The Grand Finale

Today was filled with a lot of emotions -

sadness -our project is ending
happiness - our project is ending
nervousness - for the performance
overwhelmed - we have to prepare food for 70+ people tonight (when only about 40 people actually came)
anxiety - the program isn't printing correctly!

Needless to say, it was a very busy day. My main priority was to prepare the kids for the performance, but there was so much other stuff going on! Between preparing food all day, messing around with the programs, and getting together the final details for the performance, I felt like I was about to explode.

But, it's funny how things just sort of...work out. By the end of the night, I was very pleased with everything. Mrs. Wilkerspn came in clutch with the programs, the kids did great (out of nowhere, everyone had their parts memorized!), and we had a lot of extra food, cups, etc. Daijah and I were really happy about that because we go to eat the leftovers. Special shout out to Susan Faler at the Gries Center for letting us borrow a hot water dispenser so that we could serve tea at the performance! The only thing that went awry is that two students didn't show up to the performance. I was very nervous about that because they both had speaking parts. But, the students actually (FOR ONCE) banded together and made it look as if no one was even missing.

Tonight was very bittersweet. I'm glad that I got this amazing opportunity to work with these smart, friendly, and energetic kids.

Final Day

Today was the last day! I'm actually going to miss the morning Bible class, at least, the people in the class. Even though I am still sore from mulching yesterday, I enjoyed doing this project. Today I had my last presentation on the parts of man, the body, soul, and spirit. Although I forgot to include the heart, I did include verses on the arm and leg. I also learned that English translations cannot be trusted, since the same translation can come from multiple variations of Hebrew words, even ones with completely different definitions. I learned that the body has evil desires, but it is also a temple for God. I also learned that the soul and spirit are two completely different things, but have many similarities. It rained today, so I was unable to pass out fliers today and my day ended at 4.

As I mentioned previously, this was an interesting and challenging project. I was interested by everything I did, and learned something new everyday. Thanks for a fun three weeks!

Alas, Boys Closed Down Epic Fraternal Group, Having Indulged Joyous Knockout Learning Method. No Project Quite Rendered Such Tremendous Understanding. Vehemently Wishing Xperts Year-long Zephyrs.

Summer time and the living ain’t  that easy. The past few weeks were very impactful in changing how we view our city and our own lives. In case y’all didn’t know, the Emerald Necklace features a lot of natural gems. Our Tuesday started at the early time of 8am, but we didn’t fold in the face of a little morning drowsiness. We persevered through Graham’s allergy induced yawns and were given a VIP tour of Cleveland Metroparks’ new endeavors in the flats area by our amazing sponsor sensei Dr. Connie Hausman. After a quick detour through the Scranton road park that is in the process of being transformed into an environmental beauty that shuns the industrial mounds across the Cuyahoga, we whizzed over to the Metroparks’ new dining facility at Rivergate. Rivergate is still in the process of being transformed from a gravel pile scattered with the dung of geese into a marvelous park and restaurant with significantly less goose dung. Our first chore was to move rocks away from the trees on the premises, and layer on new topsoil.  Shout out to rake-man Graham Duff for wielding the dainty tool while Al and Chaz got to do the jovial shoveling and wheelbarrow dispersal of topsoil. There was almost no pressure doing this work in front of the Metroparks’ professional construction staff, but when Lolly the Trolly and the Goodtime III both passed by we nearly folded. Multiple second grade end of the year class trips were right there to notice any faults we made, but we stuck it to them by performing in record time. After our labor was done we took a second to converse about whether or not the heron across the river was real. It was! Great Blue Heron even fooled us with its stillness and patience in pursuit of a little fish or amphibian.

After slamming some preservative free sandwiches in the car we were re-energized for our afternoon activities in Rocky River.  None of us were expecting the fun we were going to have this afternoon.  In fact, it slapped us in the face like a caudal fin to the dome by none other than Dunkleosteus the prehistoric mascot of Ohio, and I bet you all didn’t even know it existed! In case you didn’t realize, Dunk can measure up to 33 feet in length. Wow. After a walk through the nature center we almost missed out on the once in the lifetime experience of the Rocky River treehouse, luckily Dr. Connie was looking out for our developmental needs and steered us towards the hand puppets that were strewn amongst the cozy arbors. Side note: make sure when crawling through the child tunnel to look up at the surprise…now you have to go check it out. Bet you thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. Sensei Hausman led us on a fulfilling exploration of the park as we checked up on her recently planted seedlings and newly acquired American Elms. We also experienced an amazing view of the Rocky River that you will once again have to go to the park to see, because we don’t want to give anything away.  Our afternoon in Rocky River concluded with a little weed stamping around another area of recently planted trees. We were trampling these weeds around the trees so the skilled natural resources crew could come in with their sprayers and put down a little herbicide that will givev the weeds an astute roundhouse to their stamen.

Wednesday, today, was our last project day, and we were all glum, but not too glum as our included exploring the Bedford Reservation with our vivacious sponsor sensei Dr. Connie Hausman; botanist, ecologist, and friend. Before our excitement we experienced the ultimate sadness of leaving our shed at Acacia behind. With the last pile of dirt placed in the trash and our golf ball collection loaded into the car we shed a sapphire tear and simultaneously pulled the cream colored door closed. We then spent an afternoon exploring Bedford’s architectural wonder, the Viaduct, and learning about trees. Sweet mother of dendrology are there a lot of sassafras trees in Bedford!  Now we shed our second tear of the afternoon as Dr. Hausman told us about the Chestnut blight that wiped these behemoth trees that once dominated the deciduous forests of North America. We are not infants, who cry all the time; we just get really emotional about the easily avoidable consequences of anthropogenic stress.  

We are truly going to miss everyone that made this project a major success and willfully guided us through to greatness. It has been the highlight of our school experience and has taught us the importance of allelopathy, epicormic sprouts, perched tributaries, Martha, meander bends, glacial till, thalwags, germination, depositional bars, deer browse, robust systems, science senseis, and much much more. Thank you for everything.

Peace,

Graham Duff, Alex Stotter, Chase Goldston

The Final Act Here at STACK

The culmination of three very interesting weeks at STACK was exactly that... interesting. Tuesday offered one of the most unique and downright awesome experiences of my life. The much anticipated Breslow interview at Progressive Field had crept up on us. Brian, a photo team, and I went down to the ballpark to chat with a real Major League pitcher.

We arrived at 2 o'clock even though the Breslow interview wouldn't happen until 4:15. Brian and I basically just used our media passes to wander throughout the back hallways of Progressive Field. We walked down to the Clubhouse and Locker rooms, we gave our warmest regards to Terry Francona and Chris Antonetti as we strolled past the manager's office, and we gave a cool head nod to Nick Swisher and Asdrubal Cabrera. It was surreal.

Once Breslow finished his long-toss work, our photo team whisked him away and took some uncomfortable pictures of him doing the "Thinker" pose with a baseball. After the photo crew wrapped up, the Sox's PR guy directed all of us to the dugout and I introduced myself to Craig and began the interview. We covered his childhood, his time at Yale, his Sister's cancer, and some of his MLB career in a 15 minute interview.

Then Brian and I wandered through the ball park a little more, heading up to the Press Box to see writers like Paul Hoynes and the announcing crew of Matt Underwood and Rick Manning.

Once we got back to the office at around 5:15, I transcribed most of the interview and headed back to The Jake (Yup, The Jake) with a friend and my media pass still attached to my hip. We roved throughout the ballpark due to my full immunity and ended up sitting a couple rows behind home plate. I left him for 2 innings to get a new vantage point from the Press Box and on a beautiful summer night the Indians walloped Breslow for a 5-3 win. I'm still waiting for someone to pinch me.

On Wednesday I had to get to work immediately in order to produce the Breslow piece before project ended. Brian and I spent some time dissecting the interview and I spliced and diced until I had what I wanted.

Brian walked me through his edits and I reproduced a finished copy. It should go onto the internet relatively soon and it might just show up in a print copy later this fall or winter.

As I stated before, my time at STACK was interesting. But not the interesting that carries a bizarre connotation, instead the interesting literally meaning of interest. I was thoroughly intrigued by almost everything that occurred in the office even though sometimes it meant researching heroin usage in Cleveland or marking at least 250 boxes of magazines. I learned the word ebullient while at STACK and when I was walking through the unseen private hallways at Progressive Field I was that word, ebullient.

Thanks for a pretty cool 3 weeks, STACK.

Peace,

Doe
 

End of the Road

Overall, I have enjoyed my experience volunteering at Esperanza and working on our guidebook. The guidebook should be ready to be picked up this evening or some time tomorrow, and I am excited to see how great it looks thanks to Nora's fantastic formatting skills. This week wasn't a very big week filled with activities. Monday, I was sick so I was unable to make it to project. Tuesday, we worked at the library for a few hours before heading to Esperanza. Adria didn't have a lot of work for us so we left a little early. Today, we did some last minute things for Adria, and I am sure the day will be ending a little early again. I am glad that we came up with an exciting idea for project. I learned a lot about working with a group, non-profits, public schools, and my own skills and knowledge

All Good Things Must Come to an End

It's the last day! We're pretty bummed to leave Esperanza and all the fantastic people we have worked with (though it might be a good thing this is our last day as I think Adria is running out of things for us to do). Today Nora worked on make a calendar of events in the 2014/15 school year, I made a flyer for volunteer events, and Rebekah made phone calls to volunteers. I brought some white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies in today as a thank you for everyone, and they were a big hit.

We are picking up the guidebook from the printer's today and I am very excited to see how all of our hard work turned out. We printed 20: we each are keeping one, fifteen are going to Esperanza, and two are extra. We will see how they turn out!

Feeling Frustrated

My patience was definitely tested today. The day started off fairly normally, except for the fact that we started teaching in the morning as opposed to after lunch. I liked that because it gave us the extra time that we needed to fine tune the last details for our performance. However, things quickly went downhill once Mrs. Wilkerson left and a substitute took her place for the day. Now I've always known that these kids were bad - they don't listen, the talk too much, and they can't work together. But I love them anyway. Ohhhhh oh oh but today, I was SO shocked with their behavior that I wanted to leave early. They were so rude to Daijah, the substitute, and I! They were yelling and misbehaving and didn't listen to any of our instructions. It makes me so upset because I know that they are better than this! They would have never behaved like this in front of Mrs. Wilkerson. I left Chambers feeling nothing but frustration and disappointment today. 

Oh! And there are still some students who haven’t memorized their parts yet. I really hope that they do because I don’t want any of the kids to be reading off of cards during the performance…I know they can do better than that.

On the bright side, Daijah bought the Chinese take-out boxes, rice, and dumplings for the performance. Thankfully, Mrs. Wilkerson is going to give us some money to offset the costs of all the food, decorations, utensils, etc. that we will need for Wednesday night. 

Beginning of the End

It's hard to imagine that I'll be leaving Metro after 3 mere weeks. While my time there may have been short, I'll keep the lessons I've learned for a lifetime. While my project has certainly helped broaden my horizons in terms of career possibilities, the more important opportunity I gained was that of interacting with the population of the downtown area. There are so many incredible stories, magnificent people and tragic endings that happen without any notice of those in our little bubble. While Hawken likes to pride themselves on their experiential learning, nothing I've done in the scholastic setting has been as educational or as powerful as listening to the tales of the patients at Metro. Every day I realize how lucky I am to be who I am, where I am and have the options that have been presented to me. Thinking about it today, the biggest culture shock I've probably been hit with was at Mound Elementary school. As I walked in to the school, I passed by a guard and under a metal detector and found my way around to the clinic room. But only today did I fully understand what I had done. The elementary school I had visited had been deserving of both a full time guard and a metal detector. When I was in 6th grade the only thing I worried about was getting my mom to drive me to friends' houses or sneaking some dessert before dinner. Nothing that warranted any kind of security system to be put in place. Safety was always something I took for granted, and now I realize that children 15 minutes from where I live have to worry about it every day. What I've seen and heard while working at Metro will stay with me for years to come and I'm so glad to have been offered the chance to take a look into my community around me, and take a few steps out of the bubble I've grown accustomed to.

First House Meeting

Today was my first ever house meeting! This is a weekly meeting where me and the other tenants come together and talk about the state of the house we are living in and any problems we might need to address, such a shortage of toilet paper, which has apparently been an issue in the past. Today we talked about some problems in the house, read and discussed the book of Ecclesiastes, and prayed afterwords.

Now, here is a quick summary of Thursday and Friday because I forgot to blog about these two days on Friday. On Thursday, I had my usual four hour long morning Bible class. On that day, we discussed what the Bible says about trees and how which human characteristics they represent. Then we passed out fliers around the neighborhood from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. After getting back, we left for a friend's house for dinner and I returned home around 10 p.m.

On Friday I had my usual four hour morning Bible class, except this time my proctor, Mr. Breisch, came to visit and sit in for the last two hours when I presented. My presentation was on salvation and sanctification, and the difference between the two words in the Bible. Through my research, I learned that even though the two words are extremely similar, they are still different because salvation means being saved, while sanctification means being made holy. After the class I had another community outreach session of handing out fliers from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and after that my day was over.

Holy Heck! Huge Hearts Help High school Hounds Halt Humdrum Housework

It has been exactly 7 days since our last Monday, and if all goes according to plan, there should be another one in exactly 7 more, but come next week, our Mondays will cease to be marked by hip waders and wire enclosures and in stead will be marked by the then alumni chain gang despairingly singing Lana Del Rey’s hit single Summer Time Sadness again and again after the heat and bugs force the senior project-less gang into the confines of a cramped, dull basement.  In short, retirement is fast approaching, and we can feel it in our bones.  Today the crew continued the inelegant work of data entry.   Though it was not nearly as fun as being out among Acacia’s white tail deer and her fetching saplings, it was absolutely rewarding to finally see the vast amount of information we have gathered in one place.  Homemade hot sandwiches and Danny Brown’s soothing rhymes pulled us through.

We look forward to making the very most of the remainder of the project.  Dr. Plant Ecology Sensei Connie Hausman has called upon us for another mission.  After a short trip to the batcave and then to Target because Graham forgot his black socks, we successfully gathered everything we needed.  You might say that after spending the last couple days locked in the stagnant air of the indoor world, the gang is more excited than the collective paternal trio of Richard Stotter, Tim Duff, and David Goldston after they heard that there was a new Bizarre Foods America airing at the University of Houston’s new football stadium, directly following their lovely extended bike ride from the “root beer” tasting.  I hate to be dropping so many references, but we are getting desperate for ideas for our surprise Father’s Day celebration.   Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments…  Just don’t tell Rich, Tim, or Dave…

Take it easy,

The Great White Duffalo and his hammer-swinging Cohorts

The Beginning of the End

Today marks the first day of the last week of our project. We turned in the guidebook, and are so proud that we were able to finish it- it was a huge undertaking. It is currently at the printer's!

Because we finished the guidebook, this week we will be solely working at Esperanza. Today, Rebekah was not feeling well, so she stayed home. Nora worked on making flyers for Esperanza's tutoring program (I helped come up with some catchy slogans, though Nora might take all the credit). I am continuing to work with Elizabeth Torres at Lincoln West High School on parent, student, and faculty surveys. I also compiled a list of dance studios (specifically studios that have hip hop, salsa, and merengue) and chess groups for Adria, the volunteer coordinator. Adria is trying to organize dance and chess classes at Esperanza.

Tuesday and Wednesday will look pretty similar to today, except we will be working on our mind-blowing presentation and final write up, as well as training hard for the Giant Relay. Hope everyone else will have a great final week.

Fun filled weekend

Today was really busy, but first a summary of what happened Saturday. Waking up around 10 a.m. to go help clean at the church is the hardest thing I have ever experienced. I arrived at 10:30 a.m. and spent the next two hours helping to set up for the Sunday meeting and vacuuming the hall. I also learned how to mop the floor!

After this eventful morning, I went home to sleep some more and came back to the church at 6 p.m. to help set up for the youth conference. After eating dinner, singing songs, and praying my day was over for Saturday.

Finally onto today! Today was a really busy day. It started off a peaceful breakfast with friends at the church, but all of a sudden my allergies started acting up. Throughout the entire meeting I was sneezing in the back. At one point I had to step outside since I had a headache from sneezing so much. However, during lunch I felt much better and didn’t even sneeze until I walked outside in the pollen filled air.

This afternoon was the last nightly meeting called Aspire, which lasted from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. for me, since I had to help clean up. However, after putting everything away and throwing the last plastic cup away, my day was over and I headed back home.