Camp Ohiyesa!

Whew. Long time no see. I had originally had a long post ready as soon as we were leaving for our first project, but my phone decided to be mean and delete the whole thing! Needless to say I was a little discouraged from posting for a while.

Besides, it's easier putting pictures on here with neat tiny font underneath it.

We've officially have been at our first project for the past  week and a half and it has been a blast! Oak 3 (our team name) is currently stationed back in the good ole' mitten in Holly, Michigan. I've already gotten jokes about how our team came to Holly because I'm the only Holly around in the Vinton campus. We are the YMCA Camp Ohiyesa (pronounced oh-e-yesa) working on a variety of projects.

So far we've been trained to work with kids for the camp programs and activities, stuff such as the rock climbing tower, archery, and the zipline to name a few. There's also a giant swing that completely terrified me, because you have to go through the activities to learn how to work them, and I had to learn to deal with going up heights very slowly.

And then letting go of the ripcord!

Besides kids, we've also been working with the maintenance staff for the camp grounds. So far I've learned how to split a log, use a chainsaw and drive an ATV. I can't even imagine my mom's reaction to the chainsaw. I really liked splitting wood...right until I bruised my hand and couldn't do it anymore.

Corps Training Mini-Project

Tomorrow our team will be doing a three day mini-project after physical training to simulate how the next nine months are gonna be with our real 4-8 week projects.

I'm excited for sure, because we'll be working on our current campus to repair and renew the building that has been so graciously letting us stay here.
Of course in terms of timing, having a super awful cough doesn't really help. I hope it goes away but chances are I have a feeling I'll be outside working with a cold. Lame.

On top of our mini-project, each person has an individual role in the group that either spreads the word about Americorps or helps find sponsors for new projects. My role is media representative...so I'll be blogging on top of this while getting to talk to reporters or doing any other outlet of media you could possibly think of.


As for tomorrow, I believe we're doing some landscaping and painting inside the building. I know some other groups got mini-project trips that were farther so they had to stay there...I am a little sad we're staying on campus for this one, but hopefully that means our real first project will be far away.


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Independent Service Projects

It's been a while and here's the latest.

Aside from main projects that last four-six weeks, we're required to volunteer on our own time. The goal is to reach 80 hours of ISP's and I've gotten a head start!

I just got done helping out at a hands-on science museum, nothing fancy just yet....just some data entry and helping packaging their magazines for public schools all over Iowa. But they are getting ready for the summer series of classes, so that'll be fun to help out with between main projects.

Speaking of projects, our team is going on a mini three day project next week as a part of training. We won't know what we're doing til a few days from now. I can't wait!

I leave you with a few pictures from the science station today. Til' then!
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