Kelsey in Colorado Day 5

Thursday and Friday were our last two days on the trip and we went back to the high school both days and did some exploring of our own.

Thursday at the school we got to see the special simulation room in which they had bean bags and pillows and it was dark, just in case the kids needed somewhere to relax. There was also another side to this room that was filled with work out equipment bikes for the kids to use to burn off excess energy and to get a little exercise. Almost all of the kids were not in shape. In the room, we had a ten minute break with the kids where we got to ride the bikes and dance to the radio. This was a blast and the kids love to dance and get energy out.

Gage was one of the students who was turning 21 on Friday and he has autism. He is fun, but he is a big boy and was dancing all around like crazy. His part that he was having was a surprise party being put on by the high school for him, which is great! It was going to be a sushi-zombi party is what he told us. Although we didn’t get to stay for the party, it sounded like a lot of fun.

On Friday we went on a field trip with all the kids to different places. I went to the pet store with Sarah and Chris. These two were very difficult to work with and this was when I started getting uncomfortable and had some problems. It was hard to work with these kids because they already knew the teachers so well, that they would really only respond to them, and that was even only sometimes. Sarah’s most popular thing was to run off, and she ran off a few times in the store. And Chris loved the cats! It was so cute.

Some of the things at the school to keep in mind were that:

-       There is 22 paras, about one for each student

-       Most of the students are not in the school district, they just go there because it provides the right facility and equipment

After a long week, we had to say goodbye to the kids. This was sad for us and them and you could really tell that they made a connection with us and that just being there made a huge impact and difference on their lives. It definitely makes you feel good! J

We took some personal time to go watch the KU game, tour the Coors brewery and explore the stores around Boulder. We saw Mount Zion and went to the very top.

The Coors brewery was very interesting as well and afterwards we went for a nice home cooked meal at one of the girls in the trips Aunt’s house. She cooked us dinner and we got to see how she lived in the state of Colorado.

Overall the trip was a great experience and I learned so much about kids, not only with autism, but also kids with downs syndrome. 

Kelsey in Colorado Day 4

Last night we traveled to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and saw the amazing man made stage and decided to venture through the rocks and do a little spelunking. I had never heard of Red Rocks and didn’t know that it is a famous place where anyone who is anyone has played. The Beatles have even played in this amphitheatre.

The next morning, Wednesday, was an early one! Up at 6 am to travel to the church and see the capital. The capital was very interesting and it we learned about lobbying and even saw it in effect. There was a civil union talk in the senate that day as well. There were many happenings this day at the capital and it was jam-packed. We had to wait in line to get in and do a mini tour.

Basically Lobbyist job is to try to talk to their senator into passing bills and they can only talk to them in the lobby. This talk has to be quick and concise saying everything they need to say in less than five minutes.

I sat in the room and observed some of the lobbying going on and it is so important that you catch the senators because I saw one lady come out, look around and she said “oh well” and went back in. This is a huge process that takes time and commitment from these citizens.

What we found out was that:

-The capital was built in 1890

-The house of chambers with pairing of Colorado landmarks are what its built with

-The marble is from marble Colorado

-Original gold in the building was brought in from the gold rush

-It was the one year anniversary of the ACA

During the rally we got to listen to three major speaker and one was John Crandal and the other was Wendell Potter. They preached about the law and thanked everyone for being there. This meant that seniors and representatives are the call to action, health care is a right and not a privilege and children can stay on their parents health care until age 26.

This day was long and I actually didn’t want to sit through it much longer, but I am glad I did. It was very informative and interesting. After this we decided to walk downtown again and explore. We went to Forever 21, the biggest one I have ever seen, and a bunch of other site seeing stores and I got a nice Denver, CO sweatshirt!

Later in the night we went home and cooked a nice Mexican feast for all. It was great bonding time with the girls. We were all starting to get a little tired and need to just relax as a group. My favorite part of the day was the rally, it was really interesting to see and be a part of an act that so many people cared about. There were all kinds of people standing around the steps commenting and supporting what these speakers were saying.

Kelsey in Colorado Day 3

Monday night we also traveled to one of the Autism society buildings where we had a meeting with the staff from the Health Care Initiative to find out how we were helping with the event. We soon found out that we were basically running the event! We were thrilled! The event was called Colorado consumer health initiative day and there were so many activities to do in such little time.

We planned to set up the breakfast and then lead lobbyers to the Capital building to lobby and then afterwards set up a rally and cupcakes to distribute and celebrate the two year anniversary of the health care act being passed. This was planned for Wednesday. In order to get to the Autism building for this meeting we got to ride the light train and learn to purchase a ticket. We also went downtown and saw 16^th street, which is kind of like Mass street and did a little shopping and sight seeing.

Tuesday was our day to go to the office and do some things around the office and during lunch we went to an autism presentation where lunch was served and we learned all about the disorder and got to meet with people who were personally affected by this.

In the office my duty was to call those who had been to this presentation and ask what they thought about it, what they would have changed or added and if they would continue to stay involved with the Autism society of Colorado. This was a really insightful experience for me because of the reactions I was receiving from these people personally affected by autism.

One man I called told me that him and his wife just found out that their child has autism and they didn’t know where to begin and just became so overwhelmed with the fact,that they panicked. I became involved in his ad her situation and began to feel what they were feeling. He told me that he couldn’t sleep at night and that the presentation was overwhelming looking at all of the costs and expenses as well as the time and pressure. He said that when he was looking at the pamphlet handed out in the lecture, that it said that his child may not have many friends. This really affected him and he was in total shock, but said the Autism society is his only hope.

Some of the things that I found out about Autism in this lecture were:

-       Autism affects brains normal development of social and communication skills

-       The Autism society of Colorado was found in 1970 by parents fighting for their children

-       The annual cost to the us economy from autism is $60 billion dollars

-       Treatment is affective, but there is no cure

-       It is 44% unexplained

-       Screening for autism needs to occur at 18-24 months and can potentially be in 1^st grade normally

-       In Colorado the average age of diagnosis is 5 years, which is not good. 

Kelsey in Colorado Day 2

It is now Monday and we are headed to the local Thomas Jefferson high school to meet with Kim who is the director for the Autism Society of Colorado and she is going to set us up with time to work with the students.

As we arrived at the school and walked through the hallways, I start to notice that it is the most diverse school I have ever seen, which is pretty amazing. There were all kinds of different races, ages, and students with disabilities. Although this was true, they all got along very well and it was clearly a growing community and trend to treat all other equal. I think that this should be expressed more in today’s society.

The first thing that we did was meet the teacher for the student and her name was Elizabeth. She is a very young, outgoing, and energetic person who works well with the kids and I learned a lot from her. She first asked if anyone would like to go on a special learning trip, so I jumped at the opportunity and next thing I knew I was standing at the bus stop with Jacob who is 19 years old and is a senior and Healy who is 16 years old and is a sophomore. Jacob has downs syndrome and Healy has a severe case of autism. Healy can’t count and Jacob has trouble remembering names, but they live as normal as possible lives. Jacob even had a girlfriend in the class!

The task of the day was to have these two kids figure out their own way, by taking the bus, to the hotel to fold pillow cases as their job. They had been practicing this for over three weeks. When we got on the bus, they both didn’t know what to do to make the bus stop and we missed the bus stop. This was when I first realized how severe these cases were and how different their lives are compared to mine.

We eventually made it to fold the pillows and back to the school for lunch and by this time I was best friends with Jacob and Healy. These two kids are great and fun! It really opened me up to seeing how they live their lives compared to ours. The simplest thing can be so hard and a perfect schedule is needed.

When we were folding clothes, Healy was asked if she wanted to take a break, and she got angry and threw a tantrum. We dealt with this by telling her to breath in and out and talk to them about what was wrong. She needed her pills, which she takes in the morning, lunch, and afternoon everyday.

I learned that in high school, the tradition is to go four years and then go another three which are called senior one, senior two, and senior three.

The day was long and we were all so warn out by the end from chasing these kids around and helping them all day. 

Kelsey in Colorado Day 1

Prior to this trip my ideas and thoughts about it were “scattered” I should say considering we were going, not sure what our plan was, and didn’t even have a set schedule yet. As things progressed throughout the last couple weeks of the class, I began to get excited about the trip and know that somehow everything would work out. We ended up with a great group of girls only and figured out that we had plans to go to the Capital, attend a rally, work with children with autism and down syndrome and we loaded up in a Tahoe to Denver. Now that I am here, this has already been an experience of a lifetime! The town is beautiful and it is sunny weather! All of us girls have really started to get along, making new friendships is great! Read more below to listen about how great it turned out!

This is the first day in and Colorado has been beautiful the whole time. The drive was long, about nine hours, but well worth the squeezing. Seven girls and seven bags and seven sleeping bags, can you say crammed?!?

 We are staying at a local church in which we have encountered some interesting cultures already! We saw a Hindu religion worshiping and Methodist church this morning. Today we traveled to the University of Denver and did some comparing between schools. Their union is really cool (not as pretty as ours) and they have a bar inside where you can play pool, bowl, and drink. We checked out the rest of campus, it is really amazing. The buildings are fairly new and modern. From what I can tell, a lot of the city is fairly comfortable money wise and there is not a lot of originality or history in the houses across town. Overall my view of Colorado is great! During the trip we already went to the grocery store and got some valuable bonding time in with the group! We managed to only spend 100 dollars and calculated the cheapest and most efficient buying. This is a friendly place and it has beautiful mountains! I am looking forward to working with the Autistic children tomorrow. We are possibly going to check out the Real World house and fantasize being famous. 

As I am in the journalism department, a few things I have noticed is that Dr. Pepper 10, which is doing a test market, is marketing in Colorado. This could mean that Colorado is a very generically based state and are picky in their choices, much like Kansas and other states in the midwest. The other thing that I picked up on, is that there is not very many Wal-Marts, just one, and the locals that we asked didn’t know where it was. We ended up going to it and it is arranged differently inside and is not as “friendly” as our Wal-Marts in Kansas.  

Sitting here at the local Panera (which has a drive through!), enjoying this beautiful weather and the view of the mountains off in the distance! 

Autism Society of Colorado: Day Five

Friday--March 25, 2011

I can’t believe that today was our final day here in Denver working with the Autism Society of Colorado. Each of us is astonished by how fast this week has flown by. The morning part of our today in Denver was spent at the Thomas Jefferson High School. There we hung out with the students and participated in activities with them. Around midmorning, Maggie and I also got to watch Elizabeth work in a different classroom at Thomas Jefferson, teamed with a Geography teacher. This classroom of mostly freshman is considered an inclusion classroom, with some high functioning disability students. Afterwards, Elizabeth took us to the sensory room she had set up when she started working at TJ, and the bike room that the kids often use for exercise.

It was a hard goodbye as we helped the teachers gather up the students and take pictures. Since these kids were so wonderful, and we had spent the majority of our week with them, we struggled to say bye and leave the school. Each of us had built some form of a relationship with these students, and had been deeply impacted by their wonderful spirits. However, we had an afternoon plan to head up into the mountains to Boulder.

After about a 45 minutes drive, we arrived in the town of Boulder around 2:30PM. Once there we drove around the University of Colorado campus, and searched for the various sorority houses the girls in our group belonged too. Then we headed down to the famed Pearl Street to investigate the shops of the area.

After finding a parking spot, we walked a couple of blocks to the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. This Teahouse is famous because it was brought over piece by piece from Tajikistan and then erected near Boulder’s downtown area. Ornate engravings, drawings, and vivid colors covered the walls of the building.

The interior and exterior screamed luxury and the people inside eating lounged in comfy chairs or pillows. Not only was the building a piece of art, but the chai tea was delicious. After a stop at the tea house, we made a straight shot to Pearl Street. As we walked up and down the pedestrian only mall, we explored a multitude of original and amazing stores. Each of us picked up small (or big) souvenirs, clothing, jewelry, and other various presents for friends. Outside the stores street performers were surrounded by groups of tourists, and the sounds of musicians and children playing filled the air. Once we had our fill of shopping, we went to the closest bar and grill and asked if they were playing the KU game. We snagged a table and ordered our food before sharing our day’s purchases and taking about our trip. We then took a collective breath of relief as the KU game showed up on half the TV’s in the restaurant, a sure sign of home. Over the game we laughed, cheered, and even meet a few former KU students. Overall, we could all agree, this had been a great alternative break, but we were ready to head home. With five minutes left in the second half--and a twenty point lead-- we headed back to the Tahoe, and Kansas.

Autism Society of Colorado: Day Four

Thursday March 24, 2011

Today we headed back to Thomas Jefferson High School for our second day with the students in the special education classroom. However, today was going to be a little different according to Elizabeth. Today’s morning would consist of a field trip for all of the kids, paras, and us. Usually, the students would go on a trip together to Target or work on Thursday mornings. However, since today they has a plethora of volunteers, we would be going with the kids to the pet store, a coffee shop, Target, or BeauJos, a local, inclusion supportive restaurant.

After we had split up into groups (I would be going to the coffee shop) we headed to the bus stop. The kids were each handed a bus pass, and they filed into the bus one by one. The paras and teachers stood back as the students got on, asked for a transfer, and sat down. This impressive feat of independence was an example of the staff’s work to make these students less dependent on them.

Finally, the rest of us piled in as the bus trailed down Yale Street. At the first stop, some of the kids got off while the rest of us stayed sitting. At the second stop we got out, and crossed the street to catch our transfer which would take us closer to the Denver University campus.

We got off at what looked like a miniature Mass Street and headed to a local French bakery to grab a treat for some of the students. One student in the group was unable to take part in the festivities of chocolate croissants because of a gluten allergy. The paras were already on the lookout for foods she could eat, and even brought a gluten-free granola bar. However, it soon became obvious that finding other gluten-friendly drinks and food was extremely difficult. After we had bought our drinks and enjoyed the patio of the coffee shop, we headed back to the bus stop.

Back on the bus, we had the opportunity to meet up with the other groups and exchange stories or pictures. We also met Ray, the adored bus driver, who greeted and teased us as we boarded. When we arrived at the school, we walked with the students back to the classroom to grab our lunches.

We stayed for a couple more hours after lunch before leaving for the rest of the day. About fifteen minutes outside Denver is the town of Golden. There we went up to a lookout where you could see miles and miles of Denver and the surrounding suburbs. The sky was pristine and clear. Although we were all shivering as we climbed back into the Tahoe, we were all in awe of the gorgeous sight before us. A little further up the road was Buffalo Bill’s gravesite where we took in more of the spectacular view before travelling back down the mountain.

After Golden, we headed to my aunt’s house for dinner and some basketball. She prepared an amazing dinner of quesadilla’s, taco salad, guacamole, and brownie’s with ice cream. Sitting around stuffed, but happy to relax as we watched the basketball game in the living room. With a ‘thank you’ from everyone, we piled back into the car and back to the church for another early night.

Autism Society of Colorado: Day Three

Wednesday, March 24 2011

Five o’clock in the morning is a cruel time of day. As I crawled out of my sleeping bag, grabbed my clothes and towel, and sloshed out to the shower, I struggled to open my eyes. Once I had gotten ready, at 5:35AM I started in on my first cup of coffee. We all ran around the church getting ready for our day with Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. By 6 AM I had returned to the kitchen for my second cup of coffee.

At 6:50 AM we arrived at the Central Presbyterian Church located two blocks down from the Capital building. Outside in the cold morning air we meet up with Erika, Christina, and Jin, the employees from CCHI we’d be working with that day. First we carried in items from their cars for the day’s event.

Once inside, we began the set up of bagels, coffee and fruit for the morning’s guests. By 8 AM, I was back to the comfort of coffee, also known as my third cup that day. By 8:45AM the CCHI team began an introduction and discussion of the activity for the day, lobbying for health care. We then waited for everyone to walk down to the capital, and then began to set up for the afternoon’s activities at the church which included lunch and health resource fair. Kim from ASC offered to give our group a tour of the capital building. However, Erika really wanted our help back at the church so I stayed to help move and set up for the afternoon fair.

At around 10:30 AM, the girls returned and we started to carry balloons, presents, and cupcakes for the celebration and rally down the street to the steps of the capital. With a couple of trips back and forth between the church and the capital we had all the supplies to set up for the rally. The theme of the rally was a one year birthday party for the passing of the health care bill. So with the birthday celebration supplies in place, the guest speakers took their place. The key note speaker was Wendell Potter, who was a former employee of a major insurance company. Today he speaks against the policies of big insurance companies, and advocates for health care that is accessible to all. The rally gathered a large group of individuals concerned about health care in the state and celebrated our step in the right direction in the aspect of affordable and accessible health care.

After a quick clean up, we headed back to the capital with supplies in hand ready to help with the luncheon and health resource fair. At 12:30 PM I grabbed my fourth cup of coffee, and then helped serve lunch to those there for the fair and legislative panel. Quickly, we each ate a small lunch (and my fifth cup of coffee) before beginning cleanup. A large portion of the leftovers from that day’s meals went next door to a homeless shelter, including two trash bags of bagels.

When we finished cleanup we headed a couple blocks down to the 16th Street mall to relax after our long day at work. We stopped in a couple stores and even found an amazing gelato shop. Around six in the evening we headed back for a meal of nachos and then passed out before midnight.

Autism Society of Colorado: Day Two

Tuesday--March 23, 2011

Luckily today we were given a later start. Today, we will serve as part of the staff at the Autism Society of Colorado. So at ten we arrived at their office in Lakewood and were each given a desk, armed with a phone, and a notepad. Our task as Bridget and Kim explained was to call treatment centers within the state of Colorado to determine if these centers provided aid to those on the autism spectrum.

This was an eye opening task, and an issue that I had never before considered to be a problem. According to Bridget and Kim, many families with kids on the autism spectrum also have the issue of behavioral problems to deal with, that often they cannot handle alone. However, when they turn to these treatment centers for help, they are often turned away. Unfortunately, this lack of resources is only creating increased difficulty for these families with nowhere to turn. The list of treatment centers was extensive, but the number that actually served adults or children with autism was few and far between.

Around lunch time we moved down the hall to attend a meeting held by ASC called Autism Speaks. This meeting covered the prominence of autism in Colorado and the nation in general. Within the state of Colorado, as they explained, is the 48th lowest in educational funding in the nation--although they are ranked 7th highest per capita. A pediatric dentist, college student, school administrators, bus drivers, parents of children with autism, and various members of the community attended the meeting. However, they were all gathered there for a common reason, to better understand this daunting and prominent disability.

Afterwards, we gathered in the conference room as Kim offered to answer any of our questions regarding the week or the Autism Speaks presentation. As we talked, we covered a variety of questions regarding autism and how it affects the nation. We also learned a lot about the policy side of funding for autism.

Once Kim had covered the list of issues regarding autism we headed out of the office for a late afternoon exploring Red Rocks. Red Rocks is a music venue and amphitheater built into the mountains just on the other edge of the city of Denver. The theater has housed some of the biggest names in music in the world such as Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles and even MGMT. After exploring the area and taking some pictures from the top of the amphitheater that overlooks Denver, we headed down the road to a rock inlet. There a couple of us rock climbed up into the rocks and took some pictures of Jay.

On our way back to the church, we stopped to pick up some groceries at King Soopers. Then we made a dinner of tomato soup and grilled cheese, Maggie’s specialty. As we sat around the table in the Kindergarten room, we told stories and laughed. After a quick cleanup we headed to Starbucks, and Christie and I researched the rest of the activities for the week and write down directions. The rest of our week looks promising!

Autism Society of Colorado: Day One

Monday--March 22, 2011

Our week of volunteering here in Denver with the Autism Society of Colorado began bright and early at six in the morning. As soon as the shrill beep of seven cell phones had gone off; each of us rallied ourselves from the semi-comfort of our sleeping bags. After a quick shower, and bowl of oatmeal, we piled into the Tahoe and headed to Thomas Jefferson High School.

It was at TJ High School that we met up with Kim Tenure, the volunteer coordinator at the Autism Society, who told us that we would be spending the day working in the special education department at the school. As we stood outside the classroom, Kim gave us a break down of the week’s itinerary, and the classroom we would be working in that day. Elizabeth Repensek, head teacher of this particular special education classroom, stepped outside into the hall. Elizabeth explained quickly and briefly that their special education department focused on the importance of inclusion and is one of the few schools with Autism program funding in the state of Colorado. After introductions, Elizabeth assigned each of us a student to shadow and work with that day.

Each of us was paired with a student who was on varying levels of the autism spectrum or had another intellectual disability. Elizabeth paired me with a young girl who had Autism, and was nonverbal. However, as I quickly found out, and Elizabeth explained, she was an intelligent girl who preferred tasks and activities that were challenging. Before they discovered this, said Elizabeth, tantrums were actually more prominent for this student. Previously she had never been challenged or asked to work, and this had actually provoked the number of her outbursts. After a morning of math with Mollie Pitrone, who team teaches with Elizabeth, the kids headed to lunch. Since they stress the element of inclusion for their students, all the children headed to the main cafeteria to eat with the rest of the students. This theme continued after lunch into their integrated class where students from the school are paired up with students from the special education department. Today, the kids were paired up, went to the school’s “park”, and played outside.

Thomas Jefferson High School’s approach to inclusion in the school was very different than our group’s high school experiences. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school I had little to no contact with the kids in my school’s special education department. As the students interacted, that multitude of pros to this act of inclusion was obvious. Not only were the special education students benefiting from this by becoming more independent, but the rest of the students were gaining a stronger understanding of those with intellectual disabilities. It was a refreshing vision to watch these kids interact with one another.

As the day progressed it was also obvious that this programs success was based upon its staff. While the teachers were the foundation for this program; they also had a set of talented paras. Many of the paras had originally set out in college to pursue a future in music or such, but ended up at Thomas Jefferson, and today wouldn’t have it any other way. One woman Helga, is originally from Armenia and moved to the U.S. over twenty years ago. She attributed her job at TJ to the impact of Autism in her life, her autistic twenty-six-year-old son. Her story of immigration to the United States with her family was amazing, as she and her husband sought refuge, and struggled to provide their children a better quality of life. Each para and teacher had a different story, but together they worked to offer these kids everything within their resources. However, one of the greatest tools available to them was obviously humor.

After going to the school, we headed downtown via Denver’s light rail to meet with the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. With Kim and CCHI’s team, we discussed Wednesday’s event, Health Care Day of Action. Together with their team, we would be helping to coordinate their celebration the anniversary of the health care bill. We ran over a variety of logistical issues and responsibilities for that day.

Around seven, we headed back to the church for our dinner of spaghetti and pizza, and our first meal we cooked together. Hanging out together we were able to finally discuss the day’s events and get a better idea of our plans for the rest of the week.

SCSDB-Thursday, March 24, 2011-Goodbyes

This was going to be our last day at SCSDB and I woke up dreading it. Not only was I feeling a bit sick, I was getting more and more upset as I kept thinking about the journey back to Kansas. Determined to make it a great day, I set aside those sad feelings and got ready to meet the day’s challenges.

Today was filled up with many different performances! The kids performed their play once again for classes that were unable to see it the first time. Cory felt sick and threw up before the play started; but as they say, the show must go on! After the play, the kids practiced doing some Braille. Yanni is up to the point where she can type her alphabet in Braille and Elijah can read Braille. Destinee and Landon were working on making good impressions on the Braille paper. I am surprised that Cory has not worked with Braille. With a condition that will eventually make him blind, he is learning to read, write, and do math with pencil and paper. Maybe it is wrong to teach him Braille thinking that he will become blind and that it is better for him to practice skills that seeing people learn? I am not sure what the best strategy for his situation is.

A student from Converse College visited to give us a violin concert. Mr. Neff had to sit in the back with Cory in case his illness was contagious while I sat with the rest of the class up front. It was different for me to have to care for Destinee. Usually, Mr. Neff would focus more on Destinee because she is more difficult to work with while I played with the other students. I had to smile a lot during the concert since most of my class was falling asleep. I do not blame them though since the violin music was making me sleepy as well! Des, covered in her blanket, would whisper to me every once in a while that she was going to fall asleep. I threatened to tickle her if she did. It was so sweet to see her smile and giggle as I tickled her to keep her awake. I was always a bit scared to work with Des but she really is just a sweetheart.

Instead of doing laps on the track, Mr. Neff suggested we walked on the Braille Trail since it was my last day. The weather was so nice as we walked toward the horse field! Along the way, the kids were talking about their favorite cartoons and saying the funniest things. Little Briana, who has a Grandma Cindy who lives in Wichita, Kansas (where I’m from!), told me that she prayed for me. The walk was so peaceful and full of happy memories.

Cory’s parents came to pick him up early from school. Before he left, they gave me my surprise—a canvas bag with the students’ painted handprints on it! Curious as to when they managed to find time to do this project when I was not around, I asked Cory and he gave me a clue that they did it when I was outside. Everyone in the classroom yelled at Cory to stop talking or that he would mess up their secret. I eventually figured it out and the class’s immediate reaction to blame Cory for ruining the surprise was so hilarious. I gave all of them Jayhawk stickers and listed my email address on the back. I knew that they were already pen pals with students at another local school, so I figured they could have a pen pal from Kansas, too!

After the school music program, where Mr. Neff’s class played drums while other classes sang songs or played different instruments, we went over to the bus lobby. I said my goodbyes to Landon, Elijah, Yanni, and Mr. Neff. It was definitely a very sad ending to the school day, but Yanni made me laugh when she told me, “Bye! See you never!” I told Des that I would visit her at her dorm later that evening.

When we got back to the Close Family House, some of the girls suggested that we go to Greensville, SC, since many of the teachers told us about a concert there. Downtown Greensville reminded me a lot of Mass Street in Lawrence where there were lots of little shops and restaurants selling diverse foods. I was not sure when Des’s bedtime was, so I rushed back to SCSDB only to find that the elementary kids had already gone to bed. Des’s RA woke her up so that I could say goodbye to her.

Everyone that we met at SCSDB was very friendly and welcoming to us. Our whole group did not want to leave and some of us were already talking about returning. I know that I will visit them again someday since I have an uncle in Atlanta and it’s only a short three-hour drive to SCSDB. The reunion will come and I cannot wait until it does!

Zion Day 5

Friday, March 25-Saturday, March 26, 2011

Last day and it was another chilly night. Definitely mention to the next year’s group to bring plenty of layers and good night time sleeping gear. Jessica was worried about bad weather coming in and wanted to get us on the road as early as possible. She said we had done such a fantastic job this week that she only had one small job left for us to do moving the pamphlets in storage to a more accessible and safe location. Christopher said the summer periodicals come in several languages which I find very cool. I think it’s great that as a country we recognize the number of international visitors we get to our national parks and plan according for this. I would hope that reflects well on us when they return home and relay their experience. We knocked that job out very quickly and Jessica released us to head home.

In our typical fashion, this Zion crew jumped in and split up the tasks to make things go quickly. Some were unloading the vehicles and sorting through leftovers, while the rest packed up tents; we had camp broke and the cars packed up in less than an hour. The day was clear and we were able to take in some more of the great view heading North and then East. Thinking about what a great body of water once covered this land makes me wonder if the bottom of the oceans have similar “landscapes”. Traveling back was fairly uneventful and since we were ahead of schedule we took time out to watch the Jayhawks beat the Spiders at a restaurant in Colorado. Rock Chalk Jayhawks! It wasn’t until the sun went down that the weather started making trouble and telling us we had done the right thing leaving a tad early. We hit rain, freezing rain, snow and fog through the night and everyone did a fantastic job driving and keeping us safe throughout it.

I arrived in Lawrence tired but content and ready to hit the shower and a soft bed. I learned a lot about the various jobs done for the park services for it's guests and some great information about invasive and native species that I want to look into a bit more. It felt great to meet this devoted set of rangers with such diverse educational backgrounds. I left Zion knowing we had made a difference for them as well and it feels great to have been a part of that. The marvels of the area we were in combined with such a great crew of people made this the best week of work I’ve ever had and I’m looking forward to more great Alternative Break experiences in the future.

Thursday, March 23, 2011

It was a good night, I slept great despite the loud group fighting in the campsite next door. Today we worked at the garden center. Becca and Carrie had us put in fencing around their grass seed project to help keep out the gophers. It took us all morning into the afternoon but our group did an awesome job of working together and making it into several small tasks.

One of their projects at the garden center is re-establishing growth of native grasses in areas that have been disturbed by humans or erosion and they used to gather these around the park up until a few years ago when they began this little project. What they’ve done in ingenious, and they have several rows of natural mound tall grass growing on roughly 2 acres of land. Becca said over the last several years they have exponentially been able to increase the amount of seed they collect and they got so much last year it’s not all cleaned yet. I like that they are trying to re-introduce native species to solve these issues rather than the alternative. What we have traditionally done so much in this country is introduce things into an area, with the best intentions, and ended up destroying the native landscape.

I talked with Carrie a little bit more about some of the invasive species around the park and she told me a little bit about “Saltcedar” (Tamarix) which is a non-native bush to this continent and introduced to cut erosion. Problem is it spread like crazy and has ended up stealing water from native species and destroying their ability to survive. It’s kept under control in its native lands by the bugs there but those insects don’t exist in this country and it’s really a problem since they grow so fast and are such a water hog. Wonder how many other species we’ve infected this land with since our introduction to it.

After we finished today, we took a trip down toward the Narrows. Because the water was too high and going too fast we were not able to check this out and see the slot canyons up close but it was still a nice walk anyway. We had another great dinner, rice and vegetable stew, and some great campfire conversations. The week is winding down and tomorrow is our last day; we’re talking about heading out Friday night to avoid bad weather which sounds like a good idea. It’s been a great week and I’m surprised it’s gone by so fast…helps to have such a great group of people to work with I imagine. Great job coordinators!

Zion Day 3

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

So today we had to be up early and ready to go by 7:30a. We drove over to the border to Arizona for the day to do some work at the Pipe Springs National Park. I didn’t realize there were so many parks, what an awesome number of opportunities to find just the right niche.

Pipe Springs is on the Paiute Indian Reservation and is the site of Winsor Castle, a very important jumping off point for the Mormon Church in the west during expansion. One of the things that makes this location so important is the availability of natural springs and what I find interesting is the rationing of this water in a “fair” manner to all involved parties. Amber is the ranger in charge and one of the things she showed us is the water collection and distribution system so that the water is not being deviated for a single group but shared between the reservation, the cattlemen and the park. She said there had been 3 natural springs in this area and that when there was an earthquake in the region a few years back it disrupted the flow of the main stream.

Today was the hardest and most time intensive day so far. We all split up in groups of 2 or 3 and were put on several different projects. Andrew was kind enough to partner up with me and we spent the morning moving wood and helping to straighten up the “bone yard” which is a fancy way to say the junk area…every place has one and theirs was really overgrown with plenty of scrap metal and stuff that had been sitting around for ages. We stacked up several piles of juniper trunks into a single orderly structure so they can use them later, transported scraps to the burn pile and then I helped out with the weeding in their garden.

As part of their educational program they plant one half of the garden as the early Mormon settlers would have with corn, beans, squash, etc. and the other half as the Native Paiute residents would have with the native form of corn, rice, etc. The corn we use today is such a hybrid form, large with seeds that don’t fall off easily while the native form has smaller heads but the seeds can be distributed more naturally and easily. There was a lot of weeding to do to remove invasive weeds from the garden which had been introduced by cattlemen in the latter part of the 1800’s. Amber and Jessica explained to me that the natural grasses grow in clumps which limit the damage that natural fires do while this invasive cheat grass species spreads out evenly and causes a big problem when it catches fire. This combined with the general lack of water makes for a very dangerous combination in this region of the United States.

We elected to treat ourselves to a night out after such a long day and everyone was really tired and went to bed early. I’m going to sleep really good regardless of the temperature tonight. What a great day!