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NCCC Reflects on Their Experience
A month after arriving at the Vinton campus on October 14th, we finally got our first project working with Cedar Rapids Weed and Seed. Our first chance to get out of 8 hours of meetings. The first opportunity to get our hands dirty and start doing what we signed 10 months of our lives away for: to make a real impact on communities.
Working with Weed and Seed has been a chance to start from scratch: Everything I’ve learned about construction work I’ve learned within the past four weeks. At times it was intimidating to admit inexperience or uncertainty, especially faced with teammates who were fairly new and a whole crew of Americorps VISTAs who had been at this work for months. Our site supervisors, Jimmy and Rhonda, made sure that we didn’t feel like rookies for too long. We were quickly introduced to the Cedar Rapids community and to the job ahead of us.
One day, while mudding the second coat at the Johnston house, two Corps Members on break went to the Casey’s across the street. The first tried not to get mud on the faucet in the bathroom while the other stared at the energy drink selection for a solid 3 minutes without making a selection. She finally went with Sun Chips. At the register, the cashier did something that a girl from the East Coast found surprising: he smiled and asked about the day they were having. He continued to describe how the flood affected his baby daughter and why he’s not the person he used to be. It’s been really difficult to hear about the pain that the community of Cedar Rapids has endured, but it’s also been great to work with Weed and Seed to fight for the welfare of those we’ve been lucky enough to learn from.
(Information provided by Shannon McCoy for AmeriCorps NCCC)
Back row, L-R, is Shannon McCoy, Daniel Walker, Griffith Ryan-Roberts, Patrick Gentry, and Team Leader Michael Geneve. Front Row, L-R, Lexie Olson, Lyndsay Senerchia, Brittney Green, Steph Kasza, and Patricia Long.