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 ☺

Arizona Visit

3/4 of the way done!

Day 210: I am now three quarters of my way through this experience and I can see the finish line in my reach. Our third project was the best so far. Working at the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge and with the Natchez Trace Parkway was amazing. Our sponsors were really enthusiastic and thankful for all the work we were doing for them, and it was great to feel so welcomed. Overall we burned over 7500 acres of land, which is what the refuge had set as their yearly goal. I learned so much about fire behavior, weather conditions, and the impact fire has on habitat. It was great!

While working in Starkville at the refuge we were able to learn a lot about southern culture too. We went to the rodeo, attended a southern baby bash (redneck version of a baby shower,) and had a catfish fry. I tried catfish for the first time along with wild hog, crawfish and tamales. ALL DELICIOUS may I add. Below are some pictures of what we did over the last few weeks.








Last weekend I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to interview at ASU for graduate school. I was able to visit with my Uncle Jim and Aunt Monica as well as Aunt Michele, Uncle Bob and Cousin Alex. It was really nice to see family that I don't get to see that often as well as travel to a place I've never been before! Phoenix/Tempe is beautiful! I went mountain biking and hiking with Jimmy, which was AWESOME! The terrain is so different from anything else I've ever seen, and it was fun to explore a bit. As for my interview at ASU, it went really really well. I could not have answered the questions better or felt more confident after it was over. Everyone in the department is really nice and welcoming, and the facilities are state-of-the-art. The research labs and researchers are extremely interesting and the campus is large but seems to be a very close knit community. I'm really excited at the opportunity to attend ASU because I think it would be a great experience and it would be a nice change of pace for awhile. I will hear back from them on Friday, so wish me luck and cross your fingers!

Next round we will be traveling to Greenville, South Carolina and Theodore, Alabama to work with Camp Spearhead and the Bay Area Food Bank. We are really excited to travel to 2 states we have never been too, especially South Carolina. The camp is geared towards children and adults with special needs. We will be building a handicap accessible trail, working at the Special Olympics, and helping out with some overnight weekends! This is right up my alley, so I’m excited to get to know some great people and apply my undergraduate education to the AmeriCorps. We leave on Tuesday and drive 10 hours to the camp. Hope that internet access is closer than it was on our last project! Update soon!

MORE PHOTOS

UPDATES

It has been a REALLY long time since I have updated. Getting to the internet and having enough time to do everything I need to do is tough.

We are working at the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge still, working on several different projects and conducting prescribed burns. We've been having a TON of fun. Working hard and getting things done. We have had a bit of ups and downs with our team, including one member leaving and going to another team. That was tough, but it seems to be for the best.

Last weekend myself and two girls from our team traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras! We had a wonderful, safe time. We were able to see the many different sides of Mardi Gras including the Bayou Cajuns, Uptown Parades, Mid-City Zulu Parade, and the French Quarter. It was great! We stayed with some friends from RTNO and were able to see a bunch of different people that we know down there. There are some pictures to show some of the floats.

We just found out we will be going to Taylors, South Carolina next round and Theodore, Alabama. In SC we will be working for a camp for special needs children and in AL we will be working for a Food Bank. I'm really excited to travel to another state and work for an organization that is associated to what I hold most dear to my heart. The camp will be fun and we will be doing a lot of different types of work to help get ready for the summer sessions.

In other news, I've started hearing back from Graduate schools. I will be traveling to Tempe, AZ for an interview at ASU! I was also waitlisted at the University of Washington, which isn't the best news but is not totally bad either. I'm sure I will be hearing back from the rest soon enough, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

So, below are some pictures of what we have been up to lately!

THE ROOF IS ON FIRE

This week was the experience I had been looking forward to for the past 6 months. This week we were able to conduct controlled burns in 2 locations. Myself, Adam, Alyse and JJ all drove to the Natchez Trace Parkway and worked with them on 4 different burns throughout the week. The other 5 stayed at Noxubee and burned portions of the wildlife refuge. It was an AMAZING experience. We were able to work in all areas of operation for a controlled burn: ignition, holding, and engine. Ignition is the first step to a prescribed burn, as this is the group that puts fire on the ground. Holding is in charge of making sure the fire stays controlled in the area designated, and ensures that the fire does not travel beyond that point. and the engines work to provide water if needed to put out catfaces (holes in trees that begin to burn), snags (dead trees), and other hazards that may be dangerous. It was really fun to learn about fire behavior and the logistical side of burning. This week we may be splitting up again to travel to Tennessee to burn there, but depending upon the weather and other issues this may not happen. The weather here has been beautiful! 70-75 degrees, sunny, and relatively dry. I am currently sitting outside relaxing in the sun on the Mississippi State campus. It's great and I can't believe it's only February. I hope it stays like this for awhile.

Well...here are a few pictures from this past week. More updates to come soon!

PHOTOS

Here are some photos. The fence we built covered in snow, a pet snake, RCW trees, and other scenery