The End?

     Sitting at my desk in my room I can't help but feel like nothing is real here. My desk is a table at the Paper Factory Hotel in New York. My room is filled with ten other girls whom I can talk to all night about anything I want. My desk is surrounded by all my friends around it as we write each other notes and reflect back on our day, not pencils and books. My room is crowded with dirty laudry, chip bags, empty water bottles, and friends, not laptop bags and schoolwork. I should be eating take-out on a big leather couch curled up with everyone, not picking at Raman noodles alone in silence. I feel like I have left my home and am in a strange old world that I once knew but that is somehow lost to me now. How am I going to fall asleep without the sound of ten other people breathing? Without the lights and noises of the city? Where will I go in the morning if I can't eat breakfast with everyone? How will navigating the school halls feel compared to navigating the subways? How will schoolwork feel compared to service? How will my day be without seeing the faces I have become so accustomed to? I don't know the answer to these questions but I do know this- I feel like the work we did in New York filled a hole in my heart that can only be filled in dedicating your time to others, and now the hole has returned because I am back home. But rather than being sadden, this newly emptied space in my heart is fueling me with a desire to do more. I want to make a change. I want to leave my mark. I want to matter to people, to make a difference in their lives. I want to continue doing work like what I have done in New York even though I know I can never recreate that experience. And I want to give back, because I feel that that is the best way to thank God, or the Universe, or what ever higher power there is, for giving me the blessing of this trip to New York. There are no other words to describe it other than life changing.
     Our journey does not have to end here. We can choose to continue on with our work everyday from now until forever. Service is a choice and we can choose to make that choice on a daily basis in small ways to make a huge difference. The end of our trip will not come unless we choose to stop making the choice of service. If we choose to continue then New York will be infinite.

Teaching and Learning

Over the past six days I have been amazed at the quantity and quality of work, reflection, and community that is the NYC Service Learning group. They are an extremely capable, hardworking, responsible group of people with a culture of genuine caring, honest communication, and the sincere belief that they can change their world. I am honored that I was able to share in their experience, and become one of their group. I hope that all teachers get the opportunity to see their students the way I have been able to see this amazing group of young people. I feel truly enriched as a teacher, learner, and person for this experience.
- Regina Shopiro

I totally forgot to say who wrote that soo the post the starts with "hey anyone reading this" is by Kathleen (kat) Julius! My bad!

Amazing

Hey anyone reading! This trip was AMAZING!! I have been doing New York/ Philadelphia service learning for three years now! I can't believe next year will be my last :( but at least I got to do what I could! Everything has been such an exciting journey. I've made many self discoveries as well as discover things about new friends I make on the trips! This week I've painted a daycare/ childcare kind of place and I got plenty of paint on me, leaving me with people paint handprints and a line on my back from when I accidentally backed into the doorway haha. Then the next day we cleaned up a beach on Staten Island. So cool, we saw cool stuff, like a horshue crab. I dragged log after log of wood off the beach so it'd be nice and dug up trash and carried around bags of trash which though it may not sound fun, is totally thrilling apparently (and quite a workout!) Then we delivered some meals to elderly people who couldn't leave their homes, they were so sweet and I loved seeing and talking to them. Today we went to a Latin American festival and helped set up and talked to some of the performers. I'm so happy to have been able to serve with such a great group. I can't thank the group and chaperones enough for what they've done and accomplished. I'm going to miss this all sooo much!! I can't believe how fast it all went by. Well it is late and I need rest so I can get up and go home.

Last thoughts

Tonight was our last night in New York and I have never felt closer to this group of people in my life. The bonds we've created through the work we've done are incredible. Saying goodbye to New York city and all of the seniors has broken my heart more than anything else I have ever experienced. But the happiness I feel in my heart that stems from this trip overcomes any sadness left within me.
The past few days have made me feel more fifilled than I could have ever imagined. I feel as though I've found the piece of my soul that I've been missing all my life.
I love every single member of the group more than life itself and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with them and get to know them on the deepest level possible. My life is forever changed and I wouldn't have it any other way

To be honest you're probably all gonna have to physically force me to leave New York so good luck in the morning.

It's our last night here in NYC. I'm sitting on my top bunk talking to all my roomies and really I can't remember the last time I was so happy. These past four days, I have felt so at peace and I genuinely love these people. It's like we're in our own little world here and I wish I could live like this forever. Unfortunately, I'm a senior. This week marks the end of so many things and the beginning of so much more. The last thing I want to do is go back home to all of the stress. I know there's a lot to look forward to--getting finals over with and ending school, prom, graduation, grad parties, summer; but really, none of it matters to me as much as my service learning experience. From these past two years I've learned that this is definitely what I wanna do with my life, and I know it will continue but that doesn't change the fact that everything is changing and it'll never be the same again. We've all worked so hard these past ten months, all for this amazing four day trip. I can't believe how fast it's flown by and I can't imagine senior year without it. I especially would not be the person I am proud to be today without Mr. Kane. Thank you.
-Amanda Fata

Abbey Sulivan

This week has been absolutely life-changing in so many ways. I have made friends with so many  wonderful people and feel a connection with them that is unique and almost indescribable. Growing and changing and accomplishing amazing tasks with people in such a short span of time creates a bond that is unlike any other.
The work we have done in the past few days has been truly incredible. We have accomplished so much and deserve to be proud. We leave places like Jackie Robinson Park and multiple Sandy-ravaged homes better for our being here. We leave New York tomorrow with it being just a slightly better place. That is something we get to carry with us for the rest of our lives thanks to Mr. Kane, the three coordinators, and every member of the group who each brings something indespensible to our dynamic.
Today was different from the rest in that it only consisted of a few hours of service. However, it was extremely valuable on a personal level in that it gave me (and everyone else) the time to truly further the bond I feel with the friends I have made in either the past ten months or the past four days. I loved talking leisurely with these people almost as much as I loved digging up bamboo-like weeds for hours with them. The opportunity to do that in Times Square and at the Loisada festival solidified in my mind that these friendships will continue as we all clumsily readjust to normalcy on Tuesday.
As a senior, it's extremely saddening to think that I will never come on this trip again. However, I am so incredibly grateful to have had this experience for the past two years. I will continue to be affected by the values I have gained and the changes I have undergone as a result of this indispensable program. I will leave this school and this program knowing that I will continue living with service in my heart for the rest of my life.
Thank you so much Mr. Kane for the opportunity to have this experience.

thank you

Georgia Slack

I cannot put into words how deeply this program has affected me, especially over these past four days.   It has always been hard for me to connect with people, even the people I have known since middle school.   However meeting these wonderful human beings is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.  As Kane said today, the walls we have built around ourselves to hide our insecurities have been broken down over these past ten months and especially these past few days in our hard work, blood, sweat, and tears.  As a result we have grown ever closer and will cherish these memories for the rest of our lives.   We have worked on abandoned houses, overgrown parks with killer weeds and decrepit beaches all the while having the best of fun. This trip was not only about the work we did, but who we spent it with and how well we spent that time.  I am fully indebted to these wonderful people for changing my life forever.  I have been changed over these short few days that have somehow felt like a lifetime.  Returning from this trip I will be a new person, only not completely.   I won't know just much I changed until I start to experience life through the new perspective I have gained from this awe inspiring experience.   And I thank everyone who was apart of it.

Jackie Robinson Park aka best day ever

Being covered in dirt and weed has never been so much fun. Today myself along with around 30 other kids went to Jackie Robinson park to take out the invasive plants in the gardens. We were expecting to be weeding out those annoying tiny green leaves in flower beds. Hah. The weeds were about 50 times that. They were trees! We got ourselves covered in dirt within the first 5 minutes of working. It was so much fun. The first few hours flew by and when Mr. Kane called lunch break, it seemed like we had only been working for 20 minutes. We had probably been working for a good 3 hours. We had made a good dent. Before, there was no ground to be seen on the hill, only treetops. Now, there were full patches of visible dirt large enough to fit an elephant. After lunch and a much needed water break, we were back at it, now joined by the rest our group coming back from their food delivery project. Our fatigue had turned to a burst of energy and as a group we conquered  another section of the hill. Over the course of the day we had filled around 100 trash bags with the crushed leaves, branches, and roots of the tree weeds. Soon we ran out of trash bags to fill and gathered the remainings into a pile. Our work was finished.  It was the best feeling to be able to look up at the hill as we were leaving and see the impact we had made. The hill was on its way to becoming a beautiful, healthy garden. We left the park with cuts, scratches, and dirty faces brightened with the fulfillment of the work our team had accomplished. 

-Amy Flournoy

Brianna

May 22,2014 10:52 pm 

Day one of service :

      The first thing that I hear at 5:05 in the morning is my alarm that I had set the night before. When I woke up  and the first thing that I did was grab my calculator and ask myself  "who's phone is this?"   , which is  becoming a popular saying for me . We all got up and headed to breakfast. I went to the Rockaway's with the 16-17 year olds, Casey and Shawn were our chaperones. Little did we know that  we would have a three hour trip on the way there. On the final stretch to get to the site we had to walk an estimated hour and a half . We walked about 45 minutes  until a van and a truck came up to us. At first I didn't know what to think I was actually really confused. I pushed all of my worries aside and I jumped into the van. We drove on the highway and finally got to the site. We arrived at a church, we had a short debriefing then we got strait to work. We did many small construction jobs with in one large construction job. Half of our group went to the last project within the site which was going to a seventy year old woman's house and cleaning the porch. We were all wondering about why this woman had bags and bags  of DVDs, records, and cat carriers , until we realized that these things that we didn't find to be that valuable were this woman's last positions. This really hit me  when I opened a trash bag on her porch and a  photo album was water logged and moldy. When I saw this photo album I felt so sad that all of these woman's physical memories were turned into trash because of Hurricane Sandy. Overall I thought the first day was great it turned out to be a productive bonding day. I love this group and I can't wait to make more great memories with everyone. This was one of my favorite days. :)

-Brianna Glowacki

Thoughts

The New York Service Learning group, an immensely talented bunch of youngsters that aren't much to look at upon your first glance; however, once you give these high schoolers a purpose, they're a sight to marvel at. If there was anything to take away from this Saturday, it was that this Service Learning group is cohesive and can achieve any and all goals that they set out to do. The morning began normally with a mess of people hunched over the center island as they prepared their lunches and snacked on assorted breakfast treats. As always, I sat back and watched the crowd move down the sandwich assembly line all the while I enjoyed knowing that I would not have to partake in the chaos (due to the fact that lunch is my least favorite of the meals of the day). We then all filed into the lobby of The Paper Factory and made our way underground. Little did we all know that we would be in for a show, literally. As we were all waiting to arrive at The Jackie Robinson Park, a three man band joined us in our travels, completely lightening our mood for the day. Something so little to others, became another highlight in our trip. After exiting the train and taking a short walk, we entered the park in which we would soon exhibit our ability to conquer all obstacles that fall before us. Our task, destroy all of the invasive weeds in our path. With shovels, rakes, and bags in tow, we all  mounted a massive attack on the enemy that we would soon become far too familiar with. Within only a few hours, a majority of the group was covered head to toe in mud, with the occasional stream of blood that would arise from pricker bushes. By the end if it all, we had demolished any hopes that the enemy had of regrowing. Together, and as a team, we had become a force to be reckoned with. It was incredibly amazing to see the work that only a group of high school kids we able to get done in only a few hours. But in the end, our work stretched beyond ourselves. We did this work for the town of Harlem, not because it would make us feel better about ourselves; but, because we have to help each other out as human beings. After all, we are all in this together.
-Daniel S. Monahan

Poetry with Lundstrom

So as much as everyone loves poetry, this is somewhat different. This is not powtry in the sense that i wrote it to write it, or even because i was inspired, but this is something that came to me, and makes sense to me. This isnt the final draft, however. Lets go.

We are loud

I have found my voice here

Because while the world stays quiet,

We stay loud.

While others choose to fall into the silence,

We choose to disrupt the silence,

To destroy the silence

Because we all have a voice.

And when we unite our voices, we are loud.

We are loud because we choose to be.

Our voices travel far

And this makes sense.

But what is strange to me,

Is that the first step towards being this loud,

Was to shut my mouth.

Ah gee thanks guys, hope you enjoyed it, and i hope you understood it. I learned more in these 3 days than i have in my entire life. Wonderful. Thank you again

Taylor croteau

Taylor Croteau
The beginning of my day started with a group of us going to meals on wheels to deliver meals to people who aren't able to provide food for themselves. I met this one man, Mr. George, who was 93 years old. His reaction to us showing up at his apartment really opened my eyes. He was ecstatic to see us. We talked to him and about Boston and our service in New York so far and what we have planned for the rest of the trip for about 15 minutes. I believe he doesn't get many visitors all too often unless it's family, and was very proud and shocked in the deed we were partaking in. Others seemed to not care as much that we were there. It saddened me to see that no one was there to take care of them and we were almost the most contact with people they had all weekend. The amount of people in need of something as simple as a meal cooked for them because of disabilities is immense. Another group went to the Jackie Robinson park and cleaned out a whole hillside of gigantic weeds. I wasn't there to see the starting point of the project but their attitude and dirt covering them showed exactly how much they really had done that afternoon. Hours of work put in really did pay off. To the people of Harlem the park cleanup meant a lot whether we saw their reactions or not. The few people to stop and take a moment to say you are amazing and are doing such a good thing really clarifies that the job got done successfully. I'm so proud of us today and it was one of mine and others favorite days of this weekend.

Conquering The Hill

Today as a group we worked at Jakie Robinson park to do some "weeding." This was not ordinary weeding, and actually involved all of us having to dig out these massive trees and their roots to eliminate an invasive species from the area. I thought that it was going to be a lot harder than it was, and that we definitely wouldn't make it as far as we did.  In the end we managed to somehow clear and entire hillside and have an amazing time doing it.  I fell down the hill 17 times, but it was honestly one of the most amazing and wonderful days. This was probably the biggest service I have been able to work on in my 3 years with this program, and I am so proud of it. I am proud of the way our team worked together and I am extremely proud of each individual that worked on it. We did an amazing job and there is no other group I would have rather worked on this site with.
-J.R.S.

A fantastic day

Today was my first day here. I came down late Friday night due to some previous commitments and was extremely excited to Finally get down to the big apple and begin this fantastic trip. Though it was my first day, everyone else had been here for a while so they were already in the swing of things. After a early break fest we departed at 8 pm to go to meals on wheels, a located on the west side of Manhattan. Our job for that morning was to deliver meals for the weekend to elderly folk who were not able to leave their homes. My group, which consisted of Kat, Loren,  Ms Nilan, and myself chatted up some older citizens who were extremely grateful. We were so efficient that we finished all our deliveries several hours earlier ghat expected. When we reached this discovery we quickly went to the second group who was in Harlem, cleaning up Jackie Robinson park. The first group did a fantastic amount of work and with our help we really pushed it over the top. The transformation was amazing and it was a wonderful experience. Everyone is looking forward to the festival tomorrow and it should be a fantastic time. Till tomorrow this is Andrew M signing off!

-Andrew M

Hope

We started off today with our usual long, busy, tiring commute to the worksites through the subway. After, we got off and boarded the Staten Island ferry, which lets you see the Statue of Liberty. When the ferry departed everyone scrambled to reach the side with best view.
Seeing the stair of liberty was when the reality of the trip truly sunk in on a personal level for me. It was a symbolic culmination of all the work that everyone has put in this year to reach this point. It filled me with such joy to see physical proof of the journey we've had together. The only thought going through my head was "we made it, I made it".
A few short minutes later we stepped off the ferry and boarded a bus which took us to the world cares center. After being given out materials for the day, a water and a t-shirt, we split off into our groups for the different work sites. At first, I didn't want to sign up for the painting site, I preferred sticking with the demolition and construction that had challenged me yesterday. But I found painting to be very different than I expected.
After a long (and confusing) bus ride we finally arrived at our worksite to find Ben waiting for us. Ben had come all the way for Portland, Oregon to work on this house for 10 months straight. His dedication to his work was amazing and I truly felt as though I was lucky to know someone like home and be able to share some sort of experience with him, no matter how small.
We soon set to work painting. My team, the green team, started working out way across every square inch of the walls, every square inch of someone's home. As we worked we imagined who would use this room. Was it a living room? Was it the bedroom of a little girl? Was it a bedroom of an old married couple?
We know now that we painted for a fireman, a school teacher, and their eighteen month old baby. Knowing that I will never get to meet those people is sad. But we all left that worksite completely covered in paint, hungry, tired, and with aching arms knowing that what we did was important became it gave people hope. Giving people hope in exchange for our time created a change in us. We realized that when we pull together as team we can truly change the world around us in ways we may not even be able to understand.
I am so unbelievably proud of everyone in the group and this day has truly cemented in my heart that we have the power to be great if we work together.
-Carly Dillis

Still waiting

Today we volunteered with the World Cares Center, another organization like Habitat for Humanity which provides rebuilding and assistance to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. Three groups did manual labor, but I elected to do phone banking. I wasn't quite sure what that was and I knew that it would be different from the Sandy recovery I participated in yesterday. The woman who oversaw our work was named Alanna and she was very friendly and helpful. I was pretty nervous at first when I received the phone script and list of the names of the people I would be contacting because I don't have too much experience with strangers on the phone and I knew that the information I got from the people would be crucial on their way to full recovery.
It's been 18 months since the storm. There is so much still that needs to be done. 22,000 people needed to be called and so far only 2000 have been. As if the storm itself wasn't bad enough, the government recovery organization, Build it Back, has been a complete nightmare. They've made promises time and time again that they have failed to keep and people are beyond tired and frustrated, their whole way of life has been changed. However, I had expected to get several angry phone calls but instead I was surprised by the patience that somehow people still managed to have. Most were still very positive and I was delighted by how excited some of them were just to talk to me and just to have someone listen. For many of them it was the first time someone had offered to help, and while I find this difficult to understand how people are still waiting for that first step in recovery, I am glad that I could have made even a small impact.
Amanda Fata

Jessica Schmuck

These last few days have been amazing! I have seen amazing things and meet amazing people. Yesterday I spent hours chiseling drywall off of bricks and it was the most fun I have had in a long time. Today I painted the walls in a house and was really moved by what our cite leader told us about the family that lived there. It was a young couple the guy a firefighter the girl a school teacher and they had a 18 month old girl. They had just moved into there house about a month before sandy. They lost so much on the store and now 19 months after the storm The house is just starting to come together. To hear that people have lost everything and just had a kid and are trying to get back on their feet is so touching. I feel honored to have had this experience.

May 22,

Clarisse Neilan

Clarisse Neilan
Today was my first official at a North Middlesex Service Learning trip. I was so excited about the adventure I was going to have today even though I had no idea what to expect. But today was a truly eye-opening experience and I would not change it for the world. Today we went to the Rockaways which is an island that is part of a larger group. A group of 24 of us set off at 6:38-ish and did not actually reach the location until close to 10:00 am, (I have never been more confused by a subway system in my entire life). We eventually got to the site and we arrived at a church that was destroyed in hurricane Sandy, it was so sad to go inside what should be a place for worship for peace and harmony be a construction site full of power tools and that one horrible event could destroy even the most sacred of places. We moved around 50 church benches and then after that we had lunch and it was great to talk to people in the group that I would otherwise never talk to let only see in school. After lunch a smaller group of us loaded into a van that was very decrepit, the door handles were being held together by duct tape, many of the locks on the car were broken, and many of the wires were broken and loose inside the van. I then made a comment to the leader of the organization saying how this van would never pass an safety inspection and from that he took my comment and told me about the concept of broken and the concept of garbage and said that "garbage is just a state of mind" and that what may be old and worn down to us, is not worn down or old to others and while you might fixate on how one little area is full of garbage but if you step back and look at the giant picture the whole place is full of garbage and that you should be more aware of what surrounds you; that conversation really stuck with me. After we went to the warehouse to paint pieces of plywood that would them stay in the storage garage and be used for later. Finally our small little group went to a house to help clean up a woman's porch because the organization were getting complaints from her next door neighbor about the mess that this woman had. This woman had two bad knees, a broken back, heart problems, and no family to help clean her mess; she was all alone trying to clean this by herself. Her house was under construction and some of is where in her attic organizing and myself and others were outside on her porch to help clear out trash bags that were basically all filled with DVDs. When I was going through these bags and looking through all these DVDs trying to see if they were salvageable I was thinking about the reason as to why this women wold keep all of these DVDs, what is so important about keeping DVDs and then I realized that she lost basically everything in the hurricane and that the DVDs were her last pieces of property left from her old home and that she wants her old home to become apart of her new home. I also remember bringing a bag full of trash to the van where it would be taken to a dumpster and I was dragging it across the parking lot because it was do heavy that I could not carry it and there was water seeping out of the bag. Then this women who was the neighbor of the woman who we were helping preceded to yell at me for getting filthy water onto the parking and near her driveway and that got me thinking about the idea of community and neighbors; that even when something terrible happens and you are trying to help someone there are still people who get angry at you for the slightest things and even I was angry at that women for yelling at me I realized that if you and the people you care about around you believe that what we as a group are doing is right then the opinion of strangers doesn't matter because we know in our hearts that we are still doing the right thing. Overall this day was such an eye-opening experience; from going to a church to a warehouse to someone's home our group did tackled it all with smiles on our faces and having a good time. Being apart of this group has definitely help me to become a better person and that if I need help I can always find it in them and vice versa. Even though this has only been my first day I feel like with all the knowledge I acquired I have been here for a week. I am so happy for such a successful first day and I can't wait for the days to come! So thank you to all of these amazing chaperones and to the group for being such an inspiring group of kids!

The Bear and the Bull

Today was an interesting day, to say the least. After breakfast this morning, our group headed off to the Habitat for Humanity site in Rockaway. Ever hear the expression "It's the journey, not the destination that matters?" That's kinda how today was. The first train we took had construction on the tunnel, so we had to switch lines. The line that we took got us to Wall Street. We had to go back above ground to switch lines. This was our first taste of real New York, the tall buildings and everything. As we were walking along, the hill we were climbing brought our view to the hind end of the famous bull of Wall Street. It took another train, a bus, walking a mile or so, then a ride in  Habitat's van to get us to the church in Rockaway. We moved pews from one room to another, swept the floor to get ready to put in a new floor. The man in charge said something to us that stuck with me today: what took us a few hours, would have taken them days, and they were incredibly thankful. Our ride back to the hotel went a bit better than our trip out. The 5 Train we took turned out to be a 2 Train. At one station, my metro-card wasn't working after everyone had gotten through. A stranger handed his card to me after he went through, and I was told he said to our chaperone: "Good people have to help good people." After all of this, I'm ready to see what we're up to tomorrow. 

Kevin Lundstrom

So today was a semi relaxed day, we drove a lot but driving is the easy part. We were fortunate enough to dine at the one and only Super Buffet. The hotel were staying at is very nice, and everything seems to be falling in to place smoothly. Tomorrow, we get straight to work, rising and shining at 6:15A.M. We will seperate, but well be together in spirit. This is already lots of fun, and all weve done so far is sit on a bus. It can only get better from here! Lets hope New York is ready for us.

The ride

After driving around Ally as she frantically tried to get all her stuff together (including the all important final deposit) we finally arrived back at the high school, late as per usual. The bus ride began quietly but didn't stay that way for long. After stopping for food at Subway/ a mildly questionable Chinese buffet we enjoyed our food on the bus and then proceeded to dance the rest of the bus ride away. I am now officially infected by the song Wiggle, and yet that has done nothing to make me good at wiggling, or any dancing still. The rooms here are gorgeous and remind me of a WW1 infirmary, but totally in a good way, like a Downton Abbey way. There are a lot of Twizzlers in our room, this makes me hopeful for the rest of the trip because I like Twizzlers.
~TR

Welcome to New York

Today was the start of something wonderful.  We made our journey from the backwoods of Massachusetts to the big and beautiful city of New York.  A city full of energy and light, suprisingly more energy than the group.  Our journey was filled with dancing, singing and plenty of laughter. After that bus ride any doubts that I had about our group working well together have disappeared.  I reached a whole new level of excitement today and I am ready to work hard. Welcome to this unending city of light and energy, welcome to New York.
-J.R.S.