Americorps Adventures: 9/11 Remembrance Project, PT, etc.

Since 9/11 was last week, the higher-ups at NCCC decided that this week each team would conduct a mini-project in remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Teams all received different projects, ranging from servicing roller skates at the local roller rink to working trail maintenance overnight at a state park somewhere in Iowa. My team was given the task of organizing, cleaning, and doing some painting work at a science center in Cedar Rapids, as well as helping to build a rain forest exhibit for children ages 2-12. We had PT at 5:30 (I'll get to that later), then I had just enough time to shower, put air in the tires of our team van (since I was driving) and park it in our designated meeting spot so that we could leave by 8:00 AM. It is about a 40 minute drive to the mall in Cedar Rapids that the science center is located in, so it wasn't too bad.

The place itself is pretty cool. They used to have a big building elsewhere in Cedar Rapids but it was pretty much destroyed by the flooding that they had in the area in 2008, so they salvaged what they could and set up in the mall. Since they lost a lot of resources and money from that disaster, they have been working with Americorps teams on a regular basis over the last few years, so they knew what we are all about and were ready to put us to work. Some of us cleaned the exhibits, others painted some of the activity rooms, my job was to help brainstorm ideas for the rain forest exhibit, research facts about rain forests, and create some hands-on materials for children to check out. I ended up making two fact-card things about deforestation after a lot of note-taking, as well as putting some paint hand-prints on some walls and other related activities. It took a lot longer to photoshop the images for the cards than I thought, so I may not be working as much on that kind of stuff tomorrow. I forgot to mention that this is a 2-day project, so we're done tomorrow, and our portfolio report is due Thursday. So that was pretty interesting.

Each year an area the size of Delaware is cleared in the Amazon in order to make room for farmland.

2.5 acres of forest will absorb around 400,000 pounds of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. That's the same weight as 40 elephants.

PT is at 5:30 AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last Wednesday we did push up/sit up pyramids, where you do 1 push up, then 1 sit up, then 2 push ups, then 2 sits ups, and so on up to 10. Then you do it back down to 1, for a grand total of 100 of each. There was also stretching involved. Friday we ran for 20 minutes in the pre-dawn dark on the walking/biking trail that runs past campus. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that at 5:30 AM the sun isn't up yet. Which was pretty cool when the crescent moon and Venus were next to each other in the sky on Wednesday. Pics below for everyone that wasn't up before the sun on that day.

There are also pics below of some pretty awesome sunsets that I masterfully captured on my cell phone, and of me looking ridiculous in my uniform and PPE. You're welcome Arick.