Camp Hope and the St. Bernard Project

http://www.stbernardproject.org

Visit this web site for all of the information on the St. Bernard Project. This is what we are a part of the for the next two months.

I'm here in St. Bernard's Parish, which is 15 miles outside of New Orleans. We're finishing up week 1.

The scoop on where the Badgers are staying: We're staying here at Camp Hope for the next two months. It is the largest volunteer base camp in the country, with up to 3000 people staying here at a time, and it is run by Habitat for Humanity. Before I go, just to clarify, we are NOT working for Habitat for Humanity. We are working for a specific project known as the St. Bernard Project, a project started in 2006 in response to Katrina. The goal of the project is to build and sell homes to homeowners of the area who have had their homes destroyed at no interest.

To give you an idea of the scope of damage we're responding to:

- 27000 homes were affected. All in all, that is 100% of the homes in St. Bernard that were damaged.
- 68,000 residents lived here before the storms.
- The current population is about 25,000 and growing.

The goal of the project is to keep this number growing and bring more and more home each week. Our job as Corps members will be to serve as site supervisors, starters, warehouse workers, and, of course, working on the construction. I've gotten my position which I'll tell more about later. This week was filled with training. Next week we really get going.

...Heading to Austin, Texas this weekend and leaving midday today, and we're off to our worksite in two minutes, so I'll have to update this more later. I apologize for the lack of details, but I'll make up for it.

Travel to New Orleans - Day 2

Got up for continental breakfast and hit the road for the final stretch. It was a bit of a longer day -- I think our whole team was feeling the fatigue of car riding, so it was much quieter. I took the opportunity to get going on our team theme song. Yes, as of mid-day Badger 6 had our own lyrics to "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen. I may or may not upload the video... But either, I've ensured everyone that we'll be memorizing this by the end of the next month and hopefully sooner, if not the end of the round. Everyone's pretty excited about it. We've even had some talks about choreography.

Anyway, our drive concluded at Camp Hope in St. Bernard. We are here with one other team: Badger 5, who is working on a project for Habitat for Humanity. We've come to call ourselves Badger 11 accordingly while both of our teams stay here at Camp Hope for the next two months

More on the camp shortly. But alas, we are here. Don't stop us now!

Travel to New Orleans - Day 1

I'm at a Days Inn in Knoxville, Tennessee. We traveled about 9 hours today and we're here for the night.

Lots of house cleaning, final packing and loading into the van, and goodbyes happened at the Point this morning, and we were off around 8:30am. The 10 of us successfully made it through the day with a packed van, an abundance of playlists, snacks and naps, and arrived here around 7ish. I've eaten more junk today than I probably have in the past month, and that's how it goes for me when I travel. Hmmm, oh well.




Anyway, the Badger 6 team certainly enjoyed ourselves today. We're off in the morning for the final leg of the drive!

Induction

Well, we're officially off on our journey for the year. Yesterday, all 136 of us were inducted at the ceremony held nearby in Perryville at Minker Hall. Very similar to a graduation ceremony, we lined up in order of team and unit, proceeded into the hall and took our seats. We had some very special guests -- three CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) alumni. FYI - The CCC was founded in the 30's by Roosevelt as a peace-time kind of army, working on the conservation of the land in the country. Since it has evolved into NCCC today, it was nice to be able to have some of the original members of the CCC there at the ceremony.


It was nice to dress in our polos and black khakis. I know that I've personally been waiting a while to wear them, looking forward to being snazzy and professional (as you can see on the men of Badger 6 above). These are the uniforms we primarily save for bigger occasions, ceremonies, recruitment events, and of course, graduation at the end of the year. As a Corps Ambassador Representative (CAP - my team specialty role), I'll be making use of it a lot for events. I'll more about that when our first event comes along.

All in all, we had some motivating speeches and a few good Badger cheers to show off to the crowd, had some cake and punch, and made our way back to the village. Now time to fulfill our commitment to getting things done as we're on our way to our first projects. Bye bye Perry Point -- I'll see you in two months.

We DID start the fire.

Don't worry, I got it covered. Spot fire? No problem. Got some smoldering? I'll put it out. Worried about running or flare-ups? I'll start a control line.

No, I'm not doing a public service announcement. Today I am back at the point after an incredible week of firefighter training and certification. Somehow I've been deemed safe and qualified enough to control forest fires, and I'll be receiving my Red Card (Wildland Firefighter Type 2 certification: FFT2 for short).

After a long month of Firefighters' PT and a pack test, we deployed out to Sheppardstown, West Virginia to train and lodge at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facilities last week. Great classes, hands-on experience in the fields, lodging, delicious (and filling) food, and a whole lot of POPC (ask an FFT2 about that one). Not to mention hours of volleyball throughout the week. There was a great gym that we made good use of, and I may consider taking up this new hobby on a regular basis... And once the weather gets better, I hear there's a net here at the point.

And there I go again. Back to the point. This past week was incredible. Not only was I able to learn about fire behavior, terminology, and more and more and more, but a good chunk of our classes involved going out for and stopping prescribed fires, using the hand tools, creating control lines, and on our final days, going out on a squad for a simulated wildland fire.



This week only gives more proof to the fact that the best way to learn is by doing. I feel 10 times more confident if the situation were to arise now that I've already done it. I'm all fired up for the approaching fire season!

We're going to New Orleans!

So everything was hush hush until last night, when our TL surprised us with our first project of the year. We went out for pizza at a nearby restaurant. Underneath the pie was a card with an audio message: Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that your first project is going to be in New Orleans!

We were excited to find out our first round would be in the Gulf Coast. We'll be working on the St. Bernard Project, doing construction, for about 1-2 months. From what I hear, we'll be nearby the French Quarter and working with a woman who was named "Hero of the Year" on CNN this past year. We'll be stationed at Camp Hope.

Badger 6 is beyond excited, as we're one of 9 teams heading down there first round. Black and Decker University training will be helpful beginning in two weeks. March 5th! We're off!

Corps Training Institute

Currently it is Saturday. We had a team physical training session this morning and I huffed and puffed through it thanks to my congested cold. Currently the entire house is sick, as well as a good portion of the village, but we're trucking on through. My housemates and I have been going through oranges like there's no tomorrow.

Anyway, I wanted to blog about CTI, since it's been the major part of this entire month. CTI stands for Corps Training Institute, and it is a month-long program that includes various types of training (CPR/First Aid/Disaster Services/Diversity/Van-driver's Ed/active citizenship/tool training/ and more). Below find us learning about using tools at Black and Decker University. Yes, you heard me right.


And of course, there's me, using the buzz saw, or circle saw, as I like to call it.

Anyway, this was just one day of training. There's a lot more to CTI than just that. A big part of this entire month is PT. Physical training, 5 times a week since I'll be firefighting (and more since I've been doing it on Saturday and Sunday as well). We take up the entire gym where it all begins at 5:45am. It's an intense work-out, and it's paid off.


Of course, not all of it is physical training. We've been taking courses as well on campus. In the image below we're in the theater located across from the gym.It all concludes in two weeks. I'm excited for this upcoming week. The firefighters will be leaving tomorrow for West Virginia where we will be staying for a week for training. Busy week coming up! More to come!