Today, Service in Camden traveled to the South Jersey Food Bank to sort, pack, and ship food donated from a variety of sources. Here is what we did today:...
Continue readingHabitat for Humanity: The Warehouse Was Be-Squeegeed
Day Four Our day at the Habitat Warehouse began with Steven, Anthony and Peter taking down an office space by removing the windows and doors, preparing the area for demolition on Friday (hopefully by our group). While this was happening, a number of students, plus Mr. Thomson and Mr. Newman, started the long practice...
Continue readingBlacksmithing – No Snow = More Time on the Forge
The weather held out today to allow us to spend most of the day out working on the coal forges. Some students finished working on the forks they started on Monday. We also learned how to “upset” the metal to get a thicker section on an end. We returned to school early to be...
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Bayshore – The Boat Arrived!
On day three of our Bayshore trip the boat finally arrived. When the bus pulled in and everyone saw the mast of the ship we all got excited to finally be able to work on the boat. After putting our stuff away, we were split into groups. Kelcie, Natalie, Caroline, Aparna, and Katie painted...
Continue readingHabitat for Humanity: Teamwork and packing up at Restore
Day Three Today was a really busy day! We helped the Restore at Habitat for Humanity move the rest of their furniture by loading trucks and putting porcelain products on palettes. We did a lot of heavy lifting. Loading the trucks was like playing Tetris – it took a lot of thinking to get...
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China: Service at The Bethel Foundation
After breakfast we took at bus trip to southwest Beijing to the Bethel Foundation. This is a place for blind and visually impaired children ages 2-8. While there we cleaned buckets, raked and picked up tree clippings, washed play equipment, and cleaned the pool. We also got to meet some of the children when...
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Bayshore: Lots of work and some play
Day Two Day two of our Bayshore trip and the boat still hasn’t arrived (hopefully tomorrow!). But that doesn’t mean our group of 14 eager (and slightly frozen) students couldn’t find work to be done. Not only does the boat need to be taken care of, but also the dock she resides in, and the...
Continue readingBlacksmithing: Start the fires, make a fork
Day Two We returned to the Harriton House today. Our first task was to help clean up the grounds a little due to all of the branches that came down over the winter. Then we set to work getting the fires started. The groups had more success getting the coal burning today. Our...
Continue readingQuilting: Our skills are improving!
Day Two Hey guys! Today we made quilts! Everyone improved their skills and can finish quilting more quickly. We were grouped in pairs of two to help each other out. All of us were focused and careful. During lunch, we went uptown and ate at Passarello’s. We then went to Starbuck’s afterwards. All of...
Continue readingHabitat for Humanity: Demolition
Day Two Today, we had breakfast as soon as we arrived. Then, we went to the Habitat Restore warehouse to do whatever was needed. The visit was actually a surprise because we were supposed to be making raised beds, but due to frigid temperatures we decided to change our plans. Of course, the Habitat community...
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China: Off to market
Day Three 3/24, after breakfast, we took the bus to visit the Bethel Foundation in southwest Beijing. The foundation is a place for blind orphans. While we were there we cleaned, picked up tree branches, washed down play equipment, and cleaned up their pool. All the kids were friendly and the staff was nice....
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Costa Rica: Painting the playground
Day Three Annie Today was amazing! We started out our day by visiting a small school after breakfast. We helped paint a playground and also some classrooms. We got to play with some of the local children. We all had an excellent meal of rice, salad, chips and pineapple juice together. When we finished...
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Costa Rica: Planting trees with local children
Day Two After breakfast at 7:30, we headed to the school to work with the children. When we got there, we were each assigned a child and we planted trees with them. We then helped the students to paint signs with the name of the tree and their name to place in front of...
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Blacksmithing Day One: Getting the fires going
Today we learned about the history and mission of the Harriton House and then got right to work getting the fires going and trying our hands at making hooks. All of the students jumped right in. On Monday, we will learn a few new techniques. Students have already started thinking about individual projects they...
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First Day at Bayshore!
Our first day of Bayshore Discovery was split up into two parts: before and after lunch. Before lunch, we met Captain Briggs and Steve, one of the workers at the facility. The captain gave us a brief overview, then Steve took us all on a tour. He walked us around the wetlands, and we...
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