Fare Thee Well, Ohio

Cincinnati… what can I say? You were a lot of fun. There was much to see and do. Your chili was a taste sensation. Your locals were kind and generous folks. Your museums—pretty fab. The trail blazing we did in the Queen’s City was probably the most manual labor I have ever done. We pulled out innumerable amounts of honeysuckle. And the difficult nature of our project brought out the best and the worst in the team. This project showed us that we are capable of great things, completing in 6 weeks what Gorman Heritage Farm anticipated it would take 8 weeks to finish. We refurbished 2300 ft of old trail, installed approximately 1500 ft of new trail, and helped with numerous tasks around the farm from shoveling out weed barriers in a garden, to assisting in the office, working with high school groups, and more. On days where we couldn’t be on the trail due to thunderstorms, we assisted an organization called Crayons to Computers that provides supplies to teachers in low-income schools. We were able to set up over a hundred shelves in their warehouse, sorting through 22 large pallets of donated items, and organizing about 1400 boxes of calendars.


There were some rainy, muddy days that we stuck it out on the trail despite the weather, and it eventually turned out to be the rainiest month in Cincinnati’s entire recorded history. No lie. On the trail it was sometimes so cold that we were actually at risk of frostbite. A couple of days it was so hot that a teammate actually got heat sickness. And I thought Boston weather was crazy! Add to that the interpersonal difficulties we had while learning how to communicate with each other and live together as a team/dysfunctional family, and we certainly had an interesting first round spike project.


What next? Since finishing up at Gorman Heritage Farm, Maple 4 has returned to our campus in Iowa. Our next project will be working with the Vinton Parks and Recreation Department doing various tasks for them such as painting a community swimming pool, fixing up some parks that were built on land that flooded in 2008, and assisting with an annual Party in the Park community celebration. It will be nice to be on campus where we can all unwind, meet up with fellow NCCC‘ers, bask in some personal space, and utilize the resources available on campus. It will also be cool to give back to the Vinton community that supports NCCC. Since we are a local project and therefore easier to mobilize, we might even get sent out to a disaster relief project if there is a great enough need. Unfortunately, since arriving on campus we lost one member who decided that the program was not the right fit for him. But the team will remain strong and continue to do the best we can to make a positive impact on our country and grow as individuals and a group. I’m proud of the work we’ve done and the efforts we’ve made toward being the best Maple 4 we can be.

On to a more hilarious update: During training I had reoccurring dreams that my team was coming into my room in the middle of the night to try and have meetings with me… in the dark… while my roommate was sleeping. This is obviously ridiculous, but I woke up a ton of times rambling about various meeting topics and suggesting that our group speak quietly as to not wake up Brittney while she slept on the other side of the room. haha Then last night, I had an updated, post-trail building version of this nightmare where my corps members were coming in to clean tools. Definitely woke myself up at 2am last night yelling incoherently and managing to knock a lamp over. More shenanigans to come. Stay tuned.