Did someone say warm, sunny skies in November?

Happy belated Veterans Day to all the war vets that served or are serving for our freedoms in our country! But most importantly Happy 1 month plus to my lovely older sister Michelle and my newly founded older brother Ben Larkin on such a glorious marriage! I love you both!

I just wanted to start off with something super positive after my long and forever hiatus from writing blogs and keeping y’all informed on my 2nd year Americorps experience. I don’t even know where I left off…actually I have just remembered that blog #9 was written over 2 months ago! OUCH! I am so sorry it has taken this long. But where were we…

River 3 and their fearless Team Leader (muwuah!) finished up the last week of Fire Department with Chief Mark Hales and the rest of the fire privates. We were relieved that the Code Red calling was over, so what he were told to do the last week with the Vicksburg FD was to go around and do quality control check on all the curbs we had painted. We spent Monday and Tuesday of that week driving in the van all day correcting any rushed or blurry addresses. Lots of driving around the city of Vicksburg (by now the team knows every street in the city and how to get there). We reported back to the sponsor at the end of the day Tuesday and he told us that tomorrow (Wednesday) we were going to paint the curbs of the businesses on Washington St. downtown Vicksburg. Roughly 80 or so businesses later we called it a day and went back to campus.

WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE! I TOTALLY FORGOT!!! I got brought into my unit leader’s office that Tuesday as he had to tell me some important news. That important news was that our River 3 was called for disaster in Louisville, KY and would have to pack up our belongings and red bags and be ready to drive 12 hours to KY Friday morning. What a shocker to be told 3 days before we had to leave!! I guess that is the "real" definition of being flexible in Americorps (right Mitchy, Ben, and whomever ex-NCCC people read this?) So, I sat down and had a team meeting with the crew that Tuesday night to tell them the news. Lots of blank stares and silence for the first 20 minutes. I was actually excited to travel up to Kentucky, let alone a big city as in Louisville, to work with the flood disaster. I have been with the Katrina reconstruction last year in Americorps down in New Orleans. This was a little different because our task was to go into these houses that had been affected by the water and muck, gut, and sanitize them. Our main sponsor was the Metro United Way of Louisville. We got briefed about the main things we would be doing from Assistant Program Director, Jen Prall, and then began packing.

Back to Fire Department…we had now 2 days left of the Fire Department project since we had to leave early morning Friday. After a half-day Wednesday from painting the businesses downtown, Thursday was the big service learning day with the fire guys. The sponsor invited our team to go watch a "control burn" that was located at an abandoned house right down the road from fire station 8. That was very interesting because the fire departments do these burns to keep "fresh" since not many house fires occur in Vicksburg. Practice makes perfect…right? Anyways, it was so blazing hot standing near the fire burn, but so awesome at the same time. We got to see some of our Fire Privates we had met in action!

This leads us into our day off on Thursday to get everything situated and the van completely packed for the excursion. We took off for Kentucky that morning and 12 hours later we were at our housing at an old middle school building in Louisville, KY. We met with our United Way sponsors and got acquainted with our surroundings. They took us out to dinner and told us to be prepared to work the next day. We had every kind of outfit, protective equipment, respirators, gloves, etc. you could think. Steel-toed boots were a MUST to wear every house we went into. We were going to be working 20 days in Kentucky and then head back when the round ended on October 22nd. On Saturday morning River 3 met up with their site supervisors. The Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) group gave us the disaster orientation on how they operated on mucking and gutting and sanitizing. In the afternoon we got into the house and started working. WOW…it was all coming to a reality that we were actually helping with a disaster. Many of the members were not fully prepared to do such work, but as time went on they became more comfortable. 1st week consisted of working side-by-side the CAP group, but as the 2nd and 3rd weeks went on we were working with the Metro United Way volunteers. We mucked, gutted, and sanitized with 37 houses with the CAP team at the end of week 1. Bouncing over to the MUW, we ended up producing over 70 houses with them in 2 weeks to get a whopping total of 110 houses that River 3 assisted with during our tenure in Louisville. Pretty impressive! Fun things that we ended up doing while in Louisville were got to go to Churchill Downs and take pictures and take the tour, we walked around downtown Louisville, and received free YMCA passes to utilize the gym when we were there. Having faulty showers was not a plus while living in the Salvation Army building so we had to drive over to the YMCA to take warm showers. It was also pleasurable to not have to cook meals during those 3 weeks, instead a block down from our housing site we were served by the Center of Hope kitchen and got breakfast and dinner there.

Oh me oh my! I forgot to mention that during our stay in Louisville I took off 5 days (2 personal) and drove back up to Illinois for Rocktober Fest of Love. For all of you who weren't apart of it that was the name given to the Ben Larkin and Michelle Chianakas October 10th wedding! It was so awesome and a ton of fun. I got the opportunity to walk my grandmother down the aisle, my mother down the aisle, got to DJ the starting lineups for the wedding party, got a sweet Leatherman knife being in the wedding (which has definitely came in handy in Americorps)...but see these things were all just minorities...the most important part of the wedding weekend was seeing both my older sister and her husband smile the WHOLE weekend and not frown once! It was a near "perfect" wedding. Seeing them smile made me go back home one night tear up. I would like to have a nice wedding like that with a great girl who loves me as much as Michelle and Ben love each other :)

Now moving onto Vicksburg, MS southern region campuses 1st ever transition period. All the teams that were in Mississippi came back to Vicksburg to do 1st round closeouts, debriefs, and briefs for 2nd round. With about a week and a half left of round 1, I received an e-mail of 2nd round projects. Team Leaders get to select in numerical order of what projects they want their teams to go on. I selected to go to Biloxi, MS to work with the Hope Community Development Agency (CDA) and doing reconstruction work for hurricane Katrina. I ended up getting my number 1 selection and our team began preparing for Biloxi. GULF COAST! Anyways, River arrived back to campus on October 23rd to later be told that the corps members had to move their belongings into the new dorm. River 3, River 6, and River 7 will all be living in the Mary dorm. Once everyone was moved into their new rooms…it was time for the 2-day off weekend. Boy…was it great seeing team green members again. We all embraced on our 4th floor living location and caught up with each other’s rounds. Some even took part in a loud, primal scream!
Transition week consisted of: corps member baseline test on Monday (1-minute of sit ups, 1-minute of pushups, and a 1.5 mile run…each test there should be improvement), we had our team debrief and brief on Monday, nothing really big on Tuesday, and then Wednesday we had a clearance meeting be able to leave for our 2nd round. I was so stoked about 2nd round getting back into the construction mood, but also getting my mind out of the destruction mentality with disaster. Also my great Americorps friends from last year, Molly Burr, worked with Hope CDA with ‘Hands On’ Biloxi, MS as an Americorps State worker. SWEETNESS!! Once the hoopla with transition ended and catching up with various buddies, we re-packed our red bags and headed on our 3.5 hour drive to Biloxi, MS.

Round 2 travel day was Thursday October 29th and the end of round 2 will be December 17th. We arrived in Biloxi early evening on that Thursday and got situated into our dorm-like housing along the Gulf Coast. We are basically living by the beach that oversees the Gulf of Mexico. Not too bad AND the weather has been very nice and comfortable. Actually according to a local Biloxian, he said it is 10 degrees warmer than usual. But, boy being involved wtih a tropical storm in November was very interesting! (more on this later...TO BE CONTINUED!)


That is all I have for updates until next time, I will be trying to do this regurally to keep y'all informed on what has been going on! Keep in touch. Feel free to send me mail...I always love getting it (Thanks Mom!). Happy weekend!


PS. Congratulations Michelle and Ben on getting through the first month of marriage, several more to go!

PSS. Congrats Karah and Matt on 3.5 months of marriage, many more in your future as well :)

PSSS. COME ON CHICAGO BEARS! What is your problem?

Almost half-way through Round 1!

So as the title says it, Americorps Team Leader year is almost half-way finished with Round 1! WOW!…talk about these days going rapid fast. It is hard to catch up! Anyways, we ended up having Labor Day off from working, giving us a nice 3-day weekend to relax and prepare ourselves to the work weeks to come. A 4-day work week was what was on River 3’s plate. It turned our team of 11 into a nice even number 12. Having a new member made it easier for us to divide into our groups of 2 when three groups were painting the curbs with white, water-based paint and then following behind them were three black spray painting groups with stencils. Man…we got this project and know it like the back of our hands!

Fasten your seatbelts for the next 2 week update on how the team had its first grocery shopping outing to more River 3 birthday celebrations to Round 1 and working with the Fire Department…

September 7th (Monday)
a nice, relaxing day off of work…thank you Labor Day! Haha…the funny thing is we were not applauding about taking off that day from working only 3 days with the Fire Department, but because trainings for me had been going on for the last 2 straight months…a nice get-away from Americorps to re-group

got the chance to climb out of the Ameri-bubble and find out what my sports teams were doing, what kind of presidential things have been going on, and especially got the chance to catch up with my friends and family

had made some time for our PT coordinator to come up with a workout routine for the whole squad.

overall, I also had the opportunity to begin updating my team’s hours and my own hours into the Americorps portal

September 8th (Tuesday)
woke up and touched basis with the sponsor the night before to find out what the game plan was going to be for the rest of the week

arrived at the Fire Central Station and received our neighborhood task for the day, talked to the Chief, and then got assigned our Fire Private who would be out driving around in a pickup with H20 and Gatorade keeping us hydrated

we were trying to obviously find residencies that had curbs and ALSO trying to stay away from the "shady" and "traffic-like" subdivisions

worked and pumped out about over 200 houses
finished the workday at 4:30 PM and checked in with the Chief to receive our next neighborhood map

September 9th (Wednesday) thru September 11th (Friday)

these days were similar to Tuesday with working on curbs and painting them in those groups but making sure that each group of 2 was different daily.

Once we got accustomed to doing the curbs, we began mass producing on an average of 250 hours per day


September 14th-18th (Monday-Friday)
Friday was Lan’s birthday and she got the chance to ride in a fire truck; got free pizza from the project sponsor who applied for the grant

Brittany’s last day was Wednesday

September 21st-25th (Monday-Friday)
Code Red calling all week; we made phone calls to businesses in the city of Vicksburg; in a room in City Hall for 7 hours of the day

Began working with the Child Abuse Program in Vicksburg as an ISP which means work days started earlier (8AM)

ISPs for the weekend: Jacob’s Ladder painting, Salvation Army sorting clothes and pricing, and doing Trail Clearing at the local cemetery and Vicksburg Military Park
O’Keefe Project might not happen because there is no working internet on campus
1 more full week with the Fire Department

(incomplete...more to come!)

1st Round is WAITING for us!!

WOW! Has it really been over 2 weeks since my last post? OUCH! I guess these 50-60 hour weeks are really catching up on me. The full effects of being a team leader have truly kicked into gear! Let me tell you, these last couple weeks have been memorable and definitely unforgettable.

Since I have a lot of updating to do, I will begin what has occurred here in Vicksburg, MS starting at the beginning of this week (Monday, August 31st) all the way through the official first week of round 1 of projects. On the eve of Hurricane Katrina anniversary, River 3 celebrated their first team birthday…Miss Alleigh Wickert first on the list and we went out as a team to celebrate by going to LD’s. LD’s was a restaurant right along the Yazoo River and we had a nice family meal with a birthday cake that teammate Becca made for everyone. We ended up doing a practice run for the Induction ceremony that would be taken place next Tuesday. On this day, I got budget trained by Dot and Joy. I just got to make sure I am not a penny over on the final receipt turn in at the end of the round (October 23rd). Catering ended on Friday which meant each CM and TL was given 15 dollars per day for Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday…that led up to project departure on Wednesday.

Lots of anticipation, anxiousness, and overall happiness poured through myself, other team leaders, the corps members, and especially River 3! We were ready to embark on the next step into our Americorps NCCC journey. BRING ON THE VICKSBURG FIRE DEPARTMENT!

August 31st (Monday)

- as of today, CTI (corps training institution) was officially over with! No more trainings, now it was more focused on getting prepped for leaving
- the night before, we got project briefed by Jen Prall on the all corps service project in the remote areas of Vicksburg
o my team as well as River 1 got together and went to the Redwood Kidz Club in Redwood, MS (suburb of Vicksburg)
o we dug trenches and holes for the Methodist Church’s pavilion that will be built in roughly 5 weeks
o at lunch, we definitely got the southern hospitality with turkey, ham sandwiches, chips, desserts, drinks, and salads!
- we worked at the Redwood Kidz Club until 3 PM because the Team Leader’s had to be back along with one member of their team
o I chose my Assistant Team Leader, Mike, because that was the only fair way
- Getting into our Ameri-tuxedos…we looked GOOD! Hopped into the van with 4 other teams and headed to Jackson, MS for the VIP dinner and display board showing
- every team had to complete a display board of their first round projects to be showcased, along with brief descriptions of each of the members on the team
- Mike and I as well as the other 13 team leaders and their honorary corps member got the chance to shake hands with several men and women of the Vicksburg and Jackson area, some were sponsors, some worked for Americorps headquarters
- We ate wonderfully, food from beef to oysters to crawfish, we were fed handsomely; while the rest of the corps had a pizza party back on campus
- After the end of a very exhausting day, we traveled in our van back to Vicksburg when all of the sudden Mike got our team van stuck in the mud!
o We had to park the 15-passenger vans on the soccer field because of various important guests that were going to be at induction
o What a disaster trying to get it out! We spent nearly an hour and half trying to get it unstuck with the help of other team leaders; when all the sudden we saw how late it was and we would handle the issue tomorrow
- what a crazy ending to a day…right?

September 1st (Tuesday)

- INDUCTION DAY!
- Van still stuck!
- First things first was a community meeting that was put on by River 4 and Delta 4
- River 3 changed into our formal uniforms and loaded into a replacement 15 passenger van; it was either that or driving 2 minivans to the Vicksburg Convention Center
- Since lunch was going to be a crunch, fellow team leader Jo and I bolted with a corps member to Subway and took orders from the team while they cleaned, polished, their boots and made sure their shirts and pants were ironed.
- We managed to pull it off with a couple minutes to spare, swung back around to the front porch and picked up the team and headed to the Convention Center; everyone ate in the van on the way there.
- Arrived at the venue and set-up a table with our display boards; the CAPpers and Media Representatives stood by the table talking to on-lookers about what we would be doing 1st round, while the rest of the team stood and listened to a live press conference
- When the press conference was over, we all gathered into our induction lines and got prepared for the ceremony.
- Single-filed lines we danced our way into Induction and took our seats; corps member Gary was the MC for the afternoon; with special reflections from Michelle Pyne (was on my temp team) and Peter (nicknamed: “sunshine” because he is always smiling) was apart of the Ameri-choir that sang the National Anthem
- Induction ceremony lasted for about 1.5 hours; my buddies from Perry Point campus last year, Molly and Kelsea, drove up from Biloxi to see the induction and to see me J It was so awesome seeing them again.
- Molly and Kelsea were going to be one of the sponsors for the teams down in Biloxi this first round
- I got the opportunity to talk to the O’Keefe family, Jim and Jannie are the sponsors we will be talking to the last 3 weeks of Round 1. I got to ask them a couple questions pertaining the project with them; some of River 3 members got to meet them and they were super nice, excited about to help them!
- After the termination of induction, there was a dessert and drink gathering that everyone took part of. CONGRATS TO ALL THAT GOT INDUCTED!!
- Drove back to campus and that is when I changed out of my formal clothes and headed back down to the soccer field and helped pull the van out of the thick mud
- Teams that had to travel the next day got packed, cleaned their rooms, and loaded their vans in preparation to leaving on time tomorrow morning
- Our team didn’t have to do much packing other than being ready to move rooms in the event that the River Unit would indeed be moving rooms; was later told that the River Unit won’t be moving rooms until end of first round and during transition
- clocked in with another 10 hour work day!


September 2nd (Wednesday)

- ADIOS teams! All non-local teams depart!
- Got to say goodbyes to some of my Ameri-friends but not everyone. Everything happened to quickly
- What a frazzled, crazy, and hectic morning trying to get everything and everyone in check
- River 3 hopped into the van for our first day of 1st round and drove to the Fire Department for check-in
- Met with sponsor Mark Hales at the station and without further instruction we loaded all the supplies in the pick-up truck and headed towards the first subdivision
o Just to remind you…for the first 5 weeks of our round, we will be going around to local subdivisions and painting house numbers on curbs
o The goal they wanted us to complete is 608.
o Really didn’t need an orientation considering we received a tour of the fire station a week ago
- every workday we will be doing the numbers, there is an assigned fire fighter private that is watching us and directing any busy traffic’
- to ensure further into our safety, we are all required to wear neon green/yellow vests that drivers can see us
- the first neighborhood our team was going to tackle was Wildwood (about 3 miles from campus roughly)
- Sponsor Mark initially had told me over the phone that this process was going to be trial and error, but it seemed our team got a grasp on it from the get-go
o We divided into groups quickly and efficiently…two groups of 3 begin painting a white rectangle on the curbs, while then two groups of 2 followed behind with the stencils and black spray paint
o In the meantime, I was supervising and every so often would step-in for a member that needed a water break
- we actually ended the day early and didn’t know what to do, what UL Neal told us to do was come back to campus and do a service learning reflection exercise to fill up the day
- Roughly 98 houses had been painted numbers on the curbs which was a HUGE increase from what the sponsor had imagined us doing; they averaged it out to be 17.5 houses per day, but we for sure exceeded that amount!
- I was very proud of all my River 3 members for their hard work ethic and getting things done! The subdivision we knocked out that day was actually supposed to take one week…WAY ahead of schedule!
- When we got back the team composed a grocery list and what we would be making for dinner the rest of the week
- Lan, our Food POC, Ryan, Brendan, and myself climbed into the van and went food shopping…our FIRST team grocery shopping!
- Got back an hour and a half later and made some grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup and chicken noodle soup; we were even 40 dollars under budget!
- During dinner we dissected the day and prepared for tomorrow’s work day, meet at the van at 8:10 AM!

September 3rd (Thursday)

- First organized morning team PT
- woke up and had to handle some logistically things in the morning before loading up for work
- arrived at the FD at 8:25 AM reporting in for work
- drove off with another Fire Fighter private to the next subdivision and began painting numbers on curbs; this neighborhood was bigger than the first and the houses were spaced out farther than the other
- This time there were over one-hundred houses that River 3 pounded out; over one-third of our 5 week project was done in only 2 days! WOW…we were on a pace to paint over 3,000 residencies in the city of Vicksburg
- Ended the day with smiles on our faces after accomplishing a lot that day
- Came back to campus and helped Delta 5 team unload beds in the dorms to Johnson Hall (this dorm was finally finished and the Delta Unit would be moving into there pretty soon)
- Spent about 2 hours taking off bed frames, loading mattresses into trucks, and organizing them into Johnson
- Overall another tiring day, I guess we will have to get used to the September southern heat in the days to come J

September 4th (Friday)

- prepping for that 3-day Labor Day weekend
- woke up for work and headed towards the van at 8 AM
- went back to put the final touches on the Sky Farm subdivision from the day before and then moved onto 2 more neighborhoods and knocked those out with no problems
- our team works really hard once they see the prize ahead of them (eyes on the prize)
- as of totals in 3 days, our team has done over 500 houses which is nearing our goal of 608…GREAT WORK!
- Sponsor, Mark made sure we were accounted for by bringing us several black spray paint cans, our only supply issue is stencils, the paper stencils we are using stick together easily and are falling apart
- As our team charter says, No Complaining! And that is what we have been doing in times like this


Labor Day weekend came and went quickly. I got to catch up on some much needed sleep and got some paper work done in the process during the 3 day break. Fellow buddy of mine (Geoff) and I were going to drive to Memphis, TN for a day and a half to hang out up there, but that fell through. Possibly next weekend? I surely miss everyone that has gone away for spikes. It has definitely been a lonely campus and at times it feels like you are the only one here. I plan on keeping in touch once the Fed Ex mailing starts up again because you have to LOVE Ameri-mail! Don’t forget to mail me J I love getting messages! After the week I talked to Mark about future plans for this project. The team suggested if it would be alright to paint numbers on curbs of the whole city of Vicksburg or at least as much as we can until the 5 weeks is up, he said that would be fine. There are roughly 29,000 residencies in the city of Vicksburg and as a team River 3 will try and get as many as we can done. The team is stoked and motivated! Mark mentioned he will have subdivision maps for us every morning during check-in and we can depart from there. BRING IT ON! I really think our team as the will-power and motivation to impact this city…plus getting tan is not a bad idea either ;)!

Until next time in which I will not wait so long in between posts…have a great week y’all!

PS. Check out the sweet pics imprinted within the blog…do you like?

PSS. Michelle's and Ben's wedding T minus

WE HAVE OUR REAL TEAMS!!

As you can tell by the title of this update, we as the 14 team green field team leaders have gotten our 10-11 member permanent teams. River Tres…’IN YO FACE’ and I received 10 wonderful, diverse 18-24 year olds that were eager to start working. The last couple of weeks have been exciting, tiring, optimistic, and challenging. We have gone through a lot as team leaders and for the Vicksburg, MS corps. One of my goals was to be able to handle all the obstacles and challenges thrown my direction and I can say that even though my plate will be filled with them for the next 10 months, I will surely be capable of accomplishing that goal.

Anyways, leading on to what has happened from when I first left off (August 7th) all the way to today’s current date (August 14th). A lot of things occurred during those dates, so hold on for the ride…

FRIDAY (August 7th)- last day with temporary team (gonna miss you all!)

- we have already been in our temporary teams for roughly 6 days and first thing in the morning we had the whole corps get together for PT directed by the 2 unit leaders
o we ended up just working on stretches and working on different muscle groups
o very hard to orchestrate a group of 170 people at 5:30 AM when the sun hasn’t even risen yet!
- rushing to clean up after, we gathered all together as a team and rode in the govey van to the Southern Heritage Culture Center (about 4 miles from campus)
o there we spent the day with several trainings including: southern culture, nutrition, food safety, and how to properly budget your money
o ended up getting catered lunch there
- got back from the trainings and ate dinner and then had a catered cook-out on the tennis courts
- anxious to get going with the team reveals, the corps members gathered in the foyer of Green Hall as the Team Leaders hid in their respectable locations
o I chose to hide in the supply room with the floral cots
- the Team Leaders previously gave 5 facts about them and then the support team leaders put together a scavenger hunt with those clues; I had 2 temporary members on my permanent team that they knew who they had from the first clue
- they still had to accomplish the whole scavenger hunt until they got down to the supply room where I was waiting patiently with a jar of candy
- I pulled them into a room for introductions, ice breakers, and we played the game “Hot Seat”…welcome to River 3: Brennan, Brendan, Ryan, Becca, Alleigh, Hannah, Brett, Mike, Lan, and Tarah!

SATURDAY (August 8th)

- woke up at 8 AM for TB shot test results
- since there was a minor team hiccup in the morning, we ended up gathering up at 1 PM for team bonding
o I treated them and drove to the Jackson Zoo for a couple hours, got some wicked pictures that will soon be posted, also did an animal activity where they had to pick the animal that best represents themselves
o team dinner at Goldies BBQ restaurant
- later when I got back from the dinner, I was on my 1st night of campus duty with Chelsea starting at 7 PM and staying awake until 1 AM…definitely a long and entertaining day!

SUNDAY (August 9th)

- great sleep-in until about 11:30 AM
- woke and went with a group of CM’s and TL’s to the public pool; not bad price: 3 bucks for 4 hours of swimming
- other Team Leader’s and team green went to Wade’s lake house and rid on his boat
- called together a River 3 meeting to create team charter and discuss life map assignment (listed below is what we came up with!)

‘River Tres…IN YO FACE’

TEAM CHARTER

Team Quote: “Our job is to make each other look good!”

1. Always be ON TIME!!
2. Be responsible and respectful to each other!
3. ISP hours: TBA
4. Cell phones- silent or off onsite, in trainings, etc.
5. If you need help ask 3 people on the team before you ask the team leader
6. If you have an issue, go to that person first (DON’T GET DEFENSIVE!)
7. Work on filtering language in and out of the “A”
8. Take ownership- of the team, of your team position, of your assigned tasks
9. Maintain professionalism in all circumstances
10. No tobacco on worksite or in van
11. Eating: TBA
12. Don’t let drinking effect work or relationships
13. Maintain good hygiene throughout…NO SMELLY KIDS!
14. At least 3 people need to be in the van at all time
15. Person who sits “shotgun” must stay awake on SPIKE roadtrips and shouldn’t be texting
16. Driver will NOT answer phone or text while driving
17. Respect one another’s space and personal belongings (do not steal from each other)
18. Complaining= negative!
19. Safety first!!
20. Give suggestions and don’t be bossy
21. Stay healthy!
22. Team Van Goal: NO ACCIDENTS or TICKETS!
23. Driver will not mess with van controls (radio, temperature, ipod, etc.)
24. HAVE FUN!

- once the day ended we as team green gathered for meeting to debrief Monday’s service project to Rolling Fork, MS
o I was delegated to run a training on painting to the corps members

MONDAY (August 10th)

- 2nd whole corps member PT, group of 4 team leaders led it
o 3 different stations: running up and down a hill continuously, Frisbee game, and stretching
- hussled and hurried for the service project to Rolling Fork
o Rolling Fork= small city, population roughly 2,000 people
o River 3 primed and cleaned the Academy gymnasium wall; will be back for an ISP to finish the painting part sometime soon
o Roughly 950 square feet primed as well as 2 stairwells was our quanitfiables; I was very pleased about how well our River 3 team worked together…roughly 8 of the 10 took the initiative at least once during the all day project
- came back from a long day but felt fortunate in our abilities to serve and get the hands dirty, even got to wear the sweet coveralls to paint in.
- Rolling Fork was very appreciative of the corp’s work that they kept generously giving out food and drinks to everyone
- Some good ol’ Southern Hospitality
- Got back from the 1st service project and played ultimate Frisbee with the corps members (LOVE that game!)
- So wiped out from the day, passed out early and got a solid 10 hours of sleep!!

TUESDAY (August 11th)

- first thing was a River Unit meeting with Neal
- while the Delta Unit had Diversity training, River’s had Project Service Learning all day!
o Diversity trainer Craig Bowman came to talk; very emotional for some of the corps members when playing ‘cross the line’
- once the trainings ended the Corps members had their 1st room and communal room inspections
- everyone passed on my team!! NO ISSUES!

WEDNESDAY (August 12th)

- Happy 25th Birthday Narayan Saha and Stef Schneider
- My group of 4 team leaders (Sanjoy, Chandra, Amanda, and myself) led a four station PT session
o Stations included: mine was the sprinting station where they had to run half the length of a soccer field and then do 10 squats and sprint back; next station was stretching and calisthenics with Amanda; next was Indian run with Chandra; the last station was Sanjoy’s and they played the deck of card sprinting game where if they flipped a “red” card they had to do that many sit-ups and if it was “black” that many pushups
- afterwards we showered up and met for the very first corps community meeting; it was orchestrated by River 1 and Delta 1
- the units flipped flopped and the River’s had Diversity training while the Delta’s had Projects and Service Learning with the Program Director, APD, and Teresa
o Diversity for our unit left a sour taste in some of the corp’s members mouths as well as very emotional for some that included a couple of my River 3 members
o All in all, the CM’s either liked it or disapproved it
- unit River then had a meeting to reflect on the day with Neal
- my 2nd duty night with Chelsea came later and made 3 rounds making sure everyone was okay and safe
- basically a long day beginning at 5:30 AM finally ending at 1 AM

THURSDAY (August 13th)

- my team has to clean up after all 3 meals in the cafeteria by sweeping, wiping down tables and pushing in the chairs
- met at 7:30 AM on the front porch and drove to the Southern Heritage Culture Center for Healthy Lifestyles training
- before breakfast catering didn’t show up, so I took the gang to Shipley’s for some donuts and coffee
- while at the Heritage Center the corps members received trainings on CAP and media from Geoff and in the afternoon Leigh Ann (counselor) came to talk to them and had her training on Healthy Lifestyles and alcohol issues within teams
- we transitioned back to campus and River TL’s had a meeting with Neal to talk about the effectiveness of the day
- later in the night there was a GLBS (gay, lesbian, bi, straight) meeting for anyone in the cafeteria; I had a team meeting and did a couple activities for bonding together and team builders
- headed off to bed to prep myself for the all corps base line test in the morning

FRIDAY (August 14th)

- BASE LINE TEST! Drove to the military ground site with our teams at 5:30 AM and performed the test of sit-ups and push-ups in a minute…then came the 1.5 mile run.
- My River 3 member Brennan ended up winning the race with a time of 9 minutes and 21 seconds…great work! Every member of River 3 worked extremely hard
- Team Leaders had an amazing outfits on for the baseline; I was reppin the bright yellow stretch pants with the Americorps bandana and a brightly colored yellow shirt…definitely stood out!
- Tons of laughing and enjoyable times for the test; drove back to campus and cleaned up for Transition Elements training
- That went until lunch and after lunch we had Tools and Safety training with the unit leaders, Wade, and a guy from the Home Depot came in
o Trainings included: how to put up a tent, how to put tools in a tool wheel and how to use them, how to use power tools, and finally how to roof a house
- all were very effective and the corps member learned a lot!
- In the evening I scheduled another team meeting where I took my River 3 mates down to the mural along the Yazoo river for a reflection and for everyone to share their life maps; we then took a team picture behind the sapling trees and headed back
- Some of my members took off for New Orleans for the weekend, others stayed back on campus to relax.

SATURDAY and SUNDAY (August 15th and 16th)

- this weekend was very relaxing for me; I went to the public pool on Saturday until around 5 PM and got a little burnt
- got cleaned up and went across the Mississippi border to socialize with 9 of my other team leader buddies
- Sunday was another relaxing/calm day in which I went to the pool with corps members and team leaders (it was the last weekend for open swimming in the summer)
- Got some logistical things accomplished for the team and had a team meeting at 8 PM to give them their speciality roles and handed them goodie bags; we also cut up and made bracelets from a bandana to represent the “unity” of River 3
- Peaceful weekend indeed!


So there you have it. The last almost nearly 2 weeks of what has been going on in my life at this moment. I am really excited to see my team grow emotionally, physically and socially. I really enjoy the dynamic of the team currently and have leaders ready to jump in when the time is necessary. If this is what the year is going to be like, then I am very fortunate. I am prepared for the obstacles that will be thrown in my direction, but I am hoping these challenges won’t be too overbearing! I want to grow as an individual too. I reiterate to the team that BE ON TIME and for the most part they are following through. With my new implemented rule on being late really has made a difference as all make a conscience effort to be punctual.

I am excited for this up and coming weekend because a couple of us are going to drive to New Orleans to visit my good TL friend, Stan and our Perry Point Americorps buddy Elliott and enjoy the weekend there. Tons of catching up needs to be taken care of. Geoff and I plan on leaving for NOLA either Friday or Saturday night. Definitely will be a blast!

This week is going to be a long one because we have more trainings, birthdays to celebrate, baseball games to attend, and 2 corps member service projects. So far so good on being a team leader…I LOVE IT! I am going to make a big effort to getting the proper amount of sleep and eating right to maintain that healthy frame! I am counting down the days until my sister’s wedding and it is T minus 54 days!!! I gotta actually start looking at airplane flights now. Have a great week y’all! More to come soon and very soon.

River 3 team quote: “Our job is to make each other look good!”


PS. GO CUBS! Get healthy pitching staff and please do better and catch those pesky Cardinals!

Team Leader Initiation FULLY in effect!

I guess I NOW know what it takes to be a Team Leader after this past week! Today actually marks exactly a month that we as team green have been in Vicksburg. I remember that first day on July 6th traveling to Atlanta and then swinging over to Jackson, MS to then get picked up by the one and only Jen Prall! Time surely has flown by. 10 more months to go! Like mentioned above, this week was definitely a true beginning test on what TL life will be like the whole year. I told myself I won’t be burning out and to bring on all challenges and obstacles that are in my path. With the guidance of some ex-TL’s and Mom/Dad I am able to get through any situation. It seems as if these last couple days of work have been in between 14-16 hours a day! I feel I am back in Summer of Service about 13 months ago with the kids down in New Orleans my 3rd round project last year.

All in all, even though the days are going by super duper fast and seem to drag on…it is definitely a great time and I am in LOVE with my temporary team. We are all laid back and chill for the most part and they are taking my “not being late” rule to heart which is wonderful. Most of them even have taken the initiative with picking up trash and being individual leaders to the team. Americorps teases us TL’s in giving us these rockin’ and awesome teams in the beginning to only be torn about at weeks end. Real/permanent teams are dispersed tomorrow (Friday) with team reveals. I am kind of bitter/sweet about the event because I want to keep ALL of my temp team and bring them with me for all 4 rounds, but we don’t live in perfect world.

So I have roughly 6 days to catch y’all up on in this blog…so bare with me and here we go:

JULY 30th (Thursday)

- Neal and Brendan came around and performed our 3rd room inspections…of course once again I passed!
- Today was the eve before the Corps Members came to the campus, some already came early with their personal cars
- After breakfast we gathered with team green community meeting with staff to go over last tasks that need to be completed before they came
- We prepped for the arrival of the CM’s the whole day
o Some made door decorations, decorations and banners for the dorms, signs, room keys, set up tables/chairs in the kitchen, and all the logistics
o I, with 4 other TL’s re-arranged the dorms and made the rooms 4 down to 3 per room to make it easier for bathroom use. Each of the rooms was connected to another separated by a bathroom that the members shared. S basically 6 CM’s share a bathroom in each room.
- busy, busy, and super sweaty was how to describe my task for the day; it literally took all day because we moved and fixed up about 140 beds total…muscles were aching…OUCH! (I ain’t a whimp though!)
- although, an unfortunate event happened when our day was finished, when I finished setting up the chairs in the kitchen area I was walking back through the cafeteria passage way to Wade’s office when I clunked my forehead into a metal pole! Silly me! I had a HUGE knot on it and it was the size of a half-dollar!! I had a mini headache before the day but this only made it worse; I was then told I needed to get it looked at so UL Neal drove me to the ER to check up on it
o the results were it was not a concussion but a contusion and I needed to ice it 3 times a day for 20 minutes until the bump goes down.
o I healed so quickly within 36 hours!
- in celebration of all the excitement and being done with TLT, we all gathered in one of the classrooms for an ice cream social with staff and team green…MUCH needed!
- finally with such a busy schedule, went to bed at 11 PM in anticipation of the CM’s arriving!

JULY 31st (Friday)

- CM’s ARRIVE! CM’s ARE HERE!! No more TLT!
- Woke up with excitement to meet Wade to get our van keys
- We partnered up and each had 2 or 3 van pick up shifts; Sally and I got paired together
o I rode shotgun both times because the Americorps Head Quarters in D.C. shredded my driver’s record and now I have to go obtain another one!
- our first shift was @ 10:30 AM and we drove to a furniture store called MisKelly with 3 other paired group of TL’s waiting the call from Wade or Jen to come to the airport; Miskelly was about 4 minutes down the street from the airport.
- Our 1st van load of people was only 4 people total; 3 talkative females and one kind of shy person; we did the coffee talk type of conversation with them
- We came back to campus and unloaded the bags of the CM’s in their proper dorms and then got immediately told to drive our 2nd shift (luckily flights were delayed or we’d been late because everything was backed up)
- Cruised back to Miskelly and hung out there for a couple hours; this furniture store was ideally the coolest thing EVER: it had a basketball hoop, a home theatre where Finding Nemo was playing, a carousel, and of course comfortable recliners to sit in!
o 2nd van load: FULL HOUSE! We had about 9 that came back with us and we played the ice breaker game “Hot Seat”; all of them seemed to enjoy it very much
- arrived back to campus and unloaded again; didn’t get back until little after 7 PM
- immediately after we had a team green wrap-up meeting with the Unit Leaders and dissected the day, brought some sanity back into some TL’s life…I had a blast!
- Later that night we even met our temporary teams and had a mock fire drill
o My team is: Aaron, Alyse, Michelle, Luke, Ryan, Rebecca, Grace, Jacob, Eddie, and Kayla
o One solid group of people!! GREAT team dynamic from the get-go

August 1st & 2nd (Saturday and Sunday)

- Day 1 of in-processing which meant the start of the 15 hour work days!!! But I still have a smile on my face J
- Teamed up with our counter Unit-part Delta 3; Heidi and I led our teams through: Personnel, Uniform Issuing, Photo ID’s, Policies, Orientation to Living Quarters, and TONS of ice breaker games (Heidi and I liked this area because we love doing them J)
- got more and more comfortable with the team; but not trying to get attached…it is very hard NOT to get attached…I like them all a lot!
- On Sunday we played ultimate Frisbee with the CM’s in the morning, went swimming with the CM’s in the afternoon (good turn out of over 60 showed up), came back at 3 PM and did some singing and dancing with the karoke machine with about 25 CM’s (busted out some Spice Girls, “Wannabe” and some Fugees with a side of Bohemian Rhapsody)
- Caught up on some sleep…kinda, I will NOT burn out! I

August 3rd (Monday)

- Day 2 of in-processing and yet again another long one!
o Those activities included: Orientation to Physicals, ISP, Boot Fitting, Health Coverage, Banking, Safety, and Travel
- set up speaker systems in the afternoon at the Southern Culture Heritage Center for Tuesday’s community meeting where the Chief Police was going to speak as well as the Vicksburg mayor
- we then continued with more trainings in the afternoon and finished up in-processing…even got BOOTS!
- HOORAY! We received our teams van keys!! I’m so stoked. Now I can take my temporary team to the downtown area and show them around Vicksburg

August 4th (Tuesday)

- wakey wakey eggs and bakey!
- I had some van issues this day going through 2 before I actually got keys to a workable van; first one had a cracked windshield and the second one the gas gauge wasn’t working…FINALLY settled on a 15-P gray beast
- Loaded up my River 3-lings and headed to the Southern Heritage Culture Center for some presentations; TL’s actually got a block of time to run the community meeting (we put together a dance, 4 TL’s put on a skit for the CM’s, and then we did introductions)
- I did my intro to the theme song of Fresh Prince of Bel Aire:

“Now this is the story all about howDanny’s life got flipped, turned upside downAnd Id like to take a minute just sit right for a jippyIll tell you about me as the team leader down in Mississippi (Vicksburg that is!)In northwest Chicago born and raisedPlaying sports and staying fit is where I spent most of my daysCubs, Blackhawks, Bears, Bulls rooting all coolAnd I majored in communications at Bradley my schoolWhen a couple of friends told me to do some good
That is when I flew to this here neighborhoodI got involved in a service frat Alpha Phi Omega
And my sister said you’re applying for Americorps now or neva

I whistled for the charter bus and when it came zip theAirplane said “A” and I knew I was an N-tripIf anything I could say that this plane was hipBut I thought now forget it, yo pilot to The ‘Sip

I finally got my calling to lead a group of tenI am really excited to be in Americorps again
Hailing from all over the US
Corps members are fitting in their new place
To serve and give back
It’s a fact
River tres is IN YO FACE!

Looked at the campus I was finally hereTo sit on my throne in hopes to be a great leader
And when it’s all over I know it will be fun
Because I know through thick and thin I will GET THINGS DONE!

WORD!”

- there was an intro to Americorps, an EEO stereotype presentation, and then a man came from the Audubon location to show off and describe several different kind of snakes
- for the whole corps there was van driving instructional video and they took the written test
- rallied up the team and headed back to campus
- after everyone got back from the Heritage Center there was a serious staff and TL meeting
- to loosen up a majority of us TL’s took a van load of CM’s to the local crime and prevention block party; at there we got to talk to some Vicksburg community members, eat food, and some even climbed into the dunk tank
- that seemed to calm everyone’s anxiety and hype…went to bed!

August 5th (Wednesday)

- woke at 8 AM to get prepared for team physicals; the River Unit went first, our team’s time was 10:30 AM and they were done in Jackson
- punctual like always, my team and I cruised on our way to Jackson; got there with plenty of time to spare
- waited and waited to get our physicals done and drug tested!
- After we finally got out of the doctors office, we came back to campus grabbed our boxed lunches and headed to the Visitors Center
- Today was the day to tour around Vicksburg in the van and show my kiddies what there is to do
- We stayed at the Visitors Center and took some pictures, grabbed some information, and even slid down hills! Overall a very nice, relaxing, and team bonding time
o We even ate our boxed lunches and had a mini picnic under the Visitor Center’s bridge!
- Next stop was heading towards downtown to a wireless coffee shop and to get library cards; all of downtown Vicksburg is WiFi zone which is super sweet! Some of my members took off and checked out the pawn shop and Audubon store and looked around; we didn’t quite have the time to check out the Farmer’s Market
- Drove back to campus to wind down from the busy day and ate a nice, team dinner in the cafeteria
- We as the river unit congregated together for a run-down of our temporary teams and to get our input on what we thought about each one of them so that Neal could get a better idea on team placements; we helped each other out by chiming in if any other TL’s have had any conversations or known any personality traits about any of them
- Wrapped up by grabbing dinner right when it was about to close and prepped for the big team reveal date on Friday

August 6th (Thursday)

- first thing the CM’s had was a new policy meeting with Neal and Brendan talking about no cell phones during trainings, no gum chewing on campus, and actually learned how to “ground guide” the vans
- I then took a total of 5 CM drivers around town to practice for their driving evaluations and to be fully certified
o Everyone did amazing! Very good drivers in the River Unit!
- drivers drove all day, and if the corps members weren’t driving they did random campus tasks including picking weeds, cutting vines, picking up trash, washing the vans, making bulletin boards, etc.
- cleaned up for dinner and what I “thought” was the last night/dinner with my temporary team, I orchestrated a kind of last supper for the River 3 members…but later found out that the LAST meal with your team would be tomorrow at dinner time…BUMMER!
- It was fun while it lasted…then 3 of my CM’s represented our team in playing Scattegories and WON! GO TEAM!
- I further was gathering ideas on what to do with my permanent River 3 team and spent most of the night gathering ideas.


So there you have it…roughly a week of catching up on things I did and team green did. Yesterday actually marked exactly a month since team green had been in the state of Mississippi…10 more months to go! I am eager to find out my real team and how the temp teams were just to tease us because I absolutely LOVED my temp team right from the beginning. It is going to be bitter-sweet to see them depart. I hope I get at least 2 of my temp members on my real team!! I wish the best for my members that get put on other teams, but please keep in touch because I will always be thinking of them growing and getting things done!! I will go in more detail about my 1st service project in next blog. Let’s just say I didn’t get my #1, 2, or 3 picks…but I was told I will be getting them later in the future rounds. I can’t WAIT to get started.


PS. Our Vicksburg campus people made media again! Here is the link if y’all want to read (yes I have grown to say “y’all”):

PSS. 64 more days Mitchy and Ben until the BIG wedding! You betcha I got the countdown going J That means 64 days for me to lose weight and actually look GOOD in a tux!

Team Leader CRUNCH TIME YA’LL!!”

HIT THE SHOWERS TEAM LEADER TRAINING!

The title of this blog tells it all! EEEK! The corps members literally come in less than 48 hours to the NCCC campus of Vicksburg, MS. Team Leader Training as of today is officially “in the books”! We wrapped up everything that we have been trained on in the past 3.5 weeks. Boy oh boy…it surely zipped right by! It is true when they say, once you get older, days and days get blended together and go super duper fast. That is why one of my goals this year was to stay organized and write the important things done, while also keeping in touch with family, friends, and whomever.

This last week of trainings had a great impact on my up and coming challenges of leading a team of 10. There was a wide array of trainings that benefited me greatly and consciously opened my eyes about strengthening my abilities of becoming a better leader. So here it goes:

07-24-09 (FRIDAY)

- PT in the morning to my favorite PT sport…ultimate Frisbee; our team of 10 dominated and ran all over those other TLs ;)
- 1st day of catered meals given by a catering company in Jackson, MS; they will be feeding us breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 2 possibly 3 weeks.
- Presentation on Southern culture and southern manners/etiquette put on by Program Director, Rich Smith, Jules Hampton and a couple outside presenters; I happened to pick up a few pointers here and there (including: when a southern waves at you, always wave back or you will be perceived as a bad person)
- During lunch I got together with my Unit Leader, Neal, and had a 1 on 1 to discuss our last weeks Myers/Briggs leadership test results, Action Plan, and any worries I had up to this point
- Following lunch we had a 3 hour session dealing with Disasters; it is actually fun experience working on disasters even though it is devastating to see the outcome of the hurricane
- After we had an end of the week 3 wrap-up questions pertaining the same issues such as: need more hot water, need more supplies for the kitchen to cook the food, AC turning off at random times of the day, etc.

WEEKEND

- after Friday’s trainings, some of us cleaned up and went out to downtown Vicksburg for some socialization with each other and other Vicksburgeans that were out that night
- following the downtown scene, we drove over to the Ameristar casino and saw a live variety and funk band perform; danced up a storm; I ended up winning 18 bucks playing penny slots!! GO ME!
- On Saturday, about 5 of us walked to the public pool for an afternoon swim (which I got heavily burnt!), some went to the lake nearby, and others did their own thing; the pool was fun and very relaxing!
- Sunday was kind of a catch up, cleaned the room, played some board games, and had a good sleep in preparing for the up and coming busy, busy, busy week

07-27-09 ( MONDAY)

- group PT in the wee hours of the morning, nothing too exciting to report on this subject
- 2nd group community meeting to discuss important topics, schedule changes, and any other suggestions from staff and team green
- CTI Roundtable Discussion quickly followed
o Got a rough draft schedules of what CTI will look like
o Assigned stations for corps member arrival
- found out getting new phones; mine was acting poorly with a terrible battery life
- before lunch we had a Q and A with two ex-TL’s and asked them about their TL experience and got advice
- after catered lunch we gathered for PCR (project completion report) training with Jen Prall and Rich Smith (PS. More and more I bring up the acronyms for these terms, you will pick up on it J)
- found out we received our 1st TL direct deposit check…ALL were elated!
- The next hour consisted of the briefing of our 2nd TL service project in Vicksburg at a historic nun convent
- Ended the day discussing and gathering ideas about what to talk about at the TL debrief

NOTE: catered food for all 3 meals was NASTY!

07-28-09 (TUESDAY)

- met at 7:30 AM to load up necessary tools for service project; didn’t quite know what we were going to be doing when we got there
- drove to the project site and got to the historic location and received a brief orientation and walk-through
o learned a lot; oldest building in Vicksburg was at this site
- wore our sweet, black coverall outfit, put on our respirators and masks, and strapped on goggles then went to sweep up dust/debris in one of the buildings
o ripped down ceiling tiles
o shoveled up big and small particles of dust
o bagged and dumped it in the dumpster
- the reason for this project was also like a training because we learned what asbestos looks like and to be prepared to do this when you get called to mucking out houses and have to deal with lead paint and other chemical items
- worked and sweated until 11:30 AM; got 3 TV/radio media hits…2 from Vicksburg news and radio stations and 1 from Jackson local TV station (will be finding the links to add it)
- came back to campus for lunch and then go broken up into groups to do the 15 passenger final evaluations; I, of course dominated and passed easily (helps being a driver last year as a corps member); drove with staff Counselor, Leigh Ann.
- Came home from driving and got cleaned up for the Mississippi Braves AA baseball game
o Myself, Dan, and Patrick of the TL’s went
o $4 tickets for the doubleheader! Didn’t know it was 2 games until we got there…definitely worth the price of admission; our seats were 2nd row behind the 3rd base dugout
- what a LONG and TIRING day!

07-29-09 (WEDNESDAY)

- PT at bright and early 6 AM to the sweet MTV dance to the beat workout tape with fellow Road Rules and Real World members…it reminded me when I purchased Richard Simmons DVDs for my fellow crew leaders during Summer of Service last year
- Cleaned up and had TL scenarios where the staff members acted out possible CM situations; great training and very effective
- Got great feedback from the other TL’s in our follow up debrief.
- Another CRUDDY catered lunch!
- Then the TL’s gathered for a practice run-through for our debrief; we were even dressed up in ou formal attire to later find out that our TLT debrief was switched to tomorrow (Thursday) at 11 AM…that’s the pure definition of “being flexible”, one of the important things you learn in Americorps from the get-go!
- We then had chores to do for Wade, Deputy Specialist, and broke off into 4 groups; my group had to go through the 3 different dorms and take off the plastic linings on the bed mattresses, very hot and sweaty!
- After the termination of the small tasks, we gathered in our training room (Room 10) and found out that our BBQ potluck was cancelled, but instead we were going to have an ice cream social later tonight
- Also received word that I was going to be getting a mini fridge for my personal room! I set it up and it is SWEET!
- Had dinner and then followed by the ice cream social and then everyone got more and more hyped up because the anticipation with the CM’s coming
- Wrote some letters to mail to my peeps and called it a night


So as mentioned before, TLT is officially over and now onto the big time…CM’s! All this planning, training, and sitting into listening to sessions has paid off and I believe that a majority of us TL’s are prepared to bring on the CM challenge and lead a team! I know I have been waiting for this for a long time. I think I have to pinch myself to wake up from this dream and come back to reality. All of the previous weeks really have made me think really hard about this upcoming 10 months and makes me happier and happier. I am ready for this!!

More updates to come once the CM’s have settled in. It’s now time to take on the challenge of operating a POD team before our permanent teams come!!

“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” -D.H. Lawrence



PS. Congratulations to my lovely cousin, Karah, for getting married this past weekend (Saturday)! Many years of happiness and love…wish I was able to come!

River Tres..IN YO FACE!

First and foremost before I begin this update I just want to wish my lovely and wonderful parents a Happy 32nd Wedding Anniversary. On this day 32 years ago Karen and Gary eloped and I can truly say that they are the best parents a son and daughter (speaking on behalf of my sisters) can ever have!! I can’t wait for the Golden Anniversary which really is right around the corner J

Yes! Yes! Some of you readers that have been reading my blogs for awhile now are probably wondering what the title of this entry is all about. Well…to answer that quite simply…our River Unit got our team numbers and I wanted to follow suite with my team number last year (Raven 3) and then I kind of “stole” the team phrase we had. I, in a way, was the creator of “Raven Tres in yo face!” but it was a collective effort that put it all together. What I decided to do is incorporate it with my River 3 team this year. We shall see what my Corps Members will think of the genius catch phrase!!

WOW! Is this week nearly over? Week 3 of TLT (team leader training) is coming to a halt as we went through yet again several trainings all pertaining to becoming a better TL. All were vital and influential. A sluggish week for some because of the amount of fun we had hanging out in New Orleans the week before. Pictures soon to be posted on facebook from the weekend. It didn’t slow me down though…instead it made me more anxious and stoked for the CM’s to come!! Countdown now stands at T minus 8 days until they arrive. I even heard there is a CM from Chicago…hmmm! Cubs or Sox fan?? I have no idea!!

Now onto the fun-packed, flexible yet interesting week…

MONDAY (July 20th)

- team green PT @ 6 AM; we did some stretches, did a light jog, wall-sits along the campus building, then went around the circle and performed our best and worst exercises and held for a minute each (the one I don’t like doing are lunges or mountain climbers)
- after cleaning up from PT, myself, Heidi Hock, Dan BP, and Johanna got to perform the 1st TL community meeting that consisted of a choreographed Ace of Base song, announcements, laughter, and ending me a rousing musical game in which you had to think of songs that had the selected word in it (example: “baby”….’Hit me baby one more time!”)
- we got into our Units and had a solid 2.5 hours of bonding with our fellow River Unit
o we visited 3 places together and did a team building exercise at each location; we went first to the visitors center and picked up Mississippi maps, got brochures for potential ISP locations, and hot spots in the remote area of Vicksburg
o next we went to the military grounds of Vicksburg and got a history lesson on how they fired off cannons during the war, it was very entertaining
o lastly, we went downtown towards the Yazoo River and hung out at the water fountains/park area where we wrote a letter to ourselves telling goals, aspirations, and things we want to accomplish before the 11 months is over
- Unit time took us into lunch which then in the afternoon Nick Zefran came in to present our results for the Myers-Briggs test we took last week; my results were very interesting but I was happy to see what type of leader I really am.
- Nick showed us and broke down what each type of leader possesses and how we ranked using code letters; sounds confusing…but if you want to know more information about it, let me know
- After Myers/Briggs we had some reflection time with our Unit (I love our Unit and Unit Leader!) minus Andie who was in the Sacramento campus as a corps member was graduating from her corps member year later that week
- Wound down from the crazy, yet entertaining day and played some Yahtzee with Chelsea…we split one game a piece
- Went to bed early!

TUESDAY (July 21st)

- got told that for most of the day today there wasn’t going to be any water; completely shut off all water pressure at 7:30 AM (GREAT!! I haven’t showered in 2.5 days! I don’t want to be the smelly TL)
- after breakfast we gathered with our Unit and drew out Life Maps; I ended up making a timeline that depicted important events in my life that led me to choosing to be a team leader for Americorps NCCC
- while we were in one of the morning meetings after Unit time, we had a surprised fire drill; while outside to pass the time we played this really sweet Dinosaur team building game…Thanks Jordan!
- Came back in and had the rest of the first half of Projects and Service Learning Session put on by PD and APD, Rich Smith and Jen Prall; we really focused on management duties
- Following the session, Region Director, Gary Turner, had us TL’s sit in to a live staff meeting to see how they operated; basically it was the whole staff in a room giving updates about up coming events and potential schedule changes…took about 15 minutes…there is still an issue with the hot water and consistent air conditioning
- After munching on lunch we had a training with our campus counselor, Leigh Ann Simon; it was called Crisis Intervention in which we talked about how we were feeling and worries we might have as the day slowly approaches for us to actually go out and act like team leaders
- Night 2 of Yahtzee with Chelsea…yes we split games again!
- Nighty Night!

WEDNESDAY (July 22nd)

- PT CANCELLED for morning!! What a shock!!
- In place of that we had to wake at 7:30 AM to clean up the camping gear that we had taken to Hazelhurst the week before
- So today was supposed to be designed for the TL Ropes Course, but because of complications and contract issues, the Ropes have been put on hold as staff tries really hard to find someone; all of us were anticipating the course and then got thoroughly disappointed when we found out there wasn’t going to be one! RATS!
- Instead we had Transition Training until lunch, we got the paper work and discussed vital information about what transition entails and the tasks that need to be done during those 3-4 days…the most important is the Project Portfolio
- After lunch we had Projects Training round 2 with Jen Prall and Rich Smith
- the River Unit gathered into Neal’s office thereafter and revealed our team numbers through voting on our favorites from 1-7, I luckily (as mentioned before) got #3 and the reasoning behind it was I wanted to have the same number as my team last year; along with our team numbers we received our 1st round project sheets in which we have to mark 1 to 13 on which ones we want to go on; I am sorta leaning towards a construction project
- around 3:30 PM we all got together to stuff roughly 1000 envelopes that had invitations for induction that is coming up
- once completed that task, we were all anticipating to going out in the blistering 95 degree summer heat, but were baffled when the UL’s told us that we were doing PT inside; Patrick Edwards (fellow TL) led the group in a one hour Yoga session (I surely have never done Yoga before and don’t really like it)…it concluded with a 10 minute meditation which was very relaxing
- after dinner we broke into our cleaning stations groups and knocked it out for the room inspections tomorrow; our group at kitchen
- some of the TL’s then got cleaned up and went to the karokee locale and busted out a tune (every Wednesday the Warehouse has free karokee, definitely a spot where we will be going)
- very excited to get re-van trained tomorrow with Wade Williams

THURSDAY (July 23rd)

- early morning room inspections, of course mine passed with flying colors as one of my goals this year was stay organized and not slack
- received some nice and comfy mattresses that will make nights sleep much more better
- all of the morning we had Van Training informational sessions with Wade and took the written test; I ended up getting an A+!
- an unfortunate event happened though in the afternoon, as we were helping Wade load up bed frames and mattresses into trucks in the scalding, blazing hot gymnasium, we decided to do some pull-ups to show off our muscles, to our surprise Wade got up there and did it and ended up tearing his right bicep! OUCH!
- He was unable to lead us in the afternoon extravaganza activities as we was rushed to the hospital for treatment
- Instead Brendan Murphy took over and taught the class about how to jack up a tire and how to check your under the hood fluids
- Next we hopped into the vans by units and practice drove around the Vicksburg area, I chose to go first to get it out of the way…driving a 15 P is like riding a bike, very easy to pick back up after not driving it for 8 months!
- Once we got back to campus from the all afternoon driving, we ate dinner and then played a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, great team bonding by playing
- So glad it is almost the weekend!


So there is what transpired the last 4 days with only Friday left to go in this training week. People were talking about traveling to Memphis to visit, others wanted to stay and catch up on sleep and swim in the local pool…I am not quite sure what I want to do. We get our first TL paychecks tomorrow! Everyone is super stoked!! Tomorrow is more trainings including Disaster and Southern Culture. We shall pick up with the updates on Sunday as I am about to sign off! Look for updated pictures that will be posted. So far we are all enjoying one another and becoming closer and closer each day. This is a great group of people with diverse personalities all sharing one common goal…to SERVE! River 3 TL OUT!


PS. Happy wedding day in 2 days my oldest cousin on my Dad’s side, Karah! I wish I was able to come to the wedding, take TONS of pictures!!

PSS. Happy Anniversary again mother and father!!

Hazelhurst to New Orleans...all in one week!

Welcome to another rousing blog about a boy and his fellow team green members on a journey deep, deep in the south. To be more exact, Vicksburg, MS!

This is my 3rd update in 14 days and I am quite proud of being able to keep all of ya’ll informed on what is happening to me in my Team Leader quest! I will be explaining fully in detail what has occurred and try to keep you on the edge of your seat asking questions and wanting more. By far it was a very tiring week and LOTS of things got accomplished! Overall, it was a very rewarding week for all 20 of us team green, 2 unit leaders, and the numerous staff members.

What I (we) did…

MONDAY; July 13th

- 1st group PT in the morning…woke up at 5:45 AM to begin at 6 AM
o Led by UL, Neal, we did some calisthenics, stretches, tossed a Frisbee around in 2 lines and got penalized for dropping (so close to playing my favorite PT event= ultimate Frisbee)
- 1st TL community meeting where the whole staff go tto speak about upcoming week, schedule changes, and various trainings
- Before lunch we had our mini group policies and Protocols presentation
o My group talked about Leave and Sick Calls as well as Housing; we diverted the Housing segment into a rousing game of Jeopardy (a.k.a. Ameripardy!)
- after lunch we had and spent a couple hours discussing Service Learning and what it entails; SL is HUGE in NCCC! (I learned that last year and got refreshed this year)
- around 4:30 PM we loaded our packed bags in the 15 passenger vans and headed to Hazelhurst, MS.
- Each unit rode together jamming out to Disney songs and olides hits on route to the Boys and Girls Club for a day and a half of serving and learning…TIME TO GET THE HANDS DIRTY!
- Arrive at camp; project brief, met Billy the sponsor, played hand/group games with the campers (age ranges from 6-13) and pitched tents (even ate camp food!! YUMMY!)
- Geoff and I tented together because we are brothers from another mother in the humid, muggy, uncomfy nights sky
- Went swimming to cool off in the evening, had a team green bonfire, and shared stories; finally hit the hay preparing for a big day tomorrow

TUESDAY; July 14th

- woke at 5:45 AM in aches and pains hoping to go canoeing with fellow TLs, but no one was awake, so I fell back asleep
- to my mistakings, I later found out that they went out on the lake to canoe later that morning around 6:15 AM and watched the sun rise
- re-woke back up at 7 AM for campsite clean up
o it was a very uncomfy sleeping night and it felt like I received 3 hours of sleep in the end
o I even have battle scars such as bug bites (guess I should have brought a couple dry sheets Mom J), neck aches, and upper back pains from laying on the hard ground (next time make sure to pack a pad of some sort…*note to self*)
- ate breakfast and broke off into our 4 service groups for the day
o groups included: Learning about power tools, trail maintaining, dock building, and roofing lessons
- it rained most of the day slowing down progress and cutting the time at each station
- all in all, it was exhausting when the day was over but Billy was very pleased and thankfull for all our help; Assistant Program Director, Jen Prall, announced that the B & G Clubs of Hazelhurst will be receiving a team 1st round
o myself and the other field TL’s were super stoked because one of the tasks could be fixing up the 10 stationed ropes course
o PLUS he is such a great sponsor, it would awesome to get the project because you want to establish a good, solid relationship with your sponsor and then the round will be great…our Raven 3 team last year found out that is the best way
- rallied everyone up and headed back to campus and called it a night after a long, tiresome 2 days

WEDNESDAY; July 15th

- 2nd group PT in the morning starting at 6 AM
o Warm-up run, stretching, relay race card game…turn over a black card and do crunches…turn a red one over and do pushups
o Swating PROFUSELY! (good ol’ southern morning…bright and early…UP AND AT ‘EM!)
- supervisory training Day 1 with Drew Carberry
o 2 day training discussing effective ways to manage a team and gearing towards being a successful TL\
- performed numerous activities, received a helpful booklet and the presenter was very lively and happy
- 2nd unit meeting with my fellow River mates
- Cleaning night (our group of 5 had bathrooms); all 20 of us are broken into 4 stationed cleaning locations; finally got around to cleaning my own room for room inspections tomorrow
- Busted out the NCCC karaoke machine and some of us jammed out to the late 1990’s greatest hits all the way to Celine Dion!
- We then had a TL meeting talking about who will be going to New Orleans trip this weekend, sorting out the drivers and what people are going into what car; my squad will be leaving Saturday morning!

THURSDAY; July 16th

- at 7:00 AM we had our very first room inspections and I passed with flying colors!
- Went to the 2nd half of Supervisory Training with Drew in which we did more small group activities (it was in a way very overwhelming to do so many small group things back to back to back)
- Drew talked to us until around 5 PM and we reflected on the training as a group
- Cleaned up and went to the Kroger grocery store to get a weeks worth of food; Geoff and I tagged team up once again

FRIDAY; July 17th

- wake up for 3rd group PT session in which we did the baseline test AND sets of pushups and crunches
- I ended up getting 71 crunches done in a minute, 33 pushups in a minute, and ran the 1.5 mile run in 10 minutes and 27 seconds; I really surprised myself with the run as I was expecting my time to be around 12 minutes
- The idea with the baseline test to improve your score each and every time we have it; we will be re-tested at the end of 1st round during transition to keep up with who is doing PT and who isn’t J
- On the schedule for today was Diversity training with Craig Bowman
o I already had the training with Summer of Service so it might seem that I was uninterested, but in actuality it was very good
- Craig had different activities both fun and serious in talking about diversity
- All of us learned more and more about each other in this session
- After Diversity we had a reflection hour in which we really spilled our emotions on the training
- We concluded the week with Unit time and preparing for next weeks events; especially planning Unit time for Monday the 20th (we had some very good ideas in mind, for example: hopping in the van and getting a tour of Vicksburg while getting out of the van every stop and doing a team building exercise!)
- Later on that night majority of the team green went out to either see Harry Potter or Public Enemies
- I decided to call it a night early and prepare myself for a wonderful trip to New Orleans!!

SATURDAY; July 18th

- awake at 7:20 in the morning and get ready to go with the first group to NOLA; thanks to Patrick for driving 4 of us!
- Arrive in NOLA and check into the hotel at 12 noon; drop our things off into the room and walk to the nearest Po Boy shop….MMMM MMM! DELICIOUS!
- After eating some tasty lunch and awaiting the arrival of the other team green groups, we hopped over to the cigar shop and book store; browsed around in each for a little bit and then went back to the hotel to clean up and wait for the others
- Once they arrived we went out; the other groups pit stopped and took the Abita beer free tour
- Met up and walked around Bourbon trying to find good live music; stopped at several places and stepped in to rock out!
- Ended up going to Frenchmen street later to hang out there and socialized with fellow mates and then walked to Mimi’s to play pool and dance to soul/disco/funk!
- All of us congregated back to the hotel in which 7 of us wanted to swim in the pool, we forgot our suits so we decided to jump in anyways…great times and great bonding
- Hopped into bed and called it a night


So as you can see this was a very eventful and busy week! Long days that led to tiring nights and sometimes even getting 4 hours asleep based on whether or not PT was in the morning. But in conclusion it was a very productive week to say the least. A lot was accomplished, learned, and many things will be soaking in. I started getting a rough idea down on scratch paper on how I want to tackle the idea of introducing my corps members when they arrive. The CM’s come to the campus in T minus 11 days and we are all anticipating for it as several of us are in teams planning the “perfect” registration and Corps Member Training. We are wanting to begin a legacy and get things off to the right start. This week ahead of us will consist of more trainings, unit times, reflecting, and possibly more crazy things the Unit Leaders have up their sleeves. All the staff is so incredibly nice and it is always wonderful to go down to their offices and chat with them in between breaks.

Until next time my fellow readers…great updating you on what is happening down here in hot and sticky Mississippi or as Casey Mccue likes to call it, “The ‘Sip!” More to come later on this week. ENJOY! I leave you with this quote said by Unit Leader, Neal Oliver, “Our job is to make each other look good” (Totally using that for my team’s motto!)

1st week of training is in the BAG!

Education Award for completing 1,700 hours of service: $4,725
Amount of food money TL’s get per day: $4.50
Getting bit several times by no-seeums, mosquitoes, and other bugs: PRICELESS!

Man…these biters really enjoy clinging onto you and leaving some heavy duty marks. Throughout this Americorps journey there has been several fruit flies, mosquitoes, spiders and other insects/bugs crawling and flying around nipping at our flesh. They are feasting on our kitchen area and especially the bananas and other fruit items. I can truly play the game connect the dots on my arms because of how many there are. I guess bugs travel with you down to the “dirty south” and I should have been more prepared. OR maybe it is the warm 99-102 degree temperature days mixed in with the sticky, mucky, hot humidity.

Ok ok enough with the negatives and onto the positives. These last couple days have been basically used for team building exercises, learning about specialty roles, and going through ideas to make the “In Processing” for the corps members flow easier. Plus on top of that…it was a way for all the team leaders to get to know one another better by going out and exploring the town of Vicksburg. One of the few weekends we will have free and no corps members to worry about. Some of us have great ideas on what to do with our time off including karokee at a local club/bar down the street. It seems the people who did bring cars are always willing to assist with the driving to these establishments. I kind of wished I brought my vehicle down to Mississippi, but realize that everyone is so friendly and sharing that it was better I didn’t. Thank you all my lovely Ameri-TL friends! Talks have been stirring about getting the group together (or whoever wants to go) to travel over to New Orleans and in mine and Geoff’s case to visit our Americorps Perry Point buddies either working for organizations down there or fellow team green TL’s that happen to have 3rd round projects there. Either way it will be such a blast and bring back great memories of working two rounds in the gulf coast around this same time last year. We even are going to stay in the NCCC Americorps Hotel off of Bourbon St. that gives a special discount to us for being in the program. Wouldn’t that be cool that a couple years down the line that Americorps is so nationally known that you can walk into a restaurant, hotel, or other establishment and be noticed for the hard-work you do and get your meal or something for free? Give it time…I have a hunch it will happen at some point!

Alrighty then…onto the last couple days of this 1st week trainings. As the days keep getting closer and closer to corps member arrival date, I am getting both stoked and worried. I can’t wait to take on the new challenge and leading for the next 10 months a group of young men and women, who are relatively the same age as me, and taking them on a service journey. I hope to get TONS out of this!

THURSDAY (Day 4 of being TL)
- woke up and had mock room inspections and what to expect when there are inspections every Thursday; received a checklist sheet
- from 8 AM- noon we had specialty roles training and learned about the various tasks and roles each member will have to have while on Spikes
- roles range from: assistant TL, service learning initiator, project outreach liaison, CAP’per, Media, and many others; basically each team member should have 2 specialty roles; the roles will change from round to round depending on how the team leader wants to do it.
- Each role has an importance in some way or another, a well-oiled machine works when everyone is doing their part!
- After lunch we learned about the several forms that go with the job description of a team leader; from injury report forms to quantifiable forms to budget forms, etc. So many, but thanks to our TL binder I am able to stay organized and follow through more efficiently. One of my goals for these 11 months was to keep organized.
- Once we all got the idea and gist of forms, we moved onto talking to Teresa Beck (training instructor) about feedback about registration and when we first came to the campus
- We took notes on how to improve the “in processing” and she was able to gather up much of our feedback; we are going to play huge roles in assisting her in the next 3 weeks to make it smoother
- Later the UL’s got us all together and we tied up any loose ends from our previous conversations about alcohol, fraternization with corps members, and other policies that people were confused about.
- Finished up the day by going grocery shopping at the local Kroger; over $800 dollars later we got one weeks worth of food to make meals; Geoff and I combined our money and got some healthy veggies, fruits, wheat bread, and many more because him and I are going to shed some unnecessary weight (myself hoping and praying to lose 15-20 pounds before my older sister’s wedding in October)
- Fell asleep watching my nightly Full House DVD episodes!

FRIDAY (Last day of week 1 of TL training)

- first thing in the morning we had Member Handbook training where headquarters employee Tom Bryant came to deliver the talk
- he went from cover to cover in the Handbook discussing and depicting the key issues (i.e. alcohol, ed award, spike housing, etc.)
- Tom was a very witty and tried to make the training entertaining the best of his ability; I got a lot of issues clarified and any policies that have changed within the past year in my stay in Perry Point; nothing too drastic had been altered
- Around 1 PM we gathered with Jen Prall, assistant program director, and she told us what our first service project as a group is going to be; we went over the task sheet and what we were suppose to accomplish
- Found out we are going camping Monday night and then working all day Tuesday; we were broken into work groups to cover different sections of the Boys and Girls Club location; not sure what one I am in.
- An overview of the service project seemed to be a lot of fun and now we are able to get our hands dirty and help; possibly an idea for a future ISP (independent service project) for my future River team.
- Following the project briefing, we went outside with our fellow unit leaders and performed some team building activities to end the stressful week; several games we picked up on to possibly use with our teams; we broke off into our units and worked within the 10 in our unit; then we were surprised with a tasty dessert.
- While the Team Leaders were still super hyped up from the team builders, we decided upon going to a local blues bar to hang out; about 18 of us drove in 5 cars to the location and got the chance to do more bonding
- A 5-member cover band played 3 sets of music throughout the night and we were dancing up a storm…can you say 3 hours of PT? ;)
- It was good to go and get away from the campus for the night and experience the city of Vicksburg; all of us were really cutting a rug; I am such a bad dancer, but it didn’t matter because it was a good time regardless!


SATURDAY (July 11th)

- felt good to sleep-in and regain some of that lost sleep during the week
- went out and ventured around Vicksburg
- couple of us went to the local swimming pool, hoping to get a free membership from it…still in the works
- at night it was a low-key type night from being so worn out the night before; some played some board games, others watched movies, and others went to Walmart.


So as you can see, we are all excited to be here and get started on serving. This up and coming service project will be a blast because it will be another way to bond with our fellow team green members. This is already a tight bunch of wonderful people gathering from several states and sharing the same common goal! I wonder what is to come in the following couple weeks as we prepare to be better team leaders as well as ready ourselves for the corps members. The 20 of us team green consists of 8 males and 12 females. One downfall from this week though that involves my stupidity…on Thursday night after getting back from shopping for food, I decided to boost morale of my fellow team green members and made a batch of cinnamon rolls to share. After they were done cooking I grabbed a moist towel and took them out of the blazing hot oven…BIG MISTAKE! Why Danny did you use a moist towel? Why didn’t you simply use the oven mitt that was in the drawer 10 feet from you? Well, I don’t know why I did what I did but I ended up 2nd degree burning 2 of my fingers on my left hand. After running them in cold water for an hour and taking an advil…I was good to go! I have gotten some bad sunburns, but this semi-injury hurt like the DICKENS! I had a lot of support from my team green that got me through the pain. I have officially learned my lesson!!

Until next post, stay classy people!! Hope you enjoyed what you read. More blogs to come in the near future!


PS. When we went to the Chinese buffet I received this fortune in my cookie, word for word it read “You are born with grace and beauty.”

PSS. More and more the wedding date gets closer and closer for my older sister and her fiancée Ben I get so excited….and I just can’t hide it!

Round 2 of NCCC...next stop Vicksburg, MS

WOW! So it surely has been awhile since I have blogged or have gotten the time to sit down and actually talk about my Americorps experience. If you are new to reading this, I got accepted in April-ish to be a “field” team leader down in the inaugural Vicksburg, MS campus of NCCC. TL’s are responsible for a lot and leading roughly ten 18-24 year old young men and women in the South Region states of the United States for the next 11 months. Those states stretch from Texas all the way to Virginia! Anyways, I am taking on a HUGE and difficult journey, but I am always ready for new challenges thrown my way. I think that I will be using the same techniques as my old team leader because I really idolized her and her methods. To this day, Andrea and I talk every once in awhile but not enough. She, as well as other Americorps ex-TL’s have opened up and agreed to help me with any Team Leader problems that might arise and get me through the process. My good friend and old teammate, Stan, is currently serving as a TL over in Perry Point, MD and he will definitely be someone to reach out to.

I went roughly 8 months after graduating from Perry Point with well over 2200 service hours in the 10 months and participated in several side jobs to make some sort of income. I took actually the lazy route and really didn’t care to look for communication positions and careers that went along with the degree I received in college (radio/TV broadcasting). So instead I got re-certified to ref high school basketball and soccer, went back and made minimum wage at Kohl’s department store as a cashier, and helping out my Pops at his warehouse building tables for optometrists and Walmart optical centers. That carried me to the decision to actually apply to be a team leader in April. I missed Americorps so much and I just wanted to go back. When I heard there were still some openings at the Vicksburg campus, I decided to…as the group Sugarhill Gang…”Jump on it!” And believe me so far it has been a very wonderful decision. Ideally I wanted to become a Team leader at the Perry Point campus to be with my buddy Stan and my other Ameri-friends that I had made from the previous year, but I said Vicksburg will suffice.

In preparation for Americorps and after being accepted as a TL, I was doing some extensive thinking on how I was going to handle my team. Would I take the iron fist approach? Would I be the friend first? Or would I just simply perform the tough love attitude from beginning to end? I was all puzzled! And actually doing those couple of months after being chosen I was praying to have a motivated team that every member worked hard with no complaints. And I know what you are thinking…there is no way that can happen…you are living in a “dream world!” Yes it might be a dream world to have 10 capable 18-24 working to see change in the areas, but who says I can’t “mold” them into hard workers or be that role model they look up to and want to emulate. I think if I set the bar at the start then they will start respecting me and then everyone will be happy. I think by my personality they will enjoy it and so far the other fellow team green members are getting along with me just great. The staff enjoys my enthusiasm and motivation and attitude towards trainings, other people, and especially the idea to serve in several communities. We surely have been embraced by some of the residents of Vicksburg with wonderful Southern Hospitality! Very nice and thankful people already have been praising us for being apart of the legacy known as Vicksburg, MS. It surely puts a smile on my way to see others happy and cheery.

So…onto the good stuff…which is what has happened in the last couple days of my Team Leader experience down in good ol’ Mississippi (home of ex-Packers QB Brett Favre, the birthplace of Elvis, and rapper David Banner also resides down here). I love the vicinity of where it is located because Memphis, TN is roughly 3 hours away, New Orleans, LA is about 3 hours away, the state capital Jackson is less than an hour…and there has been SEVERAL talks about visiting these places with other fellow team leaders. Kind of wish I had my car down here to be able to road trip to those places. Especially NOLA because of all the great memories with projects, people I met, and actually friends that reside there now either helping out with other Americorps programs or simply fell in love with the city so much they seeked employment to serve down there. They tell us that Vicksburg has about 1,500 monuments scattered throughout because of it’s rich Civil War tradition and actually we have driven past several old barrack locations from the war…kind of cool to have some service learning of the area. Our campus building itself is pretty bomb-diggity!! Totally did not expect the type of treatment we are getting with the rooms we are in (will be posting pictures on facebook soon of the campus). Contractors and the Vicksburg staff have been renovating the place for the last 3 months and it really looks nice. Compared to Perry Point, this campus takes the cake. So much things to do while you are here, including swimming, working out in the gym, playing basketball, and even going outside in the penetrating southern heat and playing ultimate Frisbee or soccer.

I am now going to take you day-by-day of things I did and explain how they were and how fun this experience has been so far.

MONDAY (Day 1 of TL)

- hop on the Van Galder bus to the airport, after only receiving 3.5 hours of sleep the previous night
- arrive at O’Hare airport and get on a 10:35 AM flight to Atlanta, GA
- fly for about an hour and 15 mins and then have a lay over in Atlanta to then fly to Jackson, MS
- get on the flight to Jackson with my first Americorps TL friend, Casey Mccue
- at the end of the flight and when we arrive in Jackson, Casey and I end up running into 4 more fellow TL’s and we skipped to our baggage claim to then be picked up by Unit Leader Brendan and Assistant Program Director Jen Prall
- drove in the govey vans (boy…do I miss seeing those!) to Vicksburg (approx. 50 miles from airport)
- arrive at campus to be engaged with other TL’s that either drove their personal cars or the TL’s who had the earlier flight into the building, everybody is just so friendly!
- got the keys to our dorm rooms and organized rooms; very spacious rooms, lots of closet space and places to just roam around. Coed floors. Randomly selected room numbers from a bag (some got bathrooms in their rooms and some didn’t….mine is bathroomless L)
- had an introduction and ice breaker type games to get to know each other and introductions; I already knew one person coming in (Geoff Hill); but also had some communication with a couple of the TL’s via facebook group that the UL’s had started.
- Received our sweet team green uniforms, BRAND SPANKIN NEW! Including getting a team laptop, USB drive, backpack, and many more…govey phones are on the way (UNLIMITED TEXTING!!!)
- Wrapped up the busy and travel-full day and called it a night!


TUESDAY (Day 2 of TL)

- woke up and received some morning trainings, introductions to the staff members, and the regional director. I had already previously known 5 of the staff members because I worked with them in New Orleans my 3rd round project for Summer of Service last July. They were definitely happy to see us J
- got to take the tour of the campus and pick out furniture for our rooms…I chose some chairs, a desk, and a chest of drawers…now my room is big AND homey!
- Got more acquainted with the other TL’s and found out our unit names and what unit we were on; I am on the River Unit with my fellow Unit Leader, Neal
- Had more trainings in the afternoon, talked to staff members, took some pictures of getting uniforms
- Starting to become comfortable around the TL’s as day by day get closer and closer…I think this group is a good one and really amazing (12 females and 8 males)
- Geoff is my boy and will be for these 11 months!
- Went grocery shopping for our first meals, since the first 3 meals were catered by our fellow Unit Leaders (thanks Neal and Brendan)
- Went on a health and wellness run for necessities
- Called it a night after another long, tiring day


WENDSDAY (Day 3 of TL)

- got up and had morning trainings regarding policy, regulations, rules, and in the afternoon had a counseling meeting with Leigh Ann
- we were in the training room all day today, so some of it seemed repetitive from last year which made the day drag, but it ended great because we got a free pizza party for dinner and got a chance to meet some Vicksburg residents
- they are just so thankful for our help and FINALLY establishing a campus down in Mississippi with all the hurricane damage
- still no govey phones!!!
- Did some TL bonding with one another and danced in the kitchen area, the team is really gelling together nicely; 20 different personalities mixed into one is working out just wonderfully
- Celebrated a fellow TL’s birthday with cake and cheap presents
- Prepared our rooms for our first room inspections
- We really spent a lot of time talking about Personal Training and how important it is and the rules of consumption of Alcohol with Americorps
- Myself and Geoff are attempting to get some people to visit New Orleans next weekend for 2 days and 1 night to visit friends
- Updating my blog


So…there you have the latest Dan Chianakas update on what is going on in the last 3 days here in Vicksburg. As you can see, trainings and unit meetings have been consuming much of our time and we are just adapting to our surroundings and having fun in the process. More to come later as every day gets more and more exciting with new memories and great times. I love the staff members, the TL’s and I am pretty sure I will be loving my team. Until then…hope you enjoy reading this update and I am going to do my darnest to keep this blog updates about 2 days a week with exciting news that will keep you on the edge of your seat wanting more J Thanks for taking the time to read!

PS. “Be the change you want to see in the world” -Ghandi