Advertisement
Published: July 26th 2019
Edit Blog Post
Build Day!
Which mean van jams on the way to the site! Of course for K2C, that means Winnebago, because, what else is there? I do love these moments and will miss them, regardless of how much we hate piling into that van, especially in the hot summer sun.
We arrive on site at a park where we are greeted by our kind and dedicated AH lead Adam, who is excited that we are here today! He explains how a few years ago Bike & Build came through and helped clean up this park, create seating, and blaze the trail. But now, looking around, its all severely overgrown--the seating is barely visible due to high weeds, overgrowth along the fence, and supposedly there is a trail in the woods, though it is currently unrecognizable. Adam is passionate about cleaning up this park because he states "Its not about building home, but building connections" since this park connects three areas together. We get to work, dividing up into groups for each section that needs work. I cue up music on my phone and have it in my American flag fanny pack while pulling weeds. I take request and appreciate the
extra motivation. Noah requests "Accidentally in Love" from the Shrek soundtrack--he always has good, fun music recs. A few other 80's songs are requested and now the vibes are all over the place. I take some photos of our friends working hard and get back to pulling weeds. I chat with NJ a bit and the sun continues to heat up.
We break for lunch, where we head back to the affiliates office where we are greeted with pizza, AC, and a few of the other employees of this AH org. We sit in a square formation around tables and enjoy some pizza while hearing more about the affiliate and Adam's involvement and experiences here. The Executive Director tells us that "building homes is great but that is not the most important thing we do--inspire the next generation to do what we do." It is beautiful to be sitting in the presence of this heartbeat being lived out. Their mission is to help transform homes, blocks, and neighborhoods and I must say, they are doing a mighty fine job at it. We discover that there is a Dunkin nearby, so of course Sarah and I are on that train!
I take some orders and we walk over to gather some icey sweet goodness for our dear, hard working friends. I again assume NJ just wants her usual iced latte, which she is much appreciative of when I surprise her with it. Gifts!
The coffee starts kicking in and we rally the troops to get back out there in the hot sun. Since we had a pretty productive morning, the afternoon is made easier and we wrap up our duties a bit early. Aiden is very eager and excited to show us the trail he was helping clear. We go for a walk through the woods and are impressed with the progress the woods team made! Its a lovely trail walk in the woods, bringing back nostalgia from childhood. The shade is also a welcome change from the hot sun.
Before heading back to the office, we all line down the block (literally) to hug Aiden. His girlfriend Jess just came to town (with Sam! his hat chocolate lab!) to drive him to Albany for his mom's funeral. There's a lot of feelings in this moment. He goes down the line and gives us all a hug before
loading in the car and driving off. It feels weird to have our once group of 17 down to 14. We head back to the office, where I get mocked for my gross, moldy water bottle, take a picture with Adam, who claims "It's a bit dusty out here" due to tearing up after bidding him farewell. We all adore him and his sweet, kind, soft heart, and will never forget him nor him introducing us to the now legendary song "Rusputin."
We arrive back at the church where we immediately have a Town Hall as the receipt for the leaders to address the feedback we gave them and thank us for taking the time to do it. Though we're all sitting in a circle, most looked slouched, tired, or sleeping and I hear my jersey come out as I say, "80% of communication is non-verbal." lol. Guess I did learn something from my Non-Verbal Communication class at PBA. It just seemed incredibly rude to me that everyone displayed signs of not caring while the leaders were prepping to be vulnerable as their strengths and weakness were called out, and they would have to own them, and make a
plan for change--some of them even tearing up. Aiden was able to call in and I appreciate the time they took to talk about these things while I sipped iced tea.
My team was kind enough to allow me to get the first shower since Souc and his fiance were on their way over to take me out. Though we had a host dinner at an alum's parents' house after everyone showered, we still wanted to try to get together while I was in town--plus I have not met his fiance yet (and since he's such a great guy--I may have had a crush on him back on our trip--we knew she had to be great!). They arrive and meet some of our friends and we walk over to the same bar we went to last night with Anthony. No one else joins us so we have some nice catch up time as I get filled in on their wedding and learn more about their story and about Jessica. Soucy buys our round and we chat for about an hour before I have to head back so we can all head over for host dinner. We hug "see you
later" and I congratulate them on their upcoming marriage, and I hop in the van to head out for host dinner.
We jam on over to the alum's parents' house, which is a beautiful Connecticut upper class home complete with castle-like brick, an in-ground pool, and delicious brick over pizza from their local favorite spot. And to top it all off, like all alum's parents, they are the kindest and friendliest folks. We eat fancy pizza outside on their patio crowded around the furniture and pool, sip some beers, and chat with the Alum about his trip and our trip and what he is up to now. NJ is playing with the idea of going to butcher school in Italy, which is something he has a background in, she she asks him lots of questions which stimulates an interesting conversation as you learn of the many cool things people do and amazing opportunities out there.
A few people decide to get into the pool and originally I had pan on not going in and just had my feet in the pool. But, FOMO. Plus were going to play basketball and needed another player, so of course I had
to play! I hope you dance (or in this case, swim) right Mom? So I jump in and I am glad I did bc we had A LOT of fun playing! Scratches, dunks, and competitive bows and all, we were at it some kind of fierce! The sun continued to set and darkness has closed in on us, but hasnt darkened our fun! However, Kristi at one point realized that she lost her necklace, which she told us was very special to her. So just like when Ryan lost his sunglasses in Wilmington, NC, we all joined hands and drug of feet along the floor of the pool moving back and forth and attempting to spot it in the now darkened pool with minimum lighting. I, honestly, lost hope but I attempted to help them by getting out and checking the filter and shining my phone flash light on them in an effort to aid them in their search. After much time and slightly discouraged hearts, WE FOUND IT! This team continue to surprise me and no matter what the task at hand, we always seem to find a way to get the job done!
Exhilarated and fired up,
we bid wet farewells and pile into the van. We jam some more on the way home (Winnebago, of course!) shaking and rocking the van as we sing at the top of our lungs. Gosh these people are fun! I crash in my small semi-private room ( I wish I was closer to some of my friends! I miss them! Where are they all sleeping??) happy for yet another wonderful day on Bike & Build...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.138s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0511s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb