Second Phase: A Whole New Kind of Gulf- Ft.Pierce, FL!

---

---

Hi everybody!
I'm writing to you from the very retro living room of Team Gold four's new living accommodations in Ft.Pierce, Florida! As I sit here on one of the five couches in our sunken living room, my mind reflects on all that has happened since we left Biloxi and landed here in South Florida. However, not even the silver glitter scattered above my head on the ceilings of our house can distract me from writing this blog entry!

With a new project, I'm also trying out a new blog site that one of my teammates suggested! I hope you enjoy the new format and please let me know if you have any issues viewing it- I'm still working out the kinks.

We spent a relaxing week in Jackson, Mississippi for our transition period between first and second phase. Transition periods occur between each project for all teams to reflect and take a break after working hard for two months. The Jackson transition location is for "Gulf-to-Gulf" teams who have just completed a Gulf Region Project and will be entering directly into another Gulf Region project for the next phase. All other teams transition at the Sacramento campus and either remain in the Western Region for their next project or travel down to the Gulf to begin work there. During transition time, teams give debriefing and briefing presentations on their last project and their next project respectively. All CM's also go through refresher trainings for individual team positions and attend informational meetings and focus groups to get feedback on staff plans for future Americorps events.
There was a great buffet line for all three meals (I probably will not eat cobbler for awhile now) and my teammate roomie and I got bumped up to a suite room. All teams also have physical training baseline again to assess our progress after two more months of early-morning PT sessions. My team shaved off a significant amount of time from our one-and-a-half mile running times thanks to all those early-morning runs to the Biloxi Beach!
One of the highlights of transition was a trip for all of the Gulf-to-Gulf teams to visit the Mississippi State House! We were invited by the Mississippi State Commissioner for Volunteer Services, Martha Meeks-Kelly, who has been very active in working to establish the permanent Gulf-region Americorps campus, located in Vicksburg,MS. We sat in on a meeting of the State Senate during which we were thanked by Senate members and also met with one the coordinators for much of the post-Katrina rebuilding being done in the state. Later we all listened to a short lecture on the building- one of the most interesting facts that I learned was that the huge golden eagle statue atop the State House faces South, represents "Southern Freedom" from the oppressions of the North- certainly an important reminder of a significant aspect of Southern culture that cannot and should not be ignored by anyone who visits from another region of the country.
Our presentations went very well thanks to the abundant creativity of my teammates! For the debrief, each team member was interviewed on our experiences in Biloxi- one of my teammates chose to be interviewed in a bathtub, another answered interview questions in a made-up language, and I sang most of my responses (this was all presented in front of our region director and unit leader- they loved it!). Our briefing also went very well with plenty of humorous photos from Biloxi in our Power Point.
After a week of doing very little physical work I was feeling a little useless and we were all excited to get back on the road to our next project with St.Lucie I.N.T.A.C.T. , in Ft.Pierce, Florida!

We started on our journey to the Treasure Coast (so named after the wreck of Spanish trade ships in a 1715 hurricane off the Southern FL coast) early Thursday morning, 2/7. We stayed in Tallahassee that night and then set out for Ft.Pierce the next day. We were greeted at our new housing site at 1801 Avenue F that afternoon by our supervisor with INTACT, Jim Gilfillan, and Pastor Bob Coleman, leader of the church that sponsors the "Hospitality House," the name given to our new home. We immediately set to cleaning up the house and moving in our things- there was a lot of work to do since the last team left in October! After several hours of work we went out for a well-earned dinner then spent the rest of the night getting used to (what felt like) so much room all to ourselves.
Team Gold Four is the first Sacramento Campus team to work with INTACT (Inspired Network to Achieve Community Together)- there have been four teams before us from the Perry Point, MD and Denver, CO campuses. The last team installed hurricane shutters in over 50 homes and past teams have also made a huge impact in the community, so we were told (jokingly) that we have a tough act to follow! However, Jim stresses that safety is the number one priority, and quality of work (doing something right the first time) is also more important to him than the number of homes completed. Everyone on the team agrees, especially Miranda, our safety coordinator.

On Monday, February 11, our first day of work, we had an orientation to the work we would be doing at the "Hurricane House," a facility open to the Florida public to learn about hurricane-proofing construction and mitigation techniques. Construction involves actual materials used in the building of the house, such as using hurricane straps to attach wooden studs to the roof, as opposed to mitigation, that focuses more on measures that can be applied to existing homes, such as installing hurricane shutters to the outside of homes.
Stefanie Myers, Long Term Recovery Coordinator with the St.Lucie County Community Services, gave us a presentation on the importance of our work, information that I was glad to learn before we started so that I could better understand the reason why we are here.
According to the presentation, home prices in Florida increased 100 percent from 2000 to 2005. In addition, home insurance rates were at record highs in 2005 all over the Gulf region. Similar to the situations in Mississppi and Louisiana, these remarkably high rates persisted, and even increased, in the months following Hurricane Katrina and the other devastating storms that hit the region that season. Many homeowners were infamously not compensated for the damage to their homes due to the fact that they had only wind damage protection and did not have flood damage insurance (the enormous storm surge that resulted from Hurricane Katrina reached many homes not located in flood plain areas, and therefore, homeowners who had no previous incentive to buy such insurance). Also, a few years ago, many insurance companies downgraded or eliminated mold coverage from their plans- mold can affect the wooden structure and insulation in homes, causing very costly repairs.
INTACT's services help to lower clients' insurance because mitigated homes have lower potential for insurance claims, and fewer claims mean lower home owner's insurance. Some companies also give incentives to mitigate. However, private mitigation can be expensive, so INTACT provides this service free of charge to qualifying low-income homeowners.
1990 marked the beginning of an active cycle of hurricanes, following about 30 years of relative inactivity. Twenty-eight hurricanes ripped through the Gulf Coast in 2005- each year, hurricanes are named with alternating male and female names beginning with the first letter of the alphabet- in 2005, there were so many hurricanes that the Greek alphabet had to be utilized to name them all. The insurance companies that covered many of INTACT's clients had insurance but many of these companies went bankrupt after this particularly destructive hurricane season because they could not provide for all their clients' claims. In Florida, hurricanes Frances and Jeanne that caused much of the devastation. The bowl-like shape of the Gulf facilitates the huge storm surges that occur during hurricanes- such powerful waves are more likely to dissipate along the long area of the East Coast.
Many INTACT clients are elderly and did not expect or prepare for this active period of hurricanes after living and surviving 30 years without experiencing storms of the magnitude they reach now. Many victims of the 2005 hurricanes were elderly people who physically could not or would not leave their homes for personal reasons.
Evacuation is an extremely expensive and time-consuming undertaking- one of our presenters described it as "essentially taking an in-state vacation" because evacuees have to take into account how they will protect their homes while they are away, where they will stay when they leave (staying with relatives or in hotels), paying for gas to drive long distances (it is usually very difficult, if not impossible, to evacuate via public transportation). I was surprised to learn that it is a process that few can afford or have the energy for. All this must also be organized a significant amount of time in advance of a hurricane in order to be effective. For these reasons, it is often the elderly and low-income individuals who are great risk during hurricanes because many do not have the means or resources to prepare.
Florida is an especially difficult state to evacuate from as well- it has one of the highest populations in the country and most Floridians are settled along the coast. In Florida, The only direction to evacuate towards is north, a problem that naturally causes dangerous traffic jams when people try to evacuate with little time before a hurricane hits- some people try to wait out the storm in their cars on the highway when they would actually be (relatively) safer in their homes.
Many Floridians choose to stay in their homes during hurricanes so it is even more important that their houses are kept as safe as possible. The services that INTACT provides help reduce the probability that wind (the main damaging force during a hurricane) will enter the home, and, as we were told, it will find another way out that might not be the front door. Wind can enter through an unprotected opening (window or door) that has been broken by flying debris or simply ripped away. When it enters the house, the wind will try to escape however possible- by taking off the roof, knocking down a wall, etc. When wind and debris are blown into a home, the "envelope" of the home is breached. When all possible weak points are secured, the envelope is sealed and less susceptible to breaches. In this way, the techniques INTACT applies to homes makes them more energy efficient (helping clients ave money on utility bills) as well as safer.
Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends in November; therefore, half of the year is spent in season and the other half is spent preparing and recovering from last season. We are getting closer and closer to the beginning of this year's season and it takes two months for a homeowner to complete the INTACT application process so it is especially important that we get shutters outfitted now so that people are prepared well in advance.
As part of our training, we also learned about assembling disaster-preparedness kits, what people can do to protect their home before a storm (like bringing all lawn furniture inside), and the importance of knowing the disaster plans in our communities. I had never thought of Massachusetts having a atural disaster that would necessitate evacuation but storms can take the form of dangerous nor'easters before they grow into hurricanes. We were also asked if we had an evacuation plan and a disaster-preparedness kit in our home in Ft.Pierce, neither of which we have. Knowing that we are in a danger zone, though not during hurricane season, still served as a reminder of the precautions that Gulf Coast residents have to be aware of.
Hurricane preparation is a community effort- you do not want your lawn chair to crash into your neighbor's house because you did not secure it before the storm, and vice versa. After storms when electricity and other utilities are down, many people essentially have huge block parties to get rid of all the frozen food in their freezers before it goes bad.
Our project fulfills a basic need in making shelters more stable. I am beginning to understand that, in a disaster, a house is more than your nest egg, or even where your family keeps all of its personal belongings, it is simply a shelter. INTACT helps to strengthen these shelters to keep people safe and hopefully reduce their insurance bills or rebuilding costs after a storm.


That weekend, a few of us walked to downtown Ft.Pierce from our house. We live in the northwest section of the city that is known for having a substantial rate of violent crime, drug dealing, gang activity, and prostitution. However, the neighborhood has made progress in recent years and there is definitely some good work being done by groups working to revitalize the neighborhood, particularly around Avenue D (we live on Avenue F), the area where crime has been especially bad.
The downtown area of Ft.Pierce is a hub of culture and fun activities for tourists and residents. There is abundance of art galleries, restaurants, beaches, and museums, all within walking distance. That morning, we walked down to the weekly farmer's market by the ocean and bought some delicious Florida oranges and grapefruit and browsed the local arts and crafts fair as well.

During our second week of work I had an early-morning PT accident- as I was waiting at an intersection on the route we were running, a school bus ran over the left part of my left foot as it was turning a corner. Americorps has been full of new experiences for me and now I can count one more (for what it's worth, and who can put a price on new experiences 😊?): going to the emergency room! I feel very lucky though because I only got a bad sprain.

I will not be able to install shutters or run for at least the next two weeks so here's the silver lining to all of this (da da da da!): I am working with INTACT at the St.Lucie County Community Services office, a post that has given me a lot of opportunities to see the behind-the-scenes of a small non-profit. I've been interested in seeing the inner workings of a non-profit (despite the paperwork and mailings) for awhile and I am glad to have this time to learn what I can about the operation of non-profits in general, and INTACT specifically. So far, I have shredded almost a dozen boxes worth of old documents, worked on a mailing to past clients, learned how to use a scanner, and most interestingly, sat in on severel interviews with potential INTACT clients. I also got a self-taught crash refresher on Power Point, creating a presentation that I wil present at a team appearance next week with St. Lucie County Commissioner Doug Coward!

Last weekend I organized an Independent Service Project with the Frontier Florida Fest, an event celebrating the Florida's early history run by the St.Lucie County Historical Museum. We began the day with a walk through the museum, learning about the Seminole Indian history and Spanish trading that took place in the area. I spent the day at the arts and crafts table, helping kids decorate cowboy hats and wooden snakes. We tried to instruct our young charges on some Florida history ("That chocolate coin in the purse you made is like the Spanish doubloons that Florida cowboys received as pay!") but I don't think those lessons was quite as interesting to them as their artwork. The fair also featured a bluegrass band, lasso jumpers, people dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls on horses cracking whips, a man who cracked a very long whip against the ground (in the fashion of a Florida frontier "Cracker" or cattle hand- the derogatory term did not appear til the mid-twentieth century). One of my favorite parts of the fair was watching the Hitchiti Dancers, a group that performs traditional Seminole dances. The accompanying music and costumes were beautiful and the complexity of the dances was enhanced by a speaker who narrated the stories, or the meaning, being conveyed in the dances. Suffice it to say that I have never seen anything like it before.


Ft.Pierce is a very diverse city socio-economically, ethnically, and culturally. There are substantial populations of Caribbean-area immigrants, especially from Jamaica and Haiti. It is one of the communities in St.Lucie County, along with Port St.Lucie, a very recently developed area (PSL was the fastest-growing city in the country a few years ago).

According to a recent county study, some of larger issues in the county are:

- Affordable housing: More housing units have been built but prices have increased as well, a situation exacerbated by the fact that there are not enough high-paying jobs in the county- this has led to higher rates of unemployment. Three in ten St.Lucie County residents work in another county due to a lack of good jobs where they live
- Access to Health Care: twenty-five percent of residents under 65 do not have health insurance- this problem is more prevalent among individuals with incomes under $25,000 and/or individuals who have had less formal education.
- Gangs, Drugs, and Violence: Community leaders believe the rise of these problems in the county affect all socio-economic levels in the county. Many attribute this trend to the lack of parental involvement, youth programs, and employment opportunities available to St. Lucie County children.
- Homelessness: More than 100 St.Lucie County children are homeless. These children are more likely to join gangs for support and are more likely to have problems in terms of education, healthcare, and employment. The lack of affordable housing and good employment opportunities are cited as possible contributing factors to the issue of homelessness in the county.

Just for reference, Ft.Pierce has a significantly lower per capita income ($14,345-
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12/1224300.html),compared to Port St.Lucie ($18,059-
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12/1258715.html), the other town in the county where INTACT installs shutters. The per capita income of Florida is $21, 557 and the per capita income of the United States is $21,587.
Before we began going to houses and installing shutters, Jim told us to be aware that it can be difficult to judge someone's income level from their home or belongings- in the past, Americorps teams have been confused and annoyed when they worked at expensive-looking homes that were supposedly owned by low income individuals. I tried to keep this in mind when we worked on expensive-looking homes (mostly located in Port St.Lucie) as well as run-down houses (more in Ft.Pierce)- working with INTACT, both on site and at the office, has made me much more aware of the different circumstances that could be playing a role in a person's income level.

Last week a few of my teammates and I went to a St.Lucie County Historical Society Meeting at which the Avenue D Boy's Choir, a local music/ leadership development group, performed contemporary gospel pieces (I knew two of the songs from concerts with the Jubilee Singers- It was awesome to sing along!) and a local activist spoke briefly about his experience growing up as an African-American in Ft.Pierce. He said that Ft.Pierce used to be a very racially segregated community but it also has a history of activists working for equality as well.
This past weekend I read Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" in a talent show at a local "Street Party" to celebrate Black History Month organized by Lincoln Park Mainstreet, one of the groups working to curb crime and beautify northwest Ft.Pierce. Not many people would choose to be out on Avenue D after dark but it was a great event with dancing and music. I won third prize in the talent show and had a great time!
After the party, a teammate of mine observed that there are still a lot of divisions along racial, socio-economic lines. The speaker's generally positive view of the city was tempered in our minds by the words of the Main Street activists who spoke of the obstacles facing Ft.Pierce residents and wore t-shirts that said "St. Lucie County: Stop the Violence."

On Monday my team got a day off from work courtesy of County Commissioner Doug Coward to a Mets vs. Braves spring training game! There were a few pitches made over the loudspeaker for Americorps and the Mets must have made some good pitches too (hardy-har har! My TL loves puns and I fear I have had too much exposure) because they won! We all had a great time (especially my teammates from New York) chillling in the County suite box and I even watched some of the game from the lower stands- I've never seen baseball that close at Fenway!

Last night, a few of my teammates and I worked at a local after-school program, Save Our Children. We were told to help the children with their homework and then lay with them during game time- I haven't had a lot of tutoring experience so I was a little nervous. When the kids arrived we all jumped right in helping them as they walked in. I spent the entire time with one boy, helping him with spelling and reading. It was a slow first few hours as I tried to keep his attention, wracking my brain to tap into my childhood memories so that I could try to remember what it felt like to not understand how letters could make so many different sounds depending on where they were placed in a word. Near the end of the designated study time, we were both frustrated and it took patience at times to ask my tutoree to stay with me. The last thing we had to do was begin a book report- at first I asked him to read a few pages and eventually I whiddled my requirements down to one sentence so that he could answer just the first open-answer question on the report. Over the past week, I have had to be more conscious of my own limits and I was beginning to realize that, as obvious as it may seem, I needed to work with my child and try to understand his limits and strengths, not the other way around- I was there to help him. Everyone there (Gold 4 members and the kids) had a great time and we hope to go back soon!

Despite the violence, police sirens, and divisions in Ft.Pierce, I am struck by the beauty here. Whether I'm walking by the homes and businesses on Martin Luther King Boulevard or standing on a beach at night with nothing but moonlit ocean in front of me, I am so happy to be here and see what I am seeing.

Whew! That's about it from unseasonably warm Florida (brought to us by that dastardly global warming, I expect)! I hope all of you are doing well wherever you may be. I love to hear about all your adventures so please let me know what's up whenever you have a chance!
Till next time,
Ameri-love,
~Elena

P.S. Ft.Pierce Fun Fact!:
Zora Neale Hurston lived in Ft.Pierce in the years before her death and you can follow her travels and career through different historical locations in Ft.Pierce!


Some fun links!
To learn more about Ft.Pierce in bar graph form, go here. Please ignore the mortgage information at the bottom- I couldn't figure out how to get the graphs by themselves!:

2A&TotalRecs=595&MinSqFt=&MaxSqFt=&LotSize=&MinYear=&MaxYear=&PropIdList=3_54525118,3_64182672,3_64182700,3_64182497,3_51316014,3_64154130,3_63748429,3_56239021,3_62174723&PropId=51316014&NHC=1&searchorig=main&Display=Crime

As part of our initial training, we were shown this clip of the damage a hurricane inflicts as it progresses:
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/hurricanes/index_categories.html

INTACT's website:
http://www.stlucieco.gov/community/intact.htm

Here's a clip of Anderson Cooper's conversation with Americorps groups (from the Western Region campus!) in New Orleans!

Anderson Cooper's report on the current state of New Orleans:
http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/newsroom/releases_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=963

---

Photos

Mississippi Statehouse
Here is an artistic view of the Mississippi Statehouse where we were invited to look in on a session of the State Senate

Mississippi Museum of Natural History
A group of CM's visited the Mississippi Museum of Natural History in Jackson during transition.
A tree covered in Spanish moss on a trail at the Mississippi Museum of Natural History

Mississippi Museum of Natural History
Cypress trees along a museum trail

INTACT press release!
Team Gold Four in the papers!

In the news again!
Another newspaper clipping!

On the Job!
Jim, our supervisor

Scene from Avenue D
Avenue D

Ft. Pierce Haitian United Methodist Church
Sign for a Haitian church on Orange Ave. and 8th. St. in Ft.Pierce.

The Continuing Travels of the Orange Nalgene
My Nalgene continues its adventures- here in downtown Ft.Pierce

The House on Avenue F!
Our awesome sunken living room!

Making Dinner at Home
Me cutting onions for dinner using the afforementioned "spoon technique" and wearing my safety goggles for extra protection from those delicious but slightly dangerous vegetables

Installing shutters
A window with shutters on

Installing shutters
What the windows look like with the shutter tracks on- they stay there permanently- the shutters slide into them

Fronteir Florida Fest ISP
Lasso jumper doing a crazy trick at the St.Lucie COunty History Museum Fronteir Florida Fest

Manatees, Manatees, everywhere
A few of my teammates and me with the manatee statue downtown. Manatees live all over the Treasure Coast- you can spot them in the water apparently- they're huge!

Comments

[deleted_64151]

That sounds AMAZING, all of it.....(besides getting run over by a schoolbus....) but espeically the adventures of the orange nalgene AND MANATEES....my favorite animals!! besides ponies

[Connie]

Well Done Elena!
I must say this says it all!! You are very well spoken and have inspired me to take an english class, before I even attempt to blog. However, there was one thing you forgot, but maybe you couldnt say, is how hard the receptionist works to answer every call and question! :) J/K It pays the bills! I wish you luck in all your travels, have fun in the meantime! Talk to ya soon!

[Elena M Swartz]

Correction on Above Photo of Haitian Church
The author wishes to correct information for the above photo of the Ft.Pierce Haitian United Methodist Church. The Church is not located on Avenue D, but on Orange Ave. and 8th St. in downtown Ft.Pierce. I apologize for any confusion I caused with this mistake.

[Gail]

Great Blog on Ft. Pierce!
Elena, I am a church high school youth group leader from Countryside UCC in Omaha, NE and we are traveling to Ft.Pierce this next week to help INTACT. We are also staying in the hospitality house and your blog is the most information I've been abel to find on the net about the experience that lies ahead. Now that I have a bit more information about Ft.Pierce, I am a bit nervous but inspired by the positive experience you had in 2008, and imagine that our kids/adults will definitely grow as a result of our involvement. This is my first opportunity to be part of a service trip and I am envious of your experience with Americorp. I am excited about the pressure President Obama is putting on citizens of all ages to get more involved and hope my two teens might one day find their way to a more formal program like you did. You should be very proud of your contributions. Although you are a stranger to me, after reading your blog I am proud to say that you are part of my American Family! Thanks for sharing...