The latest pictures from Gold 1 straight off the camera...
--> First Session!
More pics where added to this album...
--> Wi-Ta-Wentin
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Phase 4!
Phase 3 flew by and now we are to phase 4!
We are camp staff at Campfire USA's Camp Wi-Ta-Wentin in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Check out the pictures and commentary!
--> Wi-ta-Wentin pictures here
We are camp staff at Campfire USA's Camp Wi-Ta-Wentin in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Check out the pictures and commentary!
--> Wi-ta-Wentin pictures here
--> Phase 3 Jeff Davis Elementary Pictures here (Part 1)
--> Phase 3 Part 2
--> Phase 3 Part 3
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Biloxi-tastic!
Yay!!! We are here in Biloxi, Mississippi which is right on the Gulf of Mexico.
--> Assorted New Team Pictures
We arrived here a few days ago after spending one night in New Orleans (since our plane was delayed) and we woke up early to drive from New Orleans to Biloxi (almost 2 hours) where we went directly to Jeff Davis Elementary to get to work! Jeff Davis is K-6 school where many children were behind in schooling due to Katrina; many children relocated to a different city and have finally returned back to Biloxi. Biloxi is home to a major military base (at least 70% of the students are from a military family) along with over 20 large casinos…whoot!
At Jeff Davis we do a variety of activities including tutoring, assisting teachers, assisting with PE and helping in the library. Many of us tutor in the reading center where certain students come everyday to work on their reading skills 1-on-1 with a helper. Everyone on the team has a different schedule.
All of the students take part in an AR program (Accelerated Reading). The kids are tested throughout the year to find out what their Reading Level is. If you are in 3rd grade, you should at least have a 3.0-3.9 Reading Level. Kids read books in their reading range and then test over them on the computer. They have to continuously earn high grades on different book tests to raise their Reading Level. Many kids who come to the reading center have low Reading Levels for their grade…but the program seems to be working well and many students have made remarkable progress. One of my 2nd grade students started the year with a 1.0 Reading Level (equivalent to where a new 1st grader should be) and now he is at a 2.6 (where a 2nd grader should be)!
Gold 1 is currently living in what appears to be a church gym. Imagine a large gym with lots of tables, chairs and bunk beds. Our bunks are on the ‘second floor’ but the floor is ‘open’ so you can easily see the rest of the gym…there isn’t a wall. There are 2 other teams living with us along with other volunteers who work with Hands on Gulf Coast (our team doesn’t work with them but we share housing). It is less than a mile from the beach…yay!!! We had our first PT on the beach yesterday…imagine running in the sand along the water as the sunsets while listening to your favorite inspirational mp3 mix…oh yes! Now the Gulf water isn’t very clean (for whatever reason) so we don’t swim in it.
This past weekend some of us completed more ISP hours (independent service project hours) at the local Crawfish Festival. We worked the Red Cross booth passing out fliers and information on hurricane and disaster preparedness. It was a lot of fun because Spongebob was taking pictures with children (for a 3 dollar donation to a child abuse prevention program)…and the long line that the kids waited in went right in front of our booth. We somehow ended up blowing bubbles at the kids for hours on end. It was so much fun…the little kids were so cute! Needless to say by the end of both days we were covered in bubble solution but we managed to pass out a lot of important safety information AND we even got a picture with Spongebob! That is what I call a great ISP!
Also we have at least 4 birthdays coming up in the next few weeks...it should be fun!
--> Assorted New Team Pictures
We arrived here a few days ago after spending one night in New Orleans (since our plane was delayed) and we woke up early to drive from New Orleans to Biloxi (almost 2 hours) where we went directly to Jeff Davis Elementary to get to work! Jeff Davis is K-6 school where many children were behind in schooling due to Katrina; many children relocated to a different city and have finally returned back to Biloxi. Biloxi is home to a major military base (at least 70% of the students are from a military family) along with over 20 large casinos…whoot!
At Jeff Davis we do a variety of activities including tutoring, assisting teachers, assisting with PE and helping in the library. Many of us tutor in the reading center where certain students come everyday to work on their reading skills 1-on-1 with a helper. Everyone on the team has a different schedule.
All of the students take part in an AR program (Accelerated Reading). The kids are tested throughout the year to find out what their Reading Level is. If you are in 3rd grade, you should at least have a 3.0-3.9 Reading Level. Kids read books in their reading range and then test over them on the computer. They have to continuously earn high grades on different book tests to raise their Reading Level. Many kids who come to the reading center have low Reading Levels for their grade…but the program seems to be working well and many students have made remarkable progress. One of my 2nd grade students started the year with a 1.0 Reading Level (equivalent to where a new 1st grader should be) and now he is at a 2.6 (where a 2nd grader should be)!
Gold 1 is currently living in what appears to be a church gym. Imagine a large gym with lots of tables, chairs and bunk beds. Our bunks are on the ‘second floor’ but the floor is ‘open’ so you can easily see the rest of the gym…there isn’t a wall. There are 2 other teams living with us along with other volunteers who work with Hands on Gulf Coast (our team doesn’t work with them but we share housing). It is less than a mile from the beach…yay!!! We had our first PT on the beach yesterday…imagine running in the sand along the water as the sunsets while listening to your favorite inspirational mp3 mix…oh yes! Now the Gulf water isn’t very clean (for whatever reason) so we don’t swim in it.
This past weekend some of us completed more ISP hours (independent service project hours) at the local Crawfish Festival. We worked the Red Cross booth passing out fliers and information on hurricane and disaster preparedness. It was a lot of fun because Spongebob was taking pictures with children (for a 3 dollar donation to a child abuse prevention program)…and the long line that the kids waited in went right in front of our booth. We somehow ended up blowing bubbles at the kids for hours on end. It was so much fun…the little kids were so cute! Needless to say by the end of both days we were covered in bubble solution but we managed to pass out a lot of important safety information AND we even got a picture with Spongebob! That is what I call a great ISP!
Also we have at least 4 birthdays coming up in the next few weeks...it should be fun!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Goodbye NOLA! Hello Biloxi!
Here are the last pictures from our time in NOLA with the St. Bernard Project.
Picture Album 1
Picture Album 2
Next up we will be heading to Biloxi, Mississippi to help teach at an elementary school!
Picture Album 1
Picture Album 2
Next up we will be heading to Biloxi, Mississippi to help teach at an elementary school!
Sunday, March 9, 2008
More Pictures!
Here are a few more various pictures from Gold 1.
As it was said before, we work in different houses so we don’t get many chances for group pictures. I’ll try to get some more pictures of everyone on the team up soon (along with a great update)!
--> Assorted NOLA 2
As it was said before, we work in different houses so we don’t get many chances for group pictures. I’ll try to get some more pictures of everyone on the team up soon (along with a great update)!
--> Assorted NOLA 2
Monday, February 25, 2008
Gryffindor 4!
Shaking Camp Hope’s School of Construction, a new house team has emerged during Phase II. Formally Gold 1 and Red 3, Gryffindor 4 is the new ultimate team working with the St. Bernard Project. They are rebuilding multiple homes in their roles as specialists, runners and site supervisors. Recently, multiple NBA stars and Anderson Cooper have commended Gryffindor 4 on their coolness…
New Pictures:
New Orleans (more added to this album)
Assorted NOLA (new album)
Note from the photojournalist: this phase will have less pictures of everyone because we all work at different places during the day...but I'll try to get at least one great shot of everyone
Saturday, February 9, 2008
St. Bernard’s Parish
(in the words of Malai) Woo!
We arrived here in St. Bernard’s Parish three day ago. We left at 2:20am to catch a bus to Oakland (1 ½ hours away) because it was cheaper to fly us all out from there. We had at least three charter busses packed with AmeriCorps members and all of their belongings. Once we got to the airport it was basically a free for-all…and you had to hope you knew what you were doing or you were going to miss your flight! There were at least 130 AmeriCorps members flying out to various areas around the Gulf…which meant different airlines, different flights, sometimes layovers…Gold 1 was split into two groups. Also, instead of sitting with other Ameri-members on the plane, you are randomly spread out in individual seats (usually the awkward middle seat). We had to wait a few hours at the airport to gather as a team again and catch our ride to Camp Hope. We finally arrived at Camp Hope around almost 10pm.
Camp Hope is:
Located in St. Bernard’s Parish (they call counties parishes in Louisiana)
The largest volunteer camp in the United States
An old converted 2 story middle school
Camp Hope has:
Classrooms filled with bunk beds (34 beds in the female room)
Lounges
A used books section
A few TVs (hello again American Idol!!!)
A give and take room where you put things you don’t need anymore (I found a shelf, bug spray and a pair of pants)
Cold showers inside the building but warmer shower available outside in a ‘mobile shower unit’…we have to take 4 min or less showers
There is another Ameriteam that cooks breakfast and dinner for us and they lay out lunch items for us to pack each day
It is amazing how much work still needs to be done here in New Orleans. It has been 2 ½ years since the storm but only 40% of residents have been able to return. Few businesses in the Parish are open and many houses remain uninhabitable. Our orientation the first day was great! The organization is extremely organized and knows exactly what they want to do with us…we were sent out to worksites to build for the next few days. Our organization is called the St. Bernard’s Parish Project (SBPP). Their goal is to find homeowners who lived in SBP before the storm, take their gutted houses (must have faming and be structurally sound) and restore the inside including walls, floors, appliances, doors, etc.
(Paraphrased from a SBPP packet)
St. Bernard’s Parish is more of a suburb of New Orleans and it was the only parish to be completely destroyed in the flood. Before Katrina the population was 67,000 and the Parish had 27,000 homes. Senior citizens comprised 50% of the population prior to the storm and residents worked as fishermen, in the trades, and at refineries. After Katrina 100% of the homes in SBP were rendered uninhabitable and standing water of 4-20 feet stayed for up to 4 weeks. Now only a little over 1/3 of the residents have been able to return…most living in FEMA trailers or in their attics above the waterline. Only ¼ of the businesses has been able to re-open. SBP is described a community filled with hard working middle-class families, veterans and generations of families who live within a few blocks of each other. In the years before Katrina, insurance companies rezoned St. Bernard out of the flood plan, so most residents no longer had flood insurance after decades of paying for it. When Katrina hit 75% of families were under- or uninsured. The first rescue crews into the Parish, five days after the storm, came from abroad: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Residents felt abandoned by the US government…especially the residents who were veterans.
Now AmeriCorps is the large force coming from the government. It has been said many times how the volunteers have rebuilt the Parish…if it weren’t for volunteers SBP would not be what it is now. The director of Camp Hope was telling us how a resident has regained his faith through the volunteers…during the flood he spent 5 days stranded on the top of his roof, waiting for help. During those 5 days he lost faith in the government and humanity…his father (who was on the roof too) survived but his mother could not make the 5 days of hot summer heat with no food and no clean water. He told our director that after the rebuilding started he would see the volunteers giving their all to help the residents move back into their homes…and after awhile seeing that restored his faith in humanity.
--> Check out New Orleans pictures here
We arrived here in St. Bernard’s Parish three day ago. We left at 2:20am to catch a bus to Oakland (1 ½ hours away) because it was cheaper to fly us all out from there. We had at least three charter busses packed with AmeriCorps members and all of their belongings. Once we got to the airport it was basically a free for-all…and you had to hope you knew what you were doing or you were going to miss your flight! There were at least 130 AmeriCorps members flying out to various areas around the Gulf…which meant different airlines, different flights, sometimes layovers…Gold 1 was split into two groups. Also, instead of sitting with other Ameri-members on the plane, you are randomly spread out in individual seats (usually the awkward middle seat). We had to wait a few hours at the airport to gather as a team again and catch our ride to Camp Hope. We finally arrived at Camp Hope around almost 10pm.
Camp Hope is:
Located in St. Bernard’s Parish (they call counties parishes in Louisiana)
The largest volunteer camp in the United States
An old converted 2 story middle school
Camp Hope has:
Classrooms filled with bunk beds (34 beds in the female room)
Lounges
A used books section
A few TVs (hello again American Idol!!!)
A give and take room where you put things you don’t need anymore (I found a shelf, bug spray and a pair of pants)
Cold showers inside the building but warmer shower available outside in a ‘mobile shower unit’…we have to take 4 min or less showers
There is another Ameriteam that cooks breakfast and dinner for us and they lay out lunch items for us to pack each day
It is amazing how much work still needs to be done here in New Orleans. It has been 2 ½ years since the storm but only 40% of residents have been able to return. Few businesses in the Parish are open and many houses remain uninhabitable. Our orientation the first day was great! The organization is extremely organized and knows exactly what they want to do with us…we were sent out to worksites to build for the next few days. Our organization is called the St. Bernard’s Parish Project (SBPP). Their goal is to find homeowners who lived in SBP before the storm, take their gutted houses (must have faming and be structurally sound) and restore the inside including walls, floors, appliances, doors, etc.
(Paraphrased from a SBPP packet)
St. Bernard’s Parish is more of a suburb of New Orleans and it was the only parish to be completely destroyed in the flood. Before Katrina the population was 67,000 and the Parish had 27,000 homes. Senior citizens comprised 50% of the population prior to the storm and residents worked as fishermen, in the trades, and at refineries. After Katrina 100% of the homes in SBP were rendered uninhabitable and standing water of 4-20 feet stayed for up to 4 weeks. Now only a little over 1/3 of the residents have been able to return…most living in FEMA trailers or in their attics above the waterline. Only ¼ of the businesses has been able to re-open. SBP is described a community filled with hard working middle-class families, veterans and generations of families who live within a few blocks of each other. In the years before Katrina, insurance companies rezoned St. Bernard out of the flood plan, so most residents no longer had flood insurance after decades of paying for it. When Katrina hit 75% of families were under- or uninsured. The first rescue crews into the Parish, five days after the storm, came from abroad: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Residents felt abandoned by the US government…especially the residents who were veterans.
Now AmeriCorps is the large force coming from the government. It has been said many times how the volunteers have rebuilt the Parish…if it weren’t for volunteers SBP would not be what it is now. The director of Camp Hope was telling us how a resident has regained his faith through the volunteers…during the flood he spent 5 days stranded on the top of his roof, waiting for help. During those 5 days he lost faith in the government and humanity…his father (who was on the roof too) survived but his mother could not make the 5 days of hot summer heat with no food and no clean water. He told our director that after the rebuilding started he would see the volunteers giving their all to help the residents move back into their homes…and after awhile seeing that restored his faith in humanity.
--> Check out New Orleans pictures here
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