Wednesday, November 7, 2012

October 28th - November 2nd 2012 Outreach Weekend

This outreach weekend was se up a bit differently than previous weekends due to the nature of the projects. Certain projects needed to be done on certain days therefore we split up the students between these projects, and completed our tour on Saturday morning, rather than Friday. The first time sensitive project involved preparation for the Halloween Extravaganza at Prosperity Gardens. This is always a fun project for us, and we wanted to ensure we would be available to assist Nicole. Students worked to carve pumpkins, spread spider webs, blow up balloons, and do anything they could to make the garden spooky. The second project was the actually Halloween event itself. We invited the students out to interact with residents and the children at the Extravaganza. Students were encouraged to wear costumes. Many of us volunteered at different stations and events for the children arriving while others blew up balloons or did face paint. It was a great event enjoyed by all! The third project included small things around Center for women in transition that needed to be attended to. Students moved old furniture from the front of the buildings to the restore for the center to donate. Students also gave the women a day off of chores and helped them around the facility with any odd task that needed to be completed. This was a great opportunity for the students to engage with the women at the center, and also pitch in at the same time. Finally a smaller group worked at A Woman’s Place, which is the Urbana location of Center for Women in Transition and raked leave and beautified the exterior of the building. Finally we concluded out weekend with a Tour of the North first street neighborhood. We made stops of the project sites throughout the week as well as visited with Nicole Bridges at Prosperity Gardens, Mary Wallace at the Center for Women in Transition, and Claudia and a few residents at the 5th and Hill site. The 5th and Hill site was particularly interesting being joined by the residents who have a firsthand account of the issues the community is facing due to the former Ameren site. All in all it was a great weekend and the students were exposed to a variety of projects and issues facing the residents of North Champaign. – Chase Miller