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Spring is here and the diversity of projects is growing!  Many of our environmental agencies are coming out from their winter hibernation to provide plenty of projects for our outdoorsy - and even indoorsy - volunteers!

Write a blog entry describing your experiences at a project - or even your thoughts about volunteering.  What have you noticed about working in Boston, or what are you looking forward to this summer?  The blog is a wonderful way to catch up on the stories of our active members and to see what your comrades are doing in the service field.

If your entry is posted in this blog, you will be able to choose one of the fabulous prizes pictured here. 

Please send your submissions to Kellyn Shoecraft.

As I swelter in the warm afternoon sun, sweat-drenched inside my Tyvek suit, I remove my respirator so I can wipe my

foggy face shield, and I ask myself, "Am I an idiot to be here?"

Since 8 a.m. I've been standing on a ladder, pulling down drywall and dodging ceiling tiles, moldy insulation and the occasional mouse-sized cockroach when a section of the ceiling finally succumbs to my crowbar. 

Now it's almost 3 p.m. After hauling countless wheelbarrows full of dirt at a park-creation project yesterday, and hoisting my umpteenth barrel of debris to the dumpster today, my back muscles are threatening to go on strike and my arms may just walk out in sympathy. But I'm focused on how hot I am inside this suit. I unzip it, sit down outside the veterinary clinic we're gutting, and think about my experience in New Orleans.

I think about the front-page articles in this morning's paper: A quarter of those New Orleans residents who have stuck it out this long say they are thinking of leaving because the pace of recovery is so slow.  The water board of this poor city lacks the money to rebuild its system. A plan to restore the wetlands that could protect the city from future storms will take years to navigate the approval process, by which time hundreds more square miles of wetlands could disappear into the Gulf.

Yesterday's headlines were no more cheerful.

I think about how little change I've seen since my last trip down five months ago, about the neighborhoods where only a handful of people have returned, the thousands who still live in tiny FEMA trailers two years after Katrina.

 I reflect on the "Thou shalt not kill signs" posted throughout Central City in response to a wave of violence, including some shootings just two blocks from where we've been staying.

I remember the security guard who said he appreciated us coming down, but who predicted that "those people" would vandalize the playground some of our Boston Cares volunteers had just built.

I recall the group of men sitting and drinking across the street from where we were converting a vacant lot into a park, watching but not offering to help improve their neighborhood. Perhaps poverty, prejudice, poor schools and too many other factors to name had conspired to keep hope a lie for them. This is not a town where hope is easy to come by.

In my head I run through the long list of complaints I've heard about the slow pace of recovery. I still hear the elderly Central City woman telling me she hadn't received a dime from the government or insurance companies, so she had to spend her 401(k) retirement savings to fix her house. 

Is there even a recovery plan, or are we just practicing random acts of debris removal? There are thousands of inner city kids without good jobs and years of work for thousands of apprentice carpenters, plumbers and electricians, but no program to take care of both needs at once.

Where to start in the face of all this? Why continue? And why am I rebuilding a shelter for animals today when so many people still lack homes?

Then a woman walking her dog says hello to the vet, who has been working alongside us.  She asks when he's reopening the clinic. I realize that in a city where so many services we take for granted are still lacking, she must view the clinic's reopening as a hopeful sign that her neighborhood is coming back.

I think about all the residents I've met who are determined to stick it out, and of the generosity displayed by those with the least to share. Everywhere we go, New Orleanians who suspect the rest of the country has forgotten them are quick to thank volunteers for coming. Yesterday a church group from one of the city's poorest neighborhoods treated about 50 volunteers to lunch. Two women from the neighborhood cooked dinner for 100 volunteers at Hands On New Orleans. A man living in a FEMA trailer bought lunch for a volunteer crew, even though we were working on a neighbor's house, not his.

There was the woman who had lost her home and her business because of the flood, but who was helping to organize a benefit for musicians who had lost their homes. 

Then there are the volunteers. The Boston Cares group I'm with displays the same enthusiasm for these tough, dirty jobs as it does for exploring the French Quarter at night. In less than a week, 30 strangers and distant acquaintances have become good friends.

We're led by Americorps volunteers in their teens and early 20s, who call a six by two bunk among 100 roommates home for two to three months as they perform this hard work every day for something like $13 a day. Many of the Hands On staff who unflappably organize everything in the midst of chaos have been here a year or more.

Some of my new, Tyvek-clad friends walk past me, dragging another heavy barrel of debris. I'm not helping them by sitting here.

No, in my week down here, I am not going to see every abandoned neighborhood spring back to life. I won't cut the red tape impeding the recovery. I won't make a dent in solving the problems of poverty and economics, race and class, education and inequality that afflicted this city even before the storm.

But that corner of the ceiling near the clinic's entrance, where there's still tile holding up some moldy insulation? I put my respirator back on, grab my crowbar, and head back inside to do something about that.

Spending a Saturday afternoon in the North End taking in the aromas and admiring the architecture seemed fabulous enough for me, so I was pleasantly surprised when this explorations tour went beyond the usual tourist fare.

While at first glance the churches and buildings along the brick sidewalks may seem like facades on a movie set, our group got a hearty helping of history, anecdotes, and trivia that seasoned the tour like a fine marinara.  From the colorful maritime history of North Street to the St. Lucy statue in St. Leonard's Church that deserves a "second glance" there was plenty of local lore to absorb and scribble onto the map handout (if you want to impress your future visitors).
 
As expected, there was commentary on Sacco & Vanzetti and the Molasses Flood of 1919 as well as some tie-ins to colonial days.  However, we saw not only shadows of the neighborhood's past, but also a glimpse of the present.  As our group strolled down and around the streets and alleyways, we encountered many friends of our tour guide which gave the tour a feeling of taking a leisurely stroll around a friendly lived-in neighborhood.  At times when our group stopped into people's hidden gardens or surrounded a quaint corner house, the excursion seemed to be, as our Boston Cares project coordinator Tiffany put it, the "home invasion tour."Fortunately, our group was not unwelcome, mainly because of our enthusiastic and well-liked guide.

Our tour guide's excitement about the North End was contagious.  Among the numerous factoids served up on this tour, I was intrigued to learn in the Old North Church that Paul Revere's famous signal of "two if by sea"referred to the Charles River.  Additionally, we got to visit with a long-time resident whose basement houses some now blocked off tunnels with a curious connection to some allegedly stolen statues in the Old North Church.  These elements made the trip feel like a true exploration of the neighborhood.

Even though our guide successfully impressed upon us the importance of seeing the North

End beyond its eighty-six restaurants I can guarantee that if by the end of the tour you are not craving some pasta or gelato, the free cannoli will certainly pique your appetite for more of what this Boston neighborhood has to offer.
 
 ~ Lisa Gallegos

I only joined Boston Cares this past November, and already I have found it to have become such a huge part of my life.  During the winter I mainly stuck to the indoor volunteer projects (i.e. sorting baby items at Room to Grow, sorting food at the Greater Boston Food Bank, Knitting for the Greater Good, etc), so as soon as it got warm out, I was very excited to sign up for some outdoor projects!  One of the projects I signed up for was the Earth Day Celebration at the Stone Zoo. I had not been to the Stone Zoo since I was in grade school, so I was very interested in going back as an adult- this time to help out!

 

I arrived at the Stone Zoo, which was very quick & easy to get to by car from , and met up with my group at the.  After getting a bright orange T-shirt to wear for the day, the friendly staff of their Special Events team explained our duties to us and allowed us each to choose what we wanted to help out in for the day. Just a few of their many Earth Day celebration projects were: Recycle Relays, catching & inspecting insects and organisms from the pond, Arts & Crafts- making origami frogs & coloring bags, and Planting (sunflower) Seeds. Along with a few other Boston Cares members, I chose the Arts & Crafts table. 

 

For the first half of the day, I sat at the Arts & Crafts table teaching kids, who were interested, how to make origami frogs.  I had never made an origami frog before, so I was thankful that the directions were printed on the paper we were using, but by the end I was very good at making them!  Some of the younger children had a bit of trouble folding the paper, but with a little assistance they had a huge smile on their face when it was completed!  One child even taught me how to make a bigger one, using different folds.

 

After lunch, which was graciously provided by the Stone Zoo for the volunteers & was delicious, I was asked to help with the Seed Planting at the table beside the Arts & Crafts.  The children lined up to plant sunflower seeds!  Assisting in planting seeds was a very busy, but certainly very fun task.  The two parts to the Seed Planting table were: coloring in a fun animal-printed bag with the crayons provided, then lining up to get a (biodegradable) cup to then put dirt & sunflower seeds in.  Coloring with the children

was great fun- listening to their stories of what colors they were using to decorate each animal, stories of their family, and stories of their other hobbies.  After coloring for a while, I moved over to the actual planting section.  It was cute seeing not only the very little children excited to put dirt and seeds in a cup to later watch grow, but also a few older kids lining up!  Some of the littler children needed help reaching in the dirt bin, or holding the shovel, but none of them had any trouble throwing the seeds in their cup!  I quickly learned that I needed to place only a few seeds in my hand for the kids to take & place in their cup, or handfuls would be put in!  It was great hearing their excitement to take the cups home to watch & grow- clearly a great way to encourage the younger generations to keep the Earth green! 

 

The whole day at the Stone Zoo was fantastic- it was beautiful weather, people and families of all walks of life were there to celebrate Earth Day & enjoy the festivities, and everyone really did their part to help out to make it a successful day!  The children all seemed to enjoy themselves & hopefully most of the sunflower seeds are growing by now!

~Molly Turner

Despite having HBO, I didn’t watch the Spike Lee documentary or the stuff on the Discovery Channel.  After the first couple of days, a year and a half ago, I stopped paying attention to news about Hurricane Katrina.  I’m up in Boston and New Orleans just seemed far away, and now it seems so long ago.  I just assumed that things in the city were better, back on track.  I found out last week that they’re not.

I was in New Orleans for four days last week as part of reconnaissance for the annual leadership conference.  My first afternoon, I drove from the airport and things seemed normal.  I drove past the SuperDome and it was intact.  I stayed near the French Quarter where all seemed operational, save for a few restaurants yet to reopen.  That night, I went to a Mardi Gras festival and the locals were exuberant, despite the theme “Habitat for Insanity” and signs like “FEMA approved” and “Home is still where the tarp is”.  But then I started to talk to a few of the residents, and they felt neglected, exhausted, and still very overwhelmed.  It was apparent that Katrina created a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of some sort for the survivors.  I told some people about the conference and repeatedly heard, "Thank you for having the conference in New Orleans - we need it."

That was what I saw and heard in my first six hours in town.  Still not knowing what to expect, the next day I drove to find the devastation.  I’d heard that the destruction affected 80% of the city but was unprepared for the vastness of what that meant.  I drove for miles and miles, past a ton of empty neighborhoods, boarded up houses, signs advertising trash removal and pressure washing, abandoned businesses and inactive gas stations.  

And then there was the lower ninth ward.  The difference between that area and the rest of the destruction is that in the lower ninth ward, houses were literally leveled with no signs of recovery.  They were crushed, crumpled and literally washed away.  No one was home.  It was eerie.  The houses in other neighborhoods were mostly intact but as shells, and there were some that were occupied and many that were under construction, signs of life.  Not so in the lower ninth.  I felt sick.

Throughout the city, I saw many images of the fleur d' lis, not just as a logo of the New Orleans Saints.  I understood it to be a French symbol that is part of the city’s history, but learned that, in recent usage, it's been used as a symbol of New Orleans' rebirth and rebuilding.  These residents’ spirits will not be shattered.  That is what this symbol tells us.  I find that profoundly moving.

The staff and volunteers at Hands On New Orleans are amazing.  Largely AmeriCorps members and alums, they have taken charge of a massive volunteer effort, coordinating a ton of different projects in various neighborhoods of the city.  The office and volunteer management system are tightly organized, efficiently run, and by enormously dedicated people.  They’re an inspiring bunch, still hopeful.

As an AmeriCorps alum, meeting the people from Hands On New Orleans challenged me to think about the service I

do.  I’ve always been engaged one way or another, but over the past few years, my service has evolved more towards Board work and other behind-the-scenes activities.  Last year I thought about going to New Orleans for a week to volunteer, staying with the folks at Hands On in their bunkers, but I decided against it because it wasn't the kind of vacation I wanted.  It’s how I spent almost every vacation from ages 18-22.  I guess I felt over it, less idealistic.  It seems so selfish now.  

Since I’ve been back in Boston, I try to tell everyone I know about my trip.  I’m finding that most people aren’t interested in hearing it and I’m losing them after thirty seconds, no follow up questions.  To them, like to me, Katrina seems so far away and so long ago.  It’s not.  I heard on the radio last week, "Broadcast live to all the evacuees on B97.com."  Only 50% of the city’s population is back.  I want everyone to get the same kind of reality check I got.  And I want us all, in a revolutionary way, to do something big about it.  The conference is a great start.

-Bernadette Smith

For more information on the Hands on Network Leadership Conference, please click here.

In case you missed the Tuesday, Jan. 16 issue of the Boston Metro, Boston Cares made front page news!  The article was devoted to the Martin Luther King Jr. "A Day ON Not a Day OFF" service celebration.

Dr. King famously said, "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."  Those famous words have been transfered into a nation-wide day of service to celebrate King's legacy.  To encourage the idea that anybody can serve, Boston Cares organized a family volunteer day where people of all ages were invited to come out to Roxbury Prep Charter School to help in any way they could.  Children decorated place mats for a homeless shelter, read stories about MLK, and created their own footprints to show the ways that they will "walk" in his footsteps.  Older volunteers repainted the interior school and created four murals to be hung in the school's common room.

Over 170 volunteers from all walks of life came to do service, despite the less-than-pleasant weather.  The school was at maximum capacity.  Boston Cares staff and leaders organized over 15 separate projects and the school was painted, murals were hung, and paint spots on the floor were cleaned in 5 hours.  The extraordinary man/woman/child power, and the sincere dedication of the volunteers made this project 100% successful.  Be sure to mark your calendars for MLK service day 2008!

Click here to view the Metro article.

I am a movie junkie. I go to the biggest blockbusters and await the summer releases and Oscar nominations each year with bated breath. I also like more educational films and am a card-carrying member of the Coolidge Corner theatre in . I seek out the new and different. I saw March of the Penguins on opening day last year long before everyone else was so enamored with penguins. I’ve seen Israeli films, Spanish films, obscure indies and still hold a special place in my heart for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I say all this to give you context.

You need not be a movie junkie like me to appreciate Boston Cares’ social cinema program, which is a co-sponsored effort along with Hostelling International, IVTS, and WGBH. You need only be interested in the world around you, in learning something new, and in enjoying a free film with a “smart component” afterwards! What’s not to love?

So far this year, the series has included The World According to Sesame Street which explored the making of The Children’s Television Workshop’s international versions of the famous show. The film chronicles the making of a Bangladesh, Kosovo, and South Africa’s versions. After the film, the panel included a woman who works at The CTW in NYC. For anyone who has ever loved and for those also concerned about how an American television show’s curriculum works in foreign markets, this film really answered some questions and left us inspired. 

Another film, Shadya, showed several years in the life of Shadya, and Israeli-Arab girl who happens to be a world karate champion, which, as she gets older and reaches the age of marriage, seems further and further from her cultural grasp. The struggles of Israeli-Arabs in Israel, gender issues, and family issues all come into play as we are treated to candid visits with Shadya. The panel afterwards included two college professors versed in Israeli Arab culture and issues and two members of that community.

Twisted, which was made by a woman living with the disease it deals with, dystonia, opens up the world of those suffering from this neurological disorder. Either genetic or brought on by trauma, this largely unknown disease causes folks' muscles to contract uncontrollably and does not allow control of the body. After the film, the panel included someone living with this disorder.

Upcoming are a number of other films that will surely be as interesting and compelling as those in the fall. Don’t miss these free films. Dates and times will be determined closer to dates. Click here for the listing and a link to ITVS with descriptions of films:

January Beyond Beats and Rhymes                 about Hip Hop Culture

Tuesday, January 23, 2007, 7:00PM-9:00PM – Democracy Center, Harvard Square
Thursday, February 01, 2007, 6:00PM-8:00PM – Emmanuel College Library Auditorium

February          Race to Execution                   about death row inmates

March              Black Gold                             about fair trade coffee industry

April                 Sentenced Home                    about Cambodian-refugee-Americans

May                 Knocking                                about Jehovah’s Witnesses

~Karen Boss, Director of Programs at Boston Cares

Thursday, November 10, 2006

New Orleans, Louisiana

Well, I made it to New Orleans! Our hosts, HandsOn New Orleans (a partner organization of Boston Cares), are great. They have energy and they are practical. After we arrived, we received a great orientation and safety lecture, since as you can imagine, there is mold and stuff to be concerned about as well as falling debris.

I found my team leader for the day, whose name was Jess. She's a part of the AmeriCorps group that is traveling and doing community service. After they leave next week, her group will continue onto , where they will help with the Katrina rebuilding there. I got my Tyvek, which is that suit that you usually see haz-mat workers wear only this one is white. I also got my respirator mask and goggles and gloves. Then it was decided since we were doing a "last gut" which required primarily nail removal, that carpenter's face would be fine and so I returned my respirator.

A "last gut" is the finally stage of gutting a house. Once this is done, rebuilding work can begin. The people whose homes are receiving this work from HandsOn New Orleans volunteers contacted the office and requested the help. Usually once the request is received, volunteers go to the property and scout it out. If it poses too much of a risk (unstable floors for example) , then they cannot work on the house and refer them to someone who can.

The house that we went to was on . We proceeded to remove nails, nails and more nails with hammers. I don't think I have ever interacted with that many nails in my whole life. After the nails were removed, we swept up the nails and other debris that was left in the house. The debris was left on the curb side grass by the side of the house. Jess informed us that debris removal is a part of the garbage pickup around here. They come by and pick it up daily.

Jess was a great team leader and guide. She was informative and had energy. She clearly loved the fact that she was helping people in the best way that she could. She drove us around the neighborhood where we completed our morning's work and showed us the houses, some of which had extensive damage. One enduring sight for the day was the FEMA trailers. They were in the yards of people's houses or in FEMA trailer parks.

As we made our way to the now infamous Ninth Ward, we saw that the houses had spray paint on them. We were told that these markings, which have words and/or numbers in either a cross or an "X" represented the teams that swept the properties after the disaster. The upper left quadrant represented the team that went in to do the sweep. The lower left represented the number of dead that they found. The lower right represented the number that were found alive. The upper right represented where they were found. After receiving this information, the markings took on a whole new grim meaning for me since we had prior to her explanation, passed a number of places where I saw totals of anywhere between 1-4 in that lower left quadrant that tallies the dead bodies found. The number dead will also include pets, which are also noted in spray paint. The MSPCA did quite a few sweeps. We were also told that earlier in the summer, a HandsOn team was doing a "first gut"-taking down the wall and ceiling-and they found an older woman under her sink that the sweep teams clearly did not find. There are so many houses to check, but so few resources at hand.

We drove into the Ninth Ward. It was very quiet, except for some green industry crews doing branch removal and some traffic. There is no electricity here so no one in their right mind (or left mind for that matter) comes here at night. In fact, where there would usually be stop lights, there are stop signs and people are trusted to remember the rules of the road. There are also no gas stations so if you are going over there and you don't plan ahead, you are out of luck. As we drove around, it was sobering to see that where what looked like plots of open land were places where houses once stood. The Ninth Ward was densely populated-this you can tell from how the remaining structures and traces of the structures are situated. Jess showed us the now repaired levees and indicated about where they broke. We then took a tour of the more affluent parts of the city that suffered more hurricane damage than flooding. All around you could see contractors working, but if you visited these areas only you would have never known Katrina had taken place.

~Emma Lathan, Boston Cares member since 1998

(Top Picture: Destroyed home in the lower Ninth Ward; Middle Picture 1: House interior pre-gut; Middle Picture 2: Boston Cares volunteers cleaning up a home; Bottom Picture: Boston Cares volunteers in New Orleans)

Back Bay/South End

Have you ever gone to a place and realized that it just feels right? That something in the atmosphere makes you feel good? That is the feeling that I get whenever I volunteer at the Boston Living Center. The BLC is exactly what its name claims - a center for living.

The BLC is near Back Bay station, but it is tucked away, almost hidden on a side street so that a passerby might not even notice that it's there. The BLC stands to serve the HIV/AIDS community. AIDS has now been in the United States for more than a 25 years. The disease is still widespread within our country, and much more so internationally, affecting people from all walks of life. With advancements in drug therapies people are living longer and healthier lives as HIV positive individuals. But what about their quality of life? There is a lot of focus on drug therapy, and of course, proper medication is what allows for people inflicted with the disease to live. Treatment for the quality of life is not typically a part of Western medicine. The disease is something that the individuals have, but it is not who they are, and treatment is all the more powerful and comprehensive when it involves the the individual beyond the disease.

That is why places like the BLC are so important. They are here for the treatment and well-being of the people, not just for the treatment of the disease. The mission of the BLC is to create a community where people with HIV/AIDS can feel safe and welcome, where they can receive nutritious meals, a haircut, a massage, counseling, job training, computer education, and medication. It is a place to make friends, to hang out, and to be yourself. How can you not feel good when you go to the BLC? The positive ways that the Living Center affects its members is clear when you visit, and it is contagious. If you have not been there, please read the comments below written by BLC members (from the BLC website):

• Coming to the Boston Living Center and seeing the strength, courage and happiness that so many of the members here exude helps me to find the strength, courage and happiness within myself."

• "The Boston Living Center has proven to be a great source of comfort and strength to me. It is one of the few places I can go where I know I will not be judged, where I know that I am appreciated and welcomed for simply being a fellow human being.
  
  
• "My life has never been better or more productive and I owe a lot to the Boston Living Center for their help in my process"

To help support the BLC's efforts, Boston Cares has recently posted the lunch time meal service opportunities on the calendar. Volunteer work is critical for the success of the BLC. Without volunteers, the meals program costs substantially more money to run, and money is a critical resource for every nonprofit. If you have not yet served at the Living Center - I highly recommend that you do. There is a lot of living going on behind their doors, and everyone is welcome to be a part of it.

(Top Picture: BLC Pharmacy; Bottom Picture: Volunteers serving lunch)

Dorchester

An hour before the party began, presents were still being wrapped, a crowd was gathering outside, and Santa was MIA. A sense of excitement and anticipation permeated the building.

The Boston Cares volunteers moved around like busy bees as the party began—ensuring that the present room was stocked and ready to go, passing out snacks to all the children as they watched a holiday movie, popping popcorn fervently when it was discovered the popcorn machine did not work.

When the presents came out, Boston Cares was ready. In a quick decision, one volunteer suggested bringing all the presents upstairs, and announced the childrens’ names on a microphone, while other volunteers passed out gifts, and ensured each child received a present.

One eight-year old girl decided she wanted to help the Boston Cares volunteers clean-up while she waited to receive her gift. Asking for a broom, she scampered around on the floor, picking up popcorn remnants and juice boxes with an energy that was contagious.

The Boston Cares volunteers, with their positive attitudes and flexibility, helped make this event a success.

~Lynn Weisel, Boston Cares staff member