Today was the last day of our Intensive Learning experience at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Today we put the finishing touches on helping them move to their new location. We demolished some walls, shredded (again), removed letters from a door and did some final packing. While this was going on, there was a...
Continue reading
Over 500 hours of community service in one week!
Today was our last day in Bivalve, so we were busy at work finishing projects. The AJ Meerwald went for a sail in the morning with the coastguards. We couldn’t go, so we stayed on the docks. Some people painted a part of the wood (the centerboard) from the ship while on the dock....
Continue readingGardening @ Habitat
Today, in our fifth day of Habitat for Humanity, we went to the Perkins Center of the Arts and helped them build raised planting beds for their garden. We built the frames out of 2 by 8s and filled them using dirt from a large pile that the Perkins Center had delivered last Friday....
Continue readingSJ Food Bank: Making make-up for mothers and moving heavy (juice) boxes
Today, we spent our second day at the South Jersey Food Bank. Everyone definitely earned their service hours today. Here’s how: The make-up crew is proud of all the kits they put together for Mother’s Day....
Continue readingLacrosse: The road often traveled
Last Day We started the day with very cold weather (62 degrees) – what a chill in the air! Off to practice at 9:00 AM. Practice went very well. We continue to get better with each workout. Spending two and half hours in this chilly weather does take a toll but we all worked...
Continue reading
Snow on deck!
Today was a fun yet wintery day. When we got to the Bayshore Center at Bivalve, we immediately went to the boat. There was snow on the deck, so Kiera, Harvey, and Ian shoveled it off. While they shoveled, Mrs. Van Meter, Caroline, Kelcie, Natalie, and Aparna cleaned the living quarters under the deck....
Continue readingBlacksmithing: Cold & Windy – Some outside – some inside
Day Four Today we got to the Harriton House and split between working indoors on wood turning and outdoors doing more with blacksmithing. We got the fires up and running as quickly as possible. As long as you were near the fire it wasn’t too cold. The group inside made bowls and fork handles....
Continue readingThe Quilt Shop: Adding bedding and seams
At the Burlington quilt shop we finished our large quilts by adding bedding onto them. We used a giant machine to make seams all over the quilts and to make designs and doodles on the quilt squares. After that we made personalized logos along with our names, the date, and title of our quilts...
Continue readingSouth Jersey Food Bank: Foxes Pack Boxes
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...
Continue reading
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...
Continue reading
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...
Continue reading
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 reading