Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Monday, June 14, 2010

I Scream, You Scream

Untitled from Maribeth Dann on Vimeo.

The Speckhals' Mishap

I know some of you heard rumors that we got Coach's fall on video. Well we did!

Untitled from Maribeth Dann on Vimeo.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Hubbard Havoc

First time jitters of flying? None for Logan since he couldn't even board! Logan worked his butt off… staying at the guesthouse all day, while the rest of us actually helped the houses. He left around 2:00 PM to get to the airport, but whaddaya know, his flight was canceled. It's safe to say he won't be flying United Airlines any time soon. Rather than have him try to get on another flight, we made the decision to leave after our sightseeing trip.

After working and hearing the news of the Hubbard Havoc, we boarded the bus, rushed to the guesthouse, and barely had enough time to shower and stuff our faces with pizza before boarding the Natchez steamboat.

It was all smooth sailing while we drank our strawberry daiquiris. Virgin, that is! Have some faith in us; we're not that irresponsible. We passed by a surprisingly smelly sugar refinery, some very large boats, and even the Saint Bernard Port. But we couldn't end the day without a quick dance between Logan and Summer! You can't really dance to a jazz version of "When the Saints Go Marching In," but they made it happen!

After getting back to the guesthouse, we had about 30 minutes to finish packing and board the bus, despite being told by some that we'd have at least an hour. Many of us, especially me and Alicia, tried to board the bus as soon as we could to claim decent seats. Our plan almost failed when two others (not mentioning names!) tried to double up a luggage seat and share one. It would have ended up working fine, but we still got kicked off the bus and called individually to claim one single seat.

So we drove and drove (with, of course, more than the desired amount of gas stops), and arrived in Hayti, Missouri for some good ol' fashioned McDonalds breakfast. We boarded back up, and arrived in Hermann at around 1:00 PM to many families waiting for us when the bus doors opened.

You Work Hard, You Play Hard.

Working hard or hardly working? For our last day of working, my group revisited the McLuckey house. We were back to the tedious tasks of sanding and mudding. Everyone worked hard throughout the humid day. However, when everyone began to slack off a little bit, our supervisor Heidi had everyone form a circle and showed us all a new game. The first game we played was called Saw. It was a lot like the game Ninja that we had played on Tuesday. You would raise your hands in the air and yell saw. Then, the people next to you would swing their hands towards you and yell saw. You would pass this onto another person by point your arms at them and, once again, yelling saw. Sounds easy right? It really wasn't. If your hesitated or made the wrong motion, you were out.

After a couple games of Saw, we headed back to work. We were all refreshed and ready to start back up again. "Studies have shown that if you give your workers breaks throughout the day, their work will be more efficient," Heidi explained to us. This theory tested true on our group because before we went for lunch we had completed all of our sanding for the day. After lunch we worked on mudding all of the flaws that were left on the dry wall. The music that was playing throughout the day definitely helped keep the environment light and fun instead of boring and horribly humid.

At about 2:30, we decided to take a break one last time. We sat around in a circle outside and Heidi showed us a game called Contact. This was more of a word game. One person would think of a noun and tell us the first letter of the word. To figure out what the word was you would ask questions about it. Say you asked if it's an animal. They can say: No, it is not a cat. However, it could still be an animal that starts with a C. If someone else knows what you're thinking of they'll yell Contact! 1, 2, 3 and then you both yell the word you're thinking of. If you say it before the person can say No it's not, then they have to give you the next letter to the word. Everyone got very into the game, and we all had a lot of fun.

Submitted by Alicia

Interview with Sister Judy

Untitled from Maribeth Dann on Vimeo.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Warehouse Demolition

St. Bernard Project received a donation for $300,000 to buy construction supplies. They bought an old dental building by their warehouse to store the supplies. They asked our kids to help get the building ready for storage. So, we spent a couple of days on the demolition crew (it sounds much more fun that it actually was).

Day 1: Photo Montage

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Day 4: Happy Birthday Kevin!!!!!!

This morning when we got to the St. Bernard office we were given great news. Today we got to work together! We were all on demolition duty. We finally finished getting all of the nails out of the framing, and then we started on pulling out all the staples. It was really hot, and everyone was sweating like crazy.

Then we got a break: we were going on a levee tour! We met Sister Judy at a bayou near the levee that had broken during Hurricane Katrina. It was completely dead because saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico had gotten into the freshwater. This happened because of a project done about 50 years ago that allowed boats to take a faster route to the Mississippi River.

After the break: Courtney went into the main office to interview Sister Judy to put on our website. She asked her questions about what it is she and the St. Bernard Project are involved in. She also asked her more about the damage done by Katrina.

Then comes lunchtime: we broke late so that we could finish what we were working on. For lunch we ate the PB & J sandwiches that were made by Mrs. Vieth and Mrs. Dann. We also ate carrots, chips, and oranges.

1 hour later: Sister Judy came by with treats for all of the volunteers. Ice Pops! They were greatly appreciated by all of us and we all thanked her for being so kind. So we continued to work while eating our delicious treats.

Because we worked so hard and stayed late yesterday, our supervisor, Blake, let us leave early. Instead of touring Tulane University, we were given the afternoon off to relax and swim. Two hours of Chicken Wars and Marco Polo was extremely refreshing.

Finally, we went to Bubba Gump’s to eat dinner. While we were there, we had a surprise. While Kevin wasn’t paying attention, Abby whispered to one of the waitresses that it’s Kevin’s birthday! They gathered several other waiters, and sang to Kevin. He got a card, signed by all of the NOLA group, and a special present from the boys: a cap gun. Don’t worry; it has an ORANGE tip, so it’s Bearcat friendly. Everyone was pretty exhausted when we got back to the guesthouse, and the majority went to bed quickly. All in all, it was a pretty fun-packed day!

Submitted by Megan, Taylor and Courtney

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Let the Good Times Roll (and tear apart, remove, destroy...)

The Demolition Crew – Summer and Olivia
We arrived at the St. Bernard Project's headquarters around 8:30. Our supervisor, James, told us what we would be doing throughout the day and since it wasn't just us Hermann folk, he had us introduce ourselves to the other volunteers, who traveled from Alabama. There were a lot of us because the houses we had been assigned to had some sort of complication, so we were reassigned to better the future job site of the St. Bernard Project. Our jobs consisted of everything from tearing out tile, ripping out the infinite number of nails and screws from the boards overhead and on the staircases, power washing, taking out the trim, and sweeping. It was quite dangerous trying to balance yourself on a ladder eight feet in the air let alone trying to do that and tear out the nails and screws that were too stubborn to be pulled out of their boards without a fight. While trying to do this, Coach Speckhals lost his balance on a loose board, fell off and caught himself in the push up position. And to redeem himself from this embarrassing act, he did a push up while he was in the position... Show off... It was hot and the humidity made it even hotter. By lunch time, all of us were exhausted but the wonderfully appetizing lunches that Mrs. Dann, Mrs. Vieth, and Mrs. Zeiss refueled us for more carnage. We salute you! Some of our volunteers craved a bit more than the rest and requested to go to Taco Bell. While waiting for them to return, Coach Speckhals started a game. From noon to the time we got off from the work site at five, Coach, Roxanne, Kevin, Jon, Keith, Alicia, Olivia and I thought of words that ended with “-ation”, “-ize”, and “-ate.” Words like dehydration, communication, traumatize, pulverize, appreciate, and congregate and by the end of the day, I'm pretty sure every word in the dictionary had been used. It was a great way to pass the time and to have fun. Roxanne reminded us time and time again to remain bearcat friendly though :) Good day!


Da Dry Wallers
by: Jessica and Abby
Blake's Golden Rule:
The Grandma Rule: If you were building a house for your grandma it has to be perfect! So make it that way! (Learn to live by this if you don't want to hear it twenty times a minute!)
Bratty
Laughable
ANAL
Knowledgeable
Exotic

8:39: Arrived at the job site to see a frizzy, curly haired man to greet us
10:30: He (Blake) finally stopped talking
10:35: Showed us how to lift dry wall
10:40: Showed us how to drill dry wall
10:45: Showed us how to hold dry wall
10:50: Told us statistics on why not to sit on dry wall
10:55: We finally got to touch our first piece of dry wall
11:30: After much demonstration finally hung our very first piece of dry wall
12:00: LUNCH BREAK
12:30: Abby manages to rob a police man of his seat after Jessica bluntly told her that a policeman was sitting there.
2:00: Ice cream rush and the best part was that Paul Paid! FREE!! Abby dropped hers after one bite so she got robbed.
3:10: Evan fell asleep while holding a tape measure for Coach Stutzman while Coach was measuring! He snores =)
4:00: (When we were supposed to start picking up) Blake decides that its STORY TIME!
4:30: After much doubt from “cough, cough” BLAKE Jessica and Paul managed to do the impossible. Hung a piece of dry wall on the ceiling, with three holes cut into it, and without it breaking. Clearly beating Abby, Stutzman, Evan, and Jake's team! =P (Quick fact: We were supposed to be out of there by now!)
5:00: We finally left!
Abby has a quick announcement she would like to add: I don't know how your team could have been clearly better when ours was quote “Text Book Perfect”.



Wild and Crazy!
By: Abby, Jessica, Summer, and Olivia
We split up into groups to go eat and tour, but magically we all ended up at the same place to eat and the same place for dessert! I would like to add this was not planned! We each did our own thing and the one major rule was to be back at the bus by 10. Only one group managed to follow this rule and one group managed to be 10 minutes late. Can you guess which group did what? Let's start with role modeling and rule following group: The Chip Ship which consisted of Chip, Abby, Jessica, Alicia, and Megan. The only group with one adult we might add. The rule breaking group was ironically Mrs. Dann's group which consisted of Jon, Tyler, Jake, Evan, and Keith. Of course the organizer of this group managed to break her own rule! Don't worry plenty of excuses: aka the 15 minute padding rule. We all made it back to the hotel safe and sound after plenty of U turns(editor's note: U turns are legal in much of New Orleans). See you tomorrow!

Have you ever...






















Day 2…………
0600 hrs CST – after slumbering in our double bed, we awaken to the sound of Sir Evan Bean’s bellowing.

0630 hrs CST – Sir Evan Bean embarks into the 2 x 5 ft. ceramic wash basin. After exploring the various bottles of shampoo and bars of hotel-soap, he finds the bubble bath. Evan proceeds to use waaaayyy too much bubble concoction in his monthly bath. Have you ever seen a person with no bubbles on their face? Well he looked nothing like that….he had bubbles on his face.

0730 hrs CST – We continue to the lobby where the “Continental Breakfast” was being served. However, this “Continental Breakfast” seemed more like a “Small Village Breakfast”. How much orange juice was drunk by Sir Evan, King Jake, Court Jester Tyler, and Lord Jon? The answer is: one gallon – four quarts = 0.

0830 hrs CST – We arrive at the St. Bernard Parish job orientation center. After an empowering pep-talk speech, we board the bus and get to work. Have you ever been frozen solid? This was nothing like that, it was hot x 10 / 2 +….. it doesn’t matter because it was excruciatingly hot.

1000 hrs CST – While Team 1 does work on a house, Team 2 gets lost but eventually arrives on the battle field in a battle that must be won against Hurricane Katrina. Have you ever been in the center of the sun? That is exactly what the heat felt like today.

1230 hrs CST – Team 1 decides to take a 1 hour lunch. Group 2 quickly eats lunch and gets back to work. Have you ever eaten lunch? Well we certainly feasted like champion home builders.

1600 hrs CST – Team 2 begins cleanup. Team 1 quit work early to play a ninja game, and Team 2 accomplished much more than Team 1.

1730 hrs CST – The bus navigator fell asleep on the job and we got lost in the complex labyrinth of streets. Soon we arrived at our destination: Mardi Gras World. The trip was very educational and we enjoyed walking on a tour through the variety of props. Soon after, we journeyed back to our base camp to freshen up.

2030 hrs CST – after making an excessive amount of U turns (editor note: these are legal in New Orleans), we finally arrived at the Hard Rock CafĂ© where we had the man with the bandanna as our waiter. We bought lots of cool souvenirs and quickly hurried home to go swimming…last one is a swamp gator!














Submitted by Evan, Tyler E., Jon, and Jake

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Look! It's an Alligator!

Our day started off at 7:15 in the morning, Most of the kids slept off the first two hours. I-pods and phones were a common theme the entire trip. Between naps we all participated in bus games like Catch Phrase, Interstate Bingo, and card games.

At 11:30 we stopped in Sikeston, Missouri at the local McDonald's for lunch. It was delicious. We also switched drivers after lunch from Mrs. Dann to Mr. Speckhals, two extremes. From then on we had to frequently stop for bathroom breaks and gas.

Before we officially reached New Orleans we had to cross 20 miles of lakes and swamps including crossing Lake Pontchartrain. Everyone's faces were glued to the windows as we tried to catch a glimpse of an alligator. Some people saw many; others saw none.

We finally reached our destination at about 8:20 and went straight to dinner at Harbor Seafood. The waitresses were very kind and helpful to us and even helped us learn how to eat the seafood (crab and craw fish). Our waitress even opened many of our craw fish for us (she was very good at it). At the end of the meal she even thanked us for volunteering our time for the good cause. A neighboring table also overheard and thanked us. We had the nice waitress, though. Mrs. Dann's waiter gave her a good scare. As Mrs. Dann ate a piece of crab meat the waiter turned to her and said that the piece she ate was poisonous and that Mrs. Dann was going to die. According to witnesses, the look on her face was priceless!

We got to the B&B at about 11 and finished the day with a quick dip in the pool before heading to bed.

Logan, Kevin, and T. J.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Final Countdown

It is just a few days before 16 students and 7 chaperones pile on a bus and drive 12+ hours to do volunteer work for the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans. This blog is devoted to our adventures. Check it each day starting on June 8 to see what we are up to!