Service Learning

In high school my fellow students and I were expected to serve our community in one way or another for a measly 20 hours per school year.  I was recently laughing with one of my fellow AmeriCorps about the requirement of 20 hours, because now we do more than that in a few days!  True, we receive a stipend and healthcare and some food assistance, but many of us have commented that it feels like we won the lottery with these "jobs" because we used to carve time out of our already busy schedules to do activities like the kind we do on a daily basis now...mentor and tutor undeserved students, staff a fundraiser for a community organization, childcare for family service groups, or (like the service project I helped with this past Saturday) yard work for elderly patrons who wish to stay in their own homes as they age.  I decided I really did want to be part of this service project because it hit close to home.

 I have two grandparents who each live in their own homes and are fairly independent.  I wish I was closer to each of them so I could be the one who was helping them with whatever they needed around the house.  But, this time, we were helping Pam.  Through a great program called Paint the Town, older people who are living in their own homes but are not able to do all the upkeep included in home ownership are paired with groups, like AmeriCorps, who come and do the heavy lifting to get the upkeep things done.  This weekend, six AmeriCorps went out along with employees of a local bank and warehouse store.  Some of us painted, some did yard work, some got up on the roof and scraped off buckets and buckets and buckets of moss, and some, like Megan, became Queen of the Wood Garden.

Megan did a great job envisioning how to clean up where A LOT of wood had been stashed.  To say I was impressed with the way she figured out a way to sort, stack, and reorganize all the wood that was there would be an understatement!  She rocks!  While I was assisting in this process I found some really awesome looking spiders, and couple salamanders and one very large rat who's surfacing resulted in a very large, surprised scream from me and Megan.

Dividing the fruit up

Pam and the director of Paint the Town were incredibly hospitable to our group.  They let us take the leftovers of the snacks that were there.  Fresh fruit is even better when it's free! Through Megan's fearless inquiries 124 W 5th Street is also the proud new owners of a push mower!  We had been hoping we could get one so we could avoid having to borrow one from someone, as well as avoiding the gas that goes into most mowers and therefore the gross pollutants and emissions that go along with the gas mowers!  124 is all about reducing our carbon footprint and being good earth stewards!  Which is why Megan also finagled some awesome wood pieces that will enable us to build our first raised bed to grow some of our own food!

No service to the community would be complete without learning, too!  The tangible act I learned this time was how to tape windows and doors in prep for spray painting.  May seem small, but maybe it will come in handy later on down the road.  Non tangible learning:  I'm lucky to be living with an ingenious woman.  I am lucky to have ended up in an area where neighbors help neighbors (even if we don't know of each other before a community group asks for volunteers).  I can't imagine not being able to be part of this community and not being able to do a few small things that are hopefully helpful to someone.  I really do wonder sometimes how I got to have the best "job" I could ask for right now.