Home > Monday, March 26, 2007

The journey begins...

This is a story all about how our lives got flipped turned up side down. I’d like to take a minute and just sit right there to tell you about how we became Green 5. I think that’s fair.

Our story started a mere month ago. Corps Members from across the United States gathered at the Sacramento campus to begin their national service work for AmeriCorps*NCCC. Our humble team of Green 5 was created of six of the finest Corps Members: Jared, Vanessa, Erin , Orlando, Joanna , and Leann. The team was completed with one of the optimum team leaders, a person who breathes green, Chelsea. All in all a fantastic mixing of people, forming “The Lost Tribe of Green Five.”

Once our team was fashioned, we started the bonding process over movies, common interests, loads of sarcasm, and finger puppets. As a team during our first month honeymoon, we learned to make balloon animals, planted over a hundred trees, developed a road and over 1,500 feet of trail, learned CPR and first aid, sat through countless hours of Corps Training Institute (CTI), ran more miles than we can keep track of, and ate many family dinners. But alas, something was missing from our lives. What was the one thing we all came here for? SERVICE! This team needed a project as not to spend the rest of our days in CTI.

As Green 5 grew more and more anxious, our team leader, Che, knew just the guy to help. Our team mascot, Mr. Wiggles, is a yard gnome, no more than a foot tall, hidden in various spots around campus. Luckily, every time the team found him, we discovered facts about their first project. Finally our team leader caught that little rascal gnome and told the excited team all about our first spike trip.

We’re going to Alpaugh? Where’s that?

For our first project, Green Five is working in the small rural town of Alpaugh, CA, with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There are only 800 hundred residents of this predominately Hispanic town. Alpaugh is a farming community that is going through a rough period in its economy. It has arsenic in its drinking water, the soil is lacking the nutritional luster of earlier days, and the growth of surrounding cities has left few residents left in the town.

The majority of our time will be spent planting native riparian plant species and removing the noxious weeds that have taken over the area. In addition to the work with the BLM, we will be volunteering with the Kern Wildlife Refuge and doing grounds maintenance at the Allensworth State Historic Park. Within the town of Alpaugh, we will be helping to provide the residents with food, shelter, and clean water, and we will tutor students at the local school. One of our bigger projects will be the Alpaugh Community Clean-Up, which will consist of picking up trash in the area and assisting residents with getting rid of old household electronics and hazardous materials, which many have held on to for years. Although the time here will be short, the team is excited to act make a difference in this town, and hopefully learn some español in the process!

- The Tribe