Yo' hipster chains!

The FEMA Composite Teams On Their Way Into Iowa!

So this is the first update in a while, sorry. Anyway, we have had break and it was good for everyone; getting to travel to their hometowns and see their families and friends. Once we were back from break it had sadly been decided that our sponsor in New York ended up not having sufficient housing for us. So Eagle 5 got round 3 off and we are flying to New Zealand! Just kidding. Those of us who aren't in Summer of Service, and who aren't Eric; because he is our new STL, have been joined by corps members from other teams and have now been called to Des Moines, Iowa for disaster flood relief.
Before I get into the juicy details of our newly acquired project, let me introduce you to the proud members of the Des Moines, Iowa disaster team; some of us you already know, so I will skip to those whom you don't. We have Melanie Houser from Raven 7, Tisha Cooper-Raven 5, Adam Markley-Raven 4, Taylor Leigh-Eagle 1, and Kelsey Walter-Wolf 3. Together we are in business! Now, the work-a-holics favorite part; what we are doing here.
We are working with the Seventh Day Adventist Community Services group in a multi-agency warehouse, where we collect donations and recieve shipments that we organize in the warehouse. It's pretty cool, we have had training on how to opporate a forklift and run a warehouse.

Sorting donations at the warehouse.

Last Saturday, July 13th, our team gathered with members of FEMA and Red Cross to "muck" a house in Cedar Rapids that was badly affected by the flooding. It was a good, hard working day and really helped us to see exactly what we are working for. Being able to get right down in the basement full of mud and being able to see the damage that had happened, and all the devastation people are still facing was in the least of words, eye opening.
So now we are diligently and desperately seeking phone numbers to contact organizations to provide us donations for us to distribute among the disaster teams in the area.
That's the update today folks!









Rhea and James working hard
mucking out a house

A train bridge in Cedar Rapids that

got destroyed during the floods.

Kelsey and Taylor working hard trying

to get donations for us.

A new game.

Greetings dear blog audience! I am Seth Pierce, the other media rep. of Eagle 5, I will be taking over the blog during our 3rd round as April will not be with us. April and two of our other girls from Eagle 5, Aimee and Tracey, will all be spending their 3rd round working for Summer of Service in New Orleans; where they will be leading groups of young teens to give them an AmeriCorps-esque experience.
Speaking of members temporarily detached from the team; Joel Harmon and Anthony Hopkins are currently in Iowa help ing FEMA and Red Cross with the flooding there. Joel should be joining the team in New York come 3rd round, however Anthony may be staying longer since he was deployed about a week after Joel. We wish them all good luck and great health and know that they will do a wonderful job helping all who need it. Eagle 5 is proud of our members reaching out, and stepping up to help in any way they can.
Now as the Mid-Year Training comes to a close and people pack once again, and say goodbyes; at 5:00pm/EST we will all officially be on summer break until midnight of July the 6th.
We hope all is well with you, our beloved blog followers, and wish you a beautiful summer season.
Peace and love.

BREAKING NEWS...

Sad local news: Sunday morning Sarah walked down to the beach a couple blocks from our apartment to go for a swim. When she got there, the area was closed off with crime-scene tape. This article explained why.

Good team news: It's that time again! You know, when we find out what our next project is... although Amiee, April, and Tracey will all be leading it up for Summer of Service in New Orleans, the rest of Eagle Five will be living it up in NEW YORK CITY, working with the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. For this project, the 7-strong team will be planting trees alongside inner-city youth in NYC's 4th largest park located in The Bronx. With transition, mid-year training, and summer break, it will be about a month before 3rd round starts...

but we are all very excited!

Right now news: The team is enjoying their last few work-days with Highlands County Habitat before we have to leave bright and early this Saturday morning. We will be stopping in Fayetteville, North Carolina to sleep but will be back to our campus sweet campus in Perry Point, Maryland by Sunday afternoon.

Blog news: Since I will be away from the team third round, Eric and Seth are taking over to keep ya'll updated on Eagle Five's inevitably incredible New York adventures. I will do my best to keep you posted on our progress in New Orleans as well, but i can't make any promises (we will be kept very busy!)

Until next time...

Love, Peace, and Bicycle (and/or Elbow and/or Chicken) Grease,

April

a busy week for our smiles

Week 6: togas, tweens, tubing, and sweet tea:

Good food plus good company equaled good times for Eagle Five this 

past week with the help of Georgians, the Blackmans, and Iron men...

Starting the week off right with a themed team dinner 

(yes, we're wearing sheets and WE LOOK GOOD.)

The team with our new Georgian friends, and Jim one of our insightful site supervisors (left), in front of the 6x8ft utility sheds we helped the middle school missions club build on Thursday. The group, on a missions trip from Eastman, Georgia, worked on-site with us Monday through Wednesday helping paint, side, lay sod, and break up debris; then on Thursday we helped them hammer away to construct 3 sheds for Habitat homes.

Celebrate the arts by volunteering for the arts: In front of the Highlands Art League sign with appreciative Executive Director Alice Stroppel and friend. Friday we insulated a house for Habitat (in 100% humidity, mind you) then spent the rest of the afternoon helping renovate one of the                     Art League's donated buildings. With the help of community volunteers and Art League board members, we painted, cleaned, removed bathroom stalls, and constructed a stone path. Nearby at the Highlands Little Theater, Seth and Joel helped move props.

"Don't wait, Anticipate": Saturday we drove to Winter Haven to work the Polk County Hurricane Expo. We passed out flyers for the Red Cross, spread mad awareness of AmeriCorps, got some photographer love (thanks LB!), and even met Smokey the Bear. After a long day at the Orange Dome, we spent the evening at a movie theater seeing Iron Man (which was almost as entertaining as watching two guys taunt an alligator in the parking lot).

Everything else:

Saturday: Five Eagle Fivers joined Team Wolf 7 in Cocoa Beach, Florida (near Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center) to watch the Discovery space shuttle launch at exactly 5:02 p.m. 

Monday: Laid metal roofing on another house, while church group painted inside.

Tuesday: Laid sod at site of house removal (cool article here...featuring our Habitat, but not us) and finished roof. After-work pool party #1 at Ray's (thanks!); April getting a tooth pulled (ow!); and Florida storm season showing off (boom!).

Wednesday: Started vinyl siding to the tune of 12-year old girls singing pop songs.

Thursday: Built sheds in Avon Park, said goodbye to our Georgian friends, and wished we had larger stomachs to hold all the good food we were provided. After-work pool party #2 at Habitat supporters/board members, the Blackmans: thank you Mr. and Mrs. Blackman for having us over, and daughter Molly for taking us tubing on Lake Charlotte!

rhythm, rain, and CCC blues

                      

Well hello there! How time flies when you are working hard...(and playing too hard to keep up with the blog)

So let's catch up where we last left off, long ago at the end of week 3: We've had 2 amazing weeks since, full of after-work adventures and ISPs, drum circles and dull machetes, malicious mop buckets and themed team dinners...it's hard to think that there's only two weeks left of this project, and then we say goodbye to the orange groves and the old folks, and to the many friends we've made here in Highlands County.

Week 4: To the beat of our own drums: We started the week with a bang, on drums that is...at Primal Connection's Community Drum Circle in Highlands Hammock State Park. The local non-profit hosts the event on the 3rd Sunday of every month, providing a variety of drums and percussion instruments for kids and adults alike to play and experiment with. We enjoyed learning various tribal rhythms from around the world, and hope that the people we met enjoyed learning about our 'tribe' of AmeriCorps members from all over the country.

We actually ended up spending a lot of time at the Highlands Hammock that week, meeting with a CCC storyteller at its Florida Civilian Conservation Corps Musuem Tuesday night, and volunteering for the park after work on Wednesday and Friday: Funny thing is, we were doing invasive species removal of exotic species we just learned the CCC planted there 70 years ago (they didn't know any better at the time...). The team enjoyed doing environmental work for once, and the hands-on service learning that the CCC musuem provided. Thanks Darryl! (pictured below, with team in blue CCC uniform parts).

         

Service that doesn't stop: Aside from Rhea and April (who escaped the Florida heat for a few days), the team celebrated Memorial Day weekend by helping paint a local shelter Saturday, followed by a rigorous night of "Taboo".

Habitat repeats itself: We started week 5 by fast and furiously nailing off, setting the trusses, and "drying out" another home. Everything moves quicker once you've done it before and at this point we are repeating a lot of steps (though we still hit our thumbs just as much!). With all we've learned, Rhea will surely be able to build her own house when she grows up! And something else we learned this week: don't drive onto unidentified gravel roads! They sometimes lead you into a random pit of sand...and by the time we realized this, we were already stuck (it's inevitable for most teams). Our wonderful Construction Manager Alan came to the rescue, pulling us out with his truck. 

We finished the week with a break from building at the empty site of a house removal (it was moved to another property); working with several potential Habitat homeowners---plus a snake, several lizards, and one giant grasshopper---we cleared leftover debris and concrete, took down a picket fence, and hand-loaded two dumpsters, just like the good ol' days in Baltimore. After work, we were pleased to meet Nancy, the Family Services coordinator for Highlands County Habitat. She spoke with us about the family selection process, resources provided to potential and current Habitat homeowners, and examples of the substandard living conditions Habitat is working to eradicate. Knowing more about the administrative side of the organization helps us understand what our construction efforts are really for. 

To learn more yourself, visit this link.  

For general Habitat info, go here.

In other news, we are proud to announce that we are partnering with the Highlands Art League for a day of house-renovating service. Eagle Five and Highlands County Habitat are working together to re-floor, paint, and clean one of the local non-profit's buildings this Friday, June 6th. The finished house will be used for children's art classes and summer camp programs here in Sebring, Florida.

Eagle Fivers at the community drum circle on May 18th:

Coming up next week: Youth groups, pool parties, hurricane season, and wisdom teeth removal!

Top photos: Seth and James finding roofless shelter from the rain, April with a big drum, and Tracey painting trim at a weekend ISP

Third week’s a charm...

Though Highlands County, Florida is oft referred to as "the heartland", it's not the easiest place for people our age to love. The 18-24 year old 'AmeriCorps demographic' is scarce, as is recreation without fear of gator-tacks. But we found new ways to have fun this week, and a newfound appreciation of this quiet retirement community we currently call home.

Sunday: Most of the team ventured out to Highlands Hammock State Park for an afternoon hike through several trails of 'the real Florida'. While there we visited the Florida Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Museum to learn more about the organization that our program (the National Civilian Community Corps) was based upon, and even encountered a family of alligators from the safety of a raised bridge above their swamp. (A bridge that was most likely built by the CCC...)

Monday: After work we attended our first Habitat home dedication ceremony and watched 3 separate families get the keys to their newly finished homes. We were impressed by the great turnout from the community, and by the gratitude for Habitat and its volunteers expressed by the proud new homeowners. The experience helped motivate us for the rest of the week by showing us what an impact our daily hammer-swinging makes.

On the ride home, we stopped to deliver some 'roadside service' to a woman whose belongings started blowing off the back of her truck. She pulled over when she realized that papers were flying all over the road, and was pleasantly surprised to see ten uniformed strangers file out of a gold passenger van to help pick it all up...

Tuesday: The team split up between two sites and enjoyed working in somewhat cooler weather (only like 87 degrees!). 

Wednesday: With all team members back in action (2 were out sick Tuesday) we quickly built up the wall-frames for the Heppner Ave site (the site we poured concrete for on our first day!).

Thursday: We continue framing the Heppner Ave house (quicker now that we've done it before); Rhea and April visit Lake Placid High School to share AmeriCorps information with students; and the team gets some great afterwork exercise kayaking and canoeing courtesy of the Lake Placid 4-H camp (video coming soon...).

Friday: We get ready and pumped to install roof trusses again, but are stopped when site supervisor Frank realizes that the pre-assembled trusses are the wrong size (oops). We redirect our energy towards Tyvek-wrapping the house and building interior wall frames for the rest of day. AND we get a visit from News-Sun reporter Matt Murphy: Seth, April, and Sarah get interviewed for a follow-up article to his April 18th piece on the Denver NCCC team that served with Highlands County Habitat before us. That night we explored the local mall, lakefront seafood, and 'Chronicles of Narnia 2".

Saturday: Though the highly anticipated Blueberry Festival was cancelled, we still went out to Lake Placid's Henscratch Farms for free food, bluegrass entertainment, fresh strawberry milkshakes, and roaming free-range hens. Later in the day, Rhea, Tracey and Sarah went back to Highlands Hammock to spread the NCCC word during a "Music in the Park" jam-band event (with over 400 guests), while other members of E5 celebrated the end of a successful week with cosmic bowling.

Seth and Amiee talk about the State Park, Summer of Service, and her pageant years, with a slideshow at the end:

Also check out Joel Harmon's video "Blackwater Burns" about his wildland firefighting experience.

Week 3 Acknowledgments: THANK YOU Alan for the juicy watermelons, Nadia for your advice and weekly visits, Matt for coming out to meet us, the Sebring Historical Society for all the info and literature, White Fox tattoo for being right across the street, Panera for the free wifi, the Young Women's Organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the generous lunches, Highlands Hammock State Park for being amazing, and a special shout out to Lake Francis alligators for letting us swim in peace Thursday afternoon:)

Did you know...

• Actors Walter Mathau and Robert Mitchum were both members of the CCC?
  
• Potential Habitat homeowners must complete 400 "sweat equity" hours?
• E5 Team Leader Sarah Mahan spent 3/4 her last stipend on scrapbooking materials?
• Corps Member James Ruppert dives like a dolphin-ninja?
• Boiled peanuts (which taste like beans) are a popular snack in Florida?

Well now you do. 

blisters, headaches, sore feet, and heat rash

(...and splinters, too! Just some of the many battle scars from Habitat house-building.)

But in the face of week 2's adversity (dragging our heavy steel-toes through a sand-filled work-site, toolbelts full at our waists, lovebugs all up in our face, with the Florida sun beating down at 95 degrees and rising...) we prevailed, with a fully framed home--not just our calloused hands--to prove it.

Here's a breakdown of what we did at one worksite last week, building 'from the ground up': 

Monday: Atop a bare concrete foundation, we started the week constructing door-frames and wall-ties, and using blueprints to mark the placement of the exterior walls and windows.

Tuesday: Put exterior wall-frames together and bolted them into the foundation. Had all 4 walls up and paneled with plywood by the end of the day.

Wednesday: Pre-assembled roof trusses arrive. With some guidance from our wise site supervisors (and acrobatic skills from some of our braver teammates) we install the lot of them and have a half-built home.

Thursday: Install hurricane-ties on trusses and windows, start laying plywood over roof trusses and hammer like crazy...

Friday: Finish laying plywood on roof, nail down and attach felt layer. With the framing done and roof at this stage, the house is ready (and rain-proofed) for interior work.

Other highlights of week 2: Visiting the Sebring Boys and Girls Club, shopping and mural-gazing in Lake Placid, gator-safety lessons, Seth's leopard-print tattoo...and our newly created video blog:

Seth and Eric talk about the week (with photos at the end),

See more video updates on our YouTube channel here.<<--two team members per week!

And in other news: Amiee and April will be leaving the team for part of round 3 to serve as Crew Leaders for NCCC's Summer of Service program in New Orleans, LA. Crew Leaders lead groups of high school youth in service projects in and around NOLA for 4 fun weeks (July to August). More details TBA!

Ps. Hi Mike! hope you like your Ameri-mail...