Friday February 15th
About 20 Americorps teams from the gulf region traveled back to the New Orleans area to work with NBA cares, Hands On New Orleans, Habitat, Kaboom! and other community groups for a day of Service. The NBA Cares group consisted of about 2,500 players, former players, family, friends, media, celebrities, CEO’s and other ridiculously rich people. Everyone was split up into different groups and we worked at ten different sites building homes and playgrounds, revitalizing schools, and refurbishing neighborhoods. My team worked at the Capadu School repainting the inside of the school, laying down sod to create a football field, putting up basketball hoops, mulching the playground and surrounding area, and building tetherball poles. We worked about an eleven hour day, got a lot done and got to work with: Yao Ming, Rasheed Wallace. Joe Johnson, Gerald Green, Tim Hardaway, Detlef Schrempf, Karl Malone, Lenny Wilkins, Peja Stojakovic, Richard Hamilton, Dikembe Mutombo, “Big” Bob Lanier, Byron Scott the Head Coach of the Hornets and West All Star Team, Will Smith from the New Orleans Saints, WNBA players; Temeka Johnson and Ruthie Bolton, Taylor Hicks from American Idol, and actors; Jet Li and Seth Gilliam. Just to name a few. Haha. There are pictures on:
http://www.nba.com/gallery/NBADayofService/021508_1.html
http://www.nola.com/hornets/photos/
Some highlights of the day were definitely my teammate Geoff teaching Yao Ming, Jet Li, Rasheed Wallace and Will Smith how to lay down sod (and seeing a grass field in the middle of a city), watching Yao Ming reach the ceiling while painting next to people on ladders, bashing cement blocks with sledge hammers, and working alongside a lot of people I might normally never get the chance to talk to.
I had a lot of doubt in the NBA from past experiences that the players would only come for the photo opportunity and wouldn’t do a lot of work, but to my surprise they were extremely hard workers and willing to get just as dirty as everyone else. Some of the players even asked the media to stop bugging them so they could get more work done.
To add to my 15 hours of fame, the night before, Anderson Cooper filmed his Anderson Cooper 360* show LIVE at Camp Hope. All the Americorps teams that traveled to New Orleans for Day of Service got to be the back drop for his show. We were able to take pictures and talk with him before and after the show and during commercial breaks. He has been doing a lot of work to help keep the Gulf Coast Recovery in the public’s mind and getting people to volunteer their time and money to the cause. Even though he will never read this, I just wanted to say Thanks!
Monday, February 18, 2008
The Cube
It has been a little over a week and the cube has been by far one of my favorite experiences ever. I have got to do construction at three houses, the Bakers, the Browns, and now the Deadeux’s home. The Bakers house was a new build but the other two were pre-existing. Our camp has joined up with the Mennonites and made a deal to build 16 new houses from the ground up from December till March. The Browns had lost their roof during the hurricane and the entire house had to be stripped down to the frame because of wind and water damage. It was originally a one story house but the attic has been extended so there can be another family type room and a spare bedroom with a ½ bath. Geoff and I learned how to dry wall / sheet rock at our first house (the Bakers) and have since sharpened our skills. We took over the task of sheet rocking the 2nd level of the Browns and have been slowly learning how to train other volunteers and will hopefully start to be site supervisors soon.
We started working on the Deadeux home in Gulf Port today. The neighborhood wasn’t hit too hard by the hurricane (compared to other neighborhoods) but the winds were strong enough to knock over two trees, both falling into the house. The owner is a younger man who is currently living in a FEMA trailer. However, FEMA is going to be kicking him out in early March so we have taken over the task of getting the house ready for him and his baby by then. This should be interesting. Doug (our site supervisor), Geoff and I started working on the house with around 28 other volunteers. All the other times I work with a group of about six to ten people total. In one day we were able to tear down a shed, remove a chain link fence, clean up the yard, cut and remove two trees, tear down one exterior wall and rebuild its frame, remove all the windows and doors, and remove the majority of the tile flooring in the house. We are hoping to finish the frame of the house, put up outdoor insulation, rap the house in plastic and then install all new windows and doors tomorrow. Unfortunately we should only have about 12 volunteers tomorrow.
The best part about working at our new house is that I get to use power tools and do some destruction too. I got to use a chain saw, circular saw, saws all, sledge hammer, nail gun and the compact track loader! The compact track loader is like a skid loader (bobcat) but has treads like a tank. It’s steered with two joysticks and can demolish, pick up and move just about anything.
This week also marks the first of many weeks to come where we will be at or close to maximum capacity at camp (100 volunteers). Wish me luck!
We started working on the Deadeux home in Gulf Port today. The neighborhood wasn’t hit too hard by the hurricane (compared to other neighborhoods) but the winds were strong enough to knock over two trees, both falling into the house. The owner is a younger man who is currently living in a FEMA trailer. However, FEMA is going to be kicking him out in early March so we have taken over the task of getting the house ready for him and his baby by then. This should be interesting. Doug (our site supervisor), Geoff and I started working on the house with around 28 other volunteers. All the other times I work with a group of about six to ten people total. In one day we were able to tear down a shed, remove a chain link fence, clean up the yard, cut and remove two trees, tear down one exterior wall and rebuild its frame, remove all the windows and doors, and remove the majority of the tile flooring in the house. We are hoping to finish the frame of the house, put up outdoor insulation, rap the house in plastic and then install all new windows and doors tomorrow. Unfortunately we should only have about 12 volunteers tomorrow.
The best part about working at our new house is that I get to use power tools and do some destruction too. I got to use a chain saw, circular saw, saws all, sledge hammer, nail gun and the compact track loader! The compact track loader is like a skid loader (bobcat) but has treads like a tank. It’s steered with two joysticks and can demolish, pick up and move just about anything.
This week also marks the first of many weeks to come where we will be at or close to maximum capacity at camp (100 volunteers). Wish me luck!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Transition...
Hello everyone and Happy Fat Tuesday!
So Green Two is officially done working at camp hope!!! It’s a bitter sweet moment. I’m defiantly going to miss everyone and all of the benefits of working in a kitchen, but it’s about time we get outside and do some manual labor.
On our final day we went all out and made one of the best meals camp hope has ever had to date. The menu consisted of parmesan chicken and parmesan eggplant (for the vegetarians). Both were breaded, baked in a marinara sauce and served on a bed of pasta. For side dishes we served cheesy garlic bread, green beans, and a root beer float cake for dessert. Our root beer float cake is an original green two recipe. It’s a white cake powder, but instead of using water, we used root beer extract and root beer. The frosting was made out of whip-its with a little bit of root beer extract and vanilla extract.
It was one of the harder meals to make and we almost went through every cooking pan and tray we had in our kitchen. This is impressive because we were only cooking for 200 and we didn’t use that many dishes when we cooked for over 700. However in the end everyone loved it!
If you haven’t heard already I am currently in Jackson, MS for transition (1/31-2/7) and I will be here for a couple more days. THEN we go to Long Beach, MS for our next spike.
We are in Jackson with all of the other teams that were in the gulf for their first spike and will stay for their second. Transition is mostly for all of the TL’s and UL’s to have meetings to meet with our team. We have a debriefing to talk about our last spike (what went wrong, what they should change, what we liked) and then a briefing meeting to learn about our new spike. So far for our new spike we know that we will be staying at Camp Coastal Care (the “Cube” as we have dubbed it) in Long Beach. The group we are going to be working for is a Lutheran Episcopal Church group. We are a little nervous about working for a church organization but I think things will work out. However our work schedule is going to be crazy. Our day is going to start out at 5:30am for PT, then breakfast and meetings until 7:00am when we will start work. We work at construction sites until 4 and have an hour break somewhere in between for lunch. We have a meeting at 5, dinner at 6:30 and then lights out at 10. It’s going to be different then camp hope but I’m pretty pumped either way.
Long Beach is 45 minutes east of Pearlington, MS and 30 minutes west of Biloxi.
The web site for Camp Coastal Care is http://www.campcoastcare.com
My new address will be:
Matt Walenciak - Americorps
Camp Coast Care
5061 Espy Avenue
Long Beach, MS 39560
Feel free to send letters, food, or even come visit! Later kids!
So Green Two is officially done working at camp hope!!! It’s a bitter sweet moment. I’m defiantly going to miss everyone and all of the benefits of working in a kitchen, but it’s about time we get outside and do some manual labor.
On our final day we went all out and made one of the best meals camp hope has ever had to date. The menu consisted of parmesan chicken and parmesan eggplant (for the vegetarians). Both were breaded, baked in a marinara sauce and served on a bed of pasta. For side dishes we served cheesy garlic bread, green beans, and a root beer float cake for dessert. Our root beer float cake is an original green two recipe. It’s a white cake powder, but instead of using water, we used root beer extract and root beer. The frosting was made out of whip-its with a little bit of root beer extract and vanilla extract.
It was one of the harder meals to make and we almost went through every cooking pan and tray we had in our kitchen. This is impressive because we were only cooking for 200 and we didn’t use that many dishes when we cooked for over 700. However in the end everyone loved it!
If you haven’t heard already I am currently in Jackson, MS for transition (1/31-2/7) and I will be here for a couple more days. THEN we go to Long Beach, MS for our next spike.
We are in Jackson with all of the other teams that were in the gulf for their first spike and will stay for their second. Transition is mostly for all of the TL’s and UL’s to have meetings to meet with our team. We have a debriefing to talk about our last spike (what went wrong, what they should change, what we liked) and then a briefing meeting to learn about our new spike. So far for our new spike we know that we will be staying at Camp Coastal Care (the “Cube” as we have dubbed it) in Long Beach. The group we are going to be working for is a Lutheran Episcopal Church group. We are a little nervous about working for a church organization but I think things will work out. However our work schedule is going to be crazy. Our day is going to start out at 5:30am for PT, then breakfast and meetings until 7:00am when we will start work. We work at construction sites until 4 and have an hour break somewhere in between for lunch. We have a meeting at 5, dinner at 6:30 and then lights out at 10. It’s going to be different then camp hope but I’m pretty pumped either way.
Long Beach is 45 minutes east of Pearlington, MS and 30 minutes west of Biloxi.
The web site for Camp Coastal Care is http://www.campcoastcare.com
My new address will be:
Matt Walenciak - Americorps
Camp Coast Care
5061 Espy Avenue
Long Beach, MS 39560
Feel free to send letters, food, or even come visit! Later kids!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
100's of cups of coffee
So today was the big switch. Bonnie and I switched shifts with Erin and Tanya! This means I had to wake up at 3:30 am and start work at 4 for the breakfast shift. Anyone reading this probably knows the only time I’m up at 3:30 in the morning is when I haven’t gone to sleep from the night before. Somehow I was able to pull it off and I even made it to work on time. The morning shift is a lot different because not everyone cooks and preps food. Cassandra cooks just about everything in the ovens while Caitlin cooks the eggs. The eggs are prepackaged in these huge bags and to cook them you place them in boiling water. Gross, but at least its not made from a powder. We also served bacon, grits, biscuits and then all the cold food like cereal, bagels, toast… My job was to make sure the entire dinning area was clean and everything was stocked. For the most part I cleaned everything, made coffee, filled the juice containers, made sure all the cold food was stocked and stacked cups. It was a little more laid back then the dinner shift but I was still busy for the majority of the time.
This week is going to be a little crazier because we normally have between 200-400 people staying at camp. This week we are going to top out at well over 700. Luckily we have been able to convert the entire down stairs area into living spaces. We finished dry walling, putting up ceilings, cleaning the floors, and putting cots up. Unfortunately that was still not enough room to house everyone so a couple of our lounges are being converted. Furthermore, they are slowly breaking down our final big lounge that is right across the hall from us. They have taken down the middle shelf where we would usually use our lap tops. The large flat screen TV was also moved to another room but Dan and I stole it back.
Having this many people at camp also means cold showers. The plan is to get a shower trailer where there will hopefully be constant running hot water. There is also a rumor going around that we will be getting some port’o potties, but I don’t really see why we would need them. We don’t have a shortage of bathrooms just hot water. But with good news always comes bad news. We only have one full time maintenance worker at camp, Lizarick, and with all the new showers and bathrooms he needs help cleaning. So of course they are going to turn to the NCCC members to help clean bathrooms, hallways and take out trash on every Sunday and Monday. It’s really not that big of a deal but I think they should hire another worker instead. They are obviously making a good amount of money because everyone that stays here has to pay.
Working the morning shift also means I’m done work at noon and have the whole day to do whatever I want. Usually the morning crew takes a nap but today we had a team meeting from 11:30 to 12:30 and then James, Bonnie and I went on an ISP with other corps members. We went to a bike shop called Plan B. Plan B takes spare parts that they can scavenge from old bikes and builds “new” bikes for locals and kids in the community. They also give classes that teach people how to build bikes from scratch. I helped take apart bike tires today. We would take the axle and ball bearing apart from the hub of the tire and then take all the usable spokes off. In the 4 hours that we were there we were able to take apart about 20 tires. Every first Monday of the month is a volunteer day where they close down the shop from repairs and selling bikes and just clean everything and let people volunteer to take apart or build bikes. We met a couple other volunteers from around the area and had a pretty fun time. Depending on how long we will be in the area we might try to do this again!
I miss everyone and Happy New Years!
Feel free to send me mail!
Matt Walenciak - Green 2
1201 Bayou Road
Saint Bernard, LA 70085
This week is going to be a little crazier because we normally have between 200-400 people staying at camp. This week we are going to top out at well over 700. Luckily we have been able to convert the entire down stairs area into living spaces. We finished dry walling, putting up ceilings, cleaning the floors, and putting cots up. Unfortunately that was still not enough room to house everyone so a couple of our lounges are being converted. Furthermore, they are slowly breaking down our final big lounge that is right across the hall from us. They have taken down the middle shelf where we would usually use our lap tops. The large flat screen TV was also moved to another room but Dan and I stole it back.
Having this many people at camp also means cold showers. The plan is to get a shower trailer where there will hopefully be constant running hot water. There is also a rumor going around that we will be getting some port’o potties, but I don’t really see why we would need them. We don’t have a shortage of bathrooms just hot water. But with good news always comes bad news. We only have one full time maintenance worker at camp, Lizarick, and with all the new showers and bathrooms he needs help cleaning. So of course they are going to turn to the NCCC members to help clean bathrooms, hallways and take out trash on every Sunday and Monday. It’s really not that big of a deal but I think they should hire another worker instead. They are obviously making a good amount of money because everyone that stays here has to pay.
Working the morning shift also means I’m done work at noon and have the whole day to do whatever I want. Usually the morning crew takes a nap but today we had a team meeting from 11:30 to 12:30 and then James, Bonnie and I went on an ISP with other corps members. We went to a bike shop called Plan B. Plan B takes spare parts that they can scavenge from old bikes and builds “new” bikes for locals and kids in the community. They also give classes that teach people how to build bikes from scratch. I helped take apart bike tires today. We would take the axle and ball bearing apart from the hub of the tire and then take all the usable spokes off. In the 4 hours that we were there we were able to take apart about 20 tires. Every first Monday of the month is a volunteer day where they close down the shop from repairs and selling bikes and just clean everything and let people volunteer to take apart or build bikes. We met a couple other volunteers from around the area and had a pretty fun time. Depending on how long we will be in the area we might try to do this again!
I miss everyone and Happy New Years!
Feel free to send me mail!
Matt Walenciak - Green 2
1201 Bayou Road
Saint Bernard, LA 70085
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