduran cooking, not to mention her fantastic homemade lemonade (which reminds me I need to send her a letter and ask for the recipe - it was that good). The magical thing about our experience at Blanca's house is that each and everyone of us had the opportunity to make a connection with her, and most of us did! We heard stories, we saw pictures, we were let into her life with wide open arms and smile I won't ever forget.

Soon it become more than just painting a house. We were helping out a dear friend in need. A friend who lost her oldest son to Katrina and her husband of 45 years to cancer. She was the face behind each brush stroke for each and every one of us. It was this connection that drove us to go above and behind - leading us to pull together and finish painting past our deadline on our very last work day.

Our NOLA Family

The individual successes that we experienced - conquering fears, expanding comfort zones, creating friendships - all contributed to a greater collective triumph. We combined all of our skills (and quirks!) and realized we all had one fantastic thing in common: an urge to give back to our community be it near or far.

Until next time,

Randi

Camp Baker - Photos

Camp Baker- The Baker's Dozen

Pre-Trip Blog

After 5 pre-trip meetings with goofy ice breakers and educational discussions there was still so little we all knew about each other. The night before our trip we decided to have dinner at my house/ a sleep over for the people who lived further away. I was excited to bond with all of the new faces. My first experience with people with mental disabilties was in Texas two summers prior. I had a difficult time dealing with it then, and feared that those feelings would resurface. I found it hard to communicate with those that could not communicate, and had mixed emotions at the time. I was going in with a fresh perspectives, but still a few reservations. I do not know anyone personally with a mental illness, but it is so prevalent that I feel everyone should work with this demographic at some point in his or her life. I find myself learning just as much from them. In the morning we all piled into our two vans, and had a nice quiet ride up- and I say this because our ride back, now that we felt more comfortable, was loud with singing and games.

During Trip

Coming Soon

Post-Trip

I have been given the opportunity to experience another society of people. Not only did I bond with the members of the Camp Baker family, but also my new Alt Break family (literally... we made a family tree...). Alternative Break was an amazing experience and since I returned I have been telling everyone I see that they absolutely have to do it.

Joplin, Missouri - Photos

Rutgers AWB: Restoring Hope in Joplin, MO

To say this trip was a life changing experience is an understatement. Going into the trip, all members shared the same feelings of excitement, nervousness and anticipation. During the pre-trip meetings and dinner we all just knew that we were going to have an amazing time together, and an amazing time is what we had. From the second we stepped on the airport there was an instant bond between the thirteen of us. All of us shared the common notion of ultimately making an impact in someway on this trip. Although upon arriving our expectations of what we were doing on the trip fell short, the outcome was much more than we could all imagine. We stayed in a volunteer house that definitely needed some fixing up in itself. So we spent the week completely restoring this volunteer house from the bottom up. We had a wonderful leader, Scott, who volunteered to guide us in our rebuilding and restoring for the entire week. He told us that after three years this volunteer house would in fact be donated to a family from Joplin in need of a place to call home. Even though we expected to be volunteering in several different houses, we all instantly became attached to this volunteer house and poured our hearts and souls into every detail. Our motivation was making this a beautiful house for future volunteers to enjoy, and with the ultimate end of a deserving family to inhabit it. Every night at reflection, we all shared common feelings and findings during our work. With our big hearts and open minds, we slowly became a family. No matter what task was handed to us, we collectively joined together to turn this house into a home. Every single person on this trip was vital in that they we all individually brought something different to the table. Not once was there a moment where one of us wasn't offering the other help or expressing words of encouragement. When touring the destruction from the tornado we also shared a sense of hope as well as sorrow for the loss of a beautiful city. Regardless, nothing would stray us away from the positive attitudes we all shared. The community of Joplin was resilient, no one would let a tornado and its destruction stand in the way of the love for their community and life. Carrying on their positive morale, the 13 of us always kept "hope" in our hearts and minds. Rutgers Alternative Winter Breaks 2012, Restoring Hope in Joplin, MO: love every single one of you. And thank you all so much for creating endless memories that will never fade, and that will continue on forever.

Always,
Dina

Day 2 - We're Going on an Adventure, to find Mountain Momma

Wake up, brush our teeth, pack our lunches and get out the door. Our second day going to Oak Hills Elementary started off feeling the same as the first, until we reached the parking lot and realized we weren’t quite ready to step out into the thirty-degree weather at nine in the morning. So, after taking our time to get out of the comfortably heated cars, we finally made our way back to the building extension where there was still more painting to be done. We were welcomed on our second day with the same group as Monday; Dave, with a big smile on his face as he tried to remember all of our names, Crash, Daniel, and Dillon, all who seemed to be waking up at the same lagging speed as our group. We also had been accompanied this day by John Flack, a representative from Americorp, who would oversee our progress and the working habits of the SALS employees for the rest of the week. John, being a friendly and insightful West Virginia native, would also be one of our excursion leaders later in the week and a close friend to our Rutgers ASB family.

After the morning introductions, we went to work. Our group had split the same as Monday with half remaining in the warm, insulated, HEATED extension building to continue painting while the rest were sent to the dark, dust filled, and freezing cold elementary school. Upon grabbing our brooms and preparing to sweep the place clean, the Florida International University (FIU) alternative break students accompanied us. Their presence in the school was beneficial in helping to sweep as members of our group began filtering to the warmer extension building to help with painting. Things balanced out and we had a set group in each location. By the end of the day, the painters had put finishing touches on the first and second coat of paint while the sweepers had emptied desk filled rooms and discovered the school’s huge second floor auditorium.

Upon returning back to base camp, our group was eager to adventure, after all, we didn’t come to wild West Virginia to stay in and play charades all day. SALS members had mentioned an old coalmine hidden in the backwoods of Beards Fork and without thinking twice about it we jumped on the road and began walking. Knowing how much mining and coal meant to the WV population, we wanted to get a little taste for ourselves of what the fuss was all about.

We strolled down the holler passing by houses lined up feet apart from each other without a front yard between their doors and the street we walked on. These houses were generational, meaning the families living in them today are descendants of the people who lived in them dating years back. They were built during times of segregation and the community had been cut in half with the first stretch of houses white families and the other black with one mixed couple living ironically on the corner of the streets. Our group approached the fork in the road, we had to determine which way would bring us to the coal mine. By instinct, we continued our hike to the right without any hesitation to our decision.

At the end of the community was a chapel and the road became dirt, seemingly patted down by construction vehicles. We were entering the wilderness of West Virginia. The trail was flat for the first five hundred paces of our trip, but we figured out where WVU got their Moutaineer mascot from very quickly as we began climbing. We finally got the adventure we asked for as we trekked up the uninhabited mountain and crossed over a stream by means of an improvised bridge. The quiet of the mountain was eerie. The only life forms to be found were the hawks gliding above us.

It was clear we weren’t the first to voyage this far along the trail as we came across countless pieces of litter ranging from soda cans, to a mini fridge, to a car. There was a broken down easy-bake oven that was dropped in the brush off the side of the trail deep in the woods. With the day growing later and our stomachs not getting any fuller, we followed good instinct and turned back down the mountain before reaching the coal mine. We briefly caught our breaths and had a photo shoot of the literal “face” of the mountain. We deemed her, “Mountain Momma.”

We returned to the start of the trail in disappointment we couldn’t reach the finish line and see a real coalmine. It was decided that we would hike the trail again leaving ourselves more time. As we retraced our steps down the holler, a tall man exited his house to get a glimpse of our tourist group from his porch. He was nice and told us all about his little community, how he had grown up in the same house all his life and raised his kids likewise. He was proud to mention how his sons had gone to the University, moved out of Beards Fork and made names for themselves in their respective careers. He also wanted to know a good deal about us, but we were too caught up in his story to even speak. Before parting ways with the kind man, we told him how we were frustrated that we didn't reach the coalmine at the end of the path.  To our dismay, he told us our mistake and how to get there.  “You shoulda’ turned left at the fork!” We had a good reflection that night after that long day.

Day 1- Welcome to Oak Hills Elementary!

We awoke with the roosters at the crack of dawn to venture into the unexpected.  It was our first day of work with SALS and none of us had any idea what to expect.  Bag lunches and the seven thirty alarm clocks were going to take some getting used to, but luckily today we were all eager to discover what exactly we would be doing for the next five days.

As we arrived at the work site after a thirty-minute drive, we were greeted by a run-down elementary school, Oakhill Elementary, and our “boss” for the week, Dave.  During the first half of the day we taped and primed a room that is going to become a new health clinic at Oakhill. After our lunch and a nice walk through the snow, yes, SNOW, we were split up into two groups; one group, who stayed and painted the room, and the other group who was going to begin cleaning and sweeping up the left over remains from the vandalized elementary school. Before entering the school everyone seemed a bit anxious, not knowing what was going to be behind those two old school doors. Once we entered and saw the hallways and classrooms in ruins, we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us this week, but also an extensive amount of ground to cover in exploration.

We started in the school cafeteria where the ceiling fell in and coated the floors with debris. The Disney cartoon characters painted on the walls had been smashed in by the vandals. It was saddening to think that children who have spent their school years in the cafeteria laughing and eating lunch, could never come back to cherish those memories because they had been ruined.  We all were intrigued by the remains that seemed to have just been left by the teachers before the school closed down. We found grade books, posters, textbooks, and many belongings from one particular child Alisha Evans; by the end of the day it felt as if we almost knew him.  Meanwhile, the entire room had been painted by the end of the day and was not even recognizable. Together, the twelve of us had made immense progress on the school and the future health clinic.  We also met our SALS crew, Daniel, Andrew (Crash), and Dillon, who we would be working alongside for the entire week. All of us longed to get to know them, hear their stories, and learn the culture of West Virginia through them.

Our first day ended with a charades game against Boston University, which OF COURSE Rutgers beat them! All in all our first day was memorable and already different from anything I had ever experienced in my entire life. I already bonded with each and every one of the people on the trip and we still had a whole week together!