Katie's Americorps Experience
(Feb – Mar 2007)
Hi Mike,
Thought you and the blog would like to hear about daughter Katie’s amazing experiences in Americorps. I’ve put together a slide show using a bunch of Katie’s photos. (It was done with jalbum, which we all have come to know and love.)
Americorps has paired up with Habitat for Humanity in doing their re-building projects on the gulf coast, which explains the first slide.
Katie started Americorps training in Denver (first 13 slides), where Americorps has taken over part of Loretta College, formerly a women’s college, and now owned by a Japanese corporation. She and her team members took buses to downtown, so some of the shots are of downtown sights.
After training, her team drove down in vans to NM, then TX, and finally LA, where they were to work. Along the way they saw the ruined homes of New Orleans (5 shots). Then they went further south to Thibodaux, which wasn’t quite as damaged as New Orleans. At least the homes are on higher ground. (7 shots show her new digs, and 8 show food that was provided them by a local church congregation).
The last 14 shots show the actual reason they went down to Thibodaux. They built a house from the foundation on up. Katie specialized in hammering studs and putting roof trusses together.
Now that they’ve finished roughing out one house, they’ll go on to another, and maybe a third, before Katie’s team returns to Denver.
–rakkity
Co-equal heartwarming (can you tell it is winter here) billing with the baby pics. An Americorps daughter and a extraordinary son, methinks the rakkitys should have raised more children.
Do you suppose we could grab KT’s group and have them rehab the Grok Hill residence?
Comment by michael — March 17, 2007 @ 7:28 am
EASTERN MASSers please read ASAP. Do you know how many Smith College students are planning to do the same thing with their spring break which starts today? And how many of those had flights scheduled out of Boston today which have been cancelled? And are on busses now towards Logan because they weren’t cancelled until after the bus left? And would like a place to stay tonight? And Cat knows? Answers to this series of questions start at over a hundred but work their way down to maybe a dozen. Any offers? Michael, you can take the phone number off tomorrow, right? 263-8062
Comment by jennifer — March 17, 2007 @ 9:22 am
So how long altogether is this experience? The Smith group is only spending a week; this sounds like a minimum of a month. I wonder what they can do in a week. And how much sicker Cat will get. Oh well. (There seems to be some hope now that they’ll all get on later flights today.)
Why is the time stamp so very messed up still? JB 11:34AM
Comment by jennifer — March 17, 2007 @ 10:34 am
Oh, time stamp not so messed up. Sorry. (When I saw 9:22 on my earlier comment, I thought it was not close to one hour off.)
Comment by jennifer — March 17, 2007 @ 10:36 am
They can all come here for dinner, dancing and sleep.
Comment by michael — March 17, 2007 @ 11:08 am
Rakkity-what a wonderful experience. They all look so happy to be doing what they are doing. I wish the rest of the world could see the volunteering that has gone on to re-build the gulf coast-might improve our image. My daughter very much wants to do Americorps-she wanted to put off college for a year and do this instead but I think the older she is the better it will be. Those houses look great. Bravo Katie and the rest of her group.
(My daughter has been at the airport all day trying to reschedule a 10:30 flight to FL that got cancelled. At last count she estimated another 45 minutes til they are at the front of the line…I doubt she’ll get out today)
Comment by La Rad — March 17, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
Jennifer, Americorps assignments are for 10 months. And the range of ages for americorpees is 18-25 (or so). They pick the location you go to and also they pick the training site. You spend a month getting trained and assigned to a team. (They have a complex, but effective way of choosing compatible teams, not at all like the army way, more like a huge, well-run summer camp assigning teams to go compete against another camp.)
It was just good luck that Katie’s training place (Denver) was close to us. It was also the “luck of the draw” that she was sent to Thibodaux, LA.
Also, there is only one starting date each year (Feb 1), and due to a shortage of funds, they don’t know from one year to the next whether they will still be in operation, so you don’t get informed of being accepted until 2 or 3 months before you start.
If you want to sign up for Americorps, you’ve got to be really flexible.
Comment by rakkity — March 18, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
Wow. A ten month committment on such short notice. It looks like she is experiencing first hand what most of us will only read about. Good for her and her very large heart.
Jennifer, did Cat and her crew get out?
Comment by Jen — March 19, 2007 @ 10:58 am
Some of the crew got out or possibly is still getting out tomorrow. Some decided not to go. Cat is one of those. Partly because she’s sick. So far, it’s a lousy vacation.
Comment by jennifer — March 19, 2007 @ 9:57 pm
Is Americorps related to Teach for America?
Comment by jennifer — March 19, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
No connection, was my first thought. Teach for America is a non-profit organization, and Americorps is a federal government program like the Peace Corps, according to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_for_America
But Wiki goes on to say that Teach for America gives an “AmeriCorps education voucher”. (Katie will get one of those after 10 months.)
There may be some connection like the one that exists between Habitat for Humanity and Americorps.
TFA sounds interesting. I’ll have to read more about it.
Comment by rakkity — March 20, 2007 @ 11:34 pm
Like Americorps, your experience depends a lot on where you happen to be placed. A lot of people are being put in tough situations with insufficient preparation.
So, Americorps is a newer version of Vista? I should do my own research … thanks!
Comment by jennifer — March 21, 2007 @ 7:00 pm