Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..

Here I am, sitting on my aunt Jayne's couch, done with 10 months of challenging, eye-opening and interesting months. I take a sign of relief, knowing that it is time for me to move on to the next thing. This year has been an emotionally taxing roller coaster and I am proud that I made it through.

Our graduation was long and sappy, full of metaphors and reflections about the work that we have done over the last year. There were some great things said by our speakers and some very emotional moments as well. It was great to have my family (mom, dad, juliette, grampa, aunt jayne and jackie and cousin maria) there to support me and represent the elser clan!

Thank you to everyone who supported me this year and helped me get through this challenging experience, especially JILISA RAWDING who has been there through it all!

Here are some pictures from the last week or so.

Tuscaloosa and Dauphin Island Photos

picture of the distribution warehouse, before and after of a backyard, chainsawing and dauphin island.

disaster recovery and the end of the road

For the past 2 weeks have been working in Tuscaloosa, AL attempting to help this community recover from one of the worst tornadoes to hit the South. It has been both emotionally and physically exhausting for us as a team, as we are working long days in areas completely destroyed in the path of the storm. We have been working in distribution centers and in the field helping with the slow and steady project of getting this community back on their feet. Our sponsors are City Impact and United Saints of New Orleans. Through them we work in several teams from the Vicksburg camp and travel to different sites on a day to day basis. Mostly I have been working on debris removal in some of the hardest hit neighborhoods chainsawing and swamping, pulling brush and large stumps out of people's yards. I have also been working at the Temporary Emergency Services warehouse helping to organize and sort through donations. Both jobs are overwhelming, as I am also amazed at the power of this storm. Donations have been pouring in from all over the country, including from Emerson College! Some of my closest friends in the Emerson community collected clothing and other items at the end of the school year to send to Tuscaloosa. They never cease to amaze me with their thoughtfulness and motivation! LOVE IT.

We will be heading back to Vicksburg on Wednesday morning and I will be a week away from heading home! When I have a better internet connection I will be able to upload photos.

disaster relief

Off to Tuscaloosa, Alabama on a disaster response following the tornadoes that swept across the South last week. May not have electricity or internet service, will update when I can.
Home sweet home in 28 days, for now in sweet home Alabama.

Bay Area Food Bank

We are in the final weeks of our year in AmeriCorps. Some may say it went by fast but I don't really think it did, to be honest. HA. We drove from South Carolina to Mobile, Alabama yesterday to our final project at Bay Area Food Bank. We will be one of many teams that has worked with the food bank, especially just a year after the BP Oil Spill. The food bank has received a great number of donations since the oil spill and we will be helping to process all of that food.

Today was our first day of work. We boxed 360 boxes of food to be sent out and we processed several boxes of food that was recently donated. It was a really fun but exhausting day. I really enjoy this type of work because it is systematic and organized. I think it will be really great to see immediate impact of our work.

LAST weekend I flew home to Boston to surprise Jilisa for our anniversary and her senior day softball game (which was postponed due to crappy Boston weather....per usual.) It was an amazing weekend! The surprise went great and it was really nice to spend 5 days at home. I was able to see my parents and extended family as well as my sister for a few minutes at the airport. I'm excited to be home and settled and stop traveling around.

Our last week at Camp Spearhead was really great. The overnight went really well and we had a lot of fun, and we were able to complete 130 feet of boardwalk before we left. I was sad to leave, but that happens to be the nature of this job, unfortunately.

On a final note, I have decided that I will be attending Arizona State University in the Fall for graduate school! I am REALLY excited but extremely nervous and overwhelmed at the idea of moving across the country. I think it will be really great for me, and for Jilisa and I.

Here are some photos from camp and the food bank!

Round 4 Photos

Here are some photos of our bunkhouse, high ropes course, the special olympics, and baseball game!

Camp Spearhead!

Day 222: So we have arrived at the site of our last project, Camp Spearhead in Marietta, South Carolina. I LOVE IT HERE. The camp is absolutely beautiful, newly built camp for adults and children with special needs. The camp has been around for a long time, but this will be its final resting place. It was established my families in Greenville County who wanted a place for their children to have somewhere to feel at home. The community raised over 12 billion dollars to help fund the construction of the camp.

Since arriving here our team has had the opportunity to work at the Special Olympics and attend a Red Sox Minor League baseball game with the campers from Camp Spearhead. They are an amazing bunch of people. So fun and full of life! This is a population I feel very passionately about, as all of you know, and this project is really what I’ve been waiting for this entire year. I’ve been waiting to see the impact that we make in the community we are working with, and understand what our work means. I’ve also been waiting to really immerse myself in the community and get to know them, which has been amazing so far. This weekend we will be hosting an overnight at camp where about 100 campers will come and do various activities as well as stay over for the night. I’m really excited about this because we are planning some really great things (gardening, making/painting picture frames to hang photos of campers in as well as a dance party and volleyball game!)

Some of the project work that we will be doing while on site: building a handicap accessible deck and boardwalk at the high ropes course, hanging swings from the old camp, establishing a primitive campsite, and completing a nature shed. I’m really excited to work outside in the beautiful weather and build some things that will be here for a long time. Plus, our sponsors are great and we have met some awesome people so far, so I am excited to impress them!

Other than that I have been trying to decide where to go to grad school. I was accepted into UMass and now have a very difficult decision to make. They are very different schools, with very different pros and cons as well as drastically different attendance costs. My heart and my head are saying 2 very different things. I have a little more time to figure it out but any advice would be great!

Will update with pictures soon from Special Olympics, baseball game, overnight and completed deck ☺