Casey Burr’s Alternative Spring Break with Greening Forward
This article is a post that comes from Greening Forward’s legacy blog. It was originally written on March 12, 2012.
Editor’s Note: This reflective blog post is a part of series of blogs written by students from Grand Valley State University who spent their Spring Break volunteering with Greening Forward in Atlanta, Georgia from March 3–10.
As a site leader responsible for the well-being of nine others, this was one of the quickest weeks of my life! Granted 30 hours of it were spent driving in a big white stalker van to and from Georgia. I was pleasantly surprised that our group was on the road by 5:30 AM on that freezing and windy Michigan morning. After a few bathroom breaks and a couple of refills on our oversized gas tank, we arrived in Dacula, Georgia at the Rancho Alegre farm where we would be staying for the duration of our trip. We were introduced to the farm owner, Pilar, her husband Juan, and the farm’s manager, Sergio. Sleeping on a hard floor was a new experience for most of us, but I got used to it after the first night and as long as I slept on my back, I didn’t have any problems sleeping through the night.
Our week was spent traveling to schools to work with students on service projects like installing small gardens on the school grounds. On Monday, we pitched in at Sylvan Middle School with students, staff, Greening Forward partner Stephanie Hunte, and a certain Coca-Cola employee who didn’t feel like going into the office that day. We were working with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to remove weeds and add new soil to the plots where plants and herbs were growing. During our lunch break, we were told about an urban garden in College Park, so we drove there and were given an engaging tour by a man named Anthony who educated us on sustainable agriculture and composting. He had a makeshift greenhouse made out of an old front door with glass windows.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at Mill Creek High School. On Tuesday, we spoke to Dr. Wylie and the Key Club about volunteering and Alternative Breaks. We then came back the next morning to work on a variety of service projects throughout the school. After two months of email and phone correspondence, we finally got to meet Charles! He dropped in on us during his passing time while we spoke to Ms. Larkin. Later that night, after cleaning up litter around Mulberry Park, we were treated to dinner at Moe’s Southwest Grille while my team of Mariah and Matt discussed how to incorporate more Alternative Breaks programs into Greening Forward.
On Thursday and Friday, we worked with environmental clubs from Sweetwater Middle School and Hampton Middle School. Thursday night saw us working with a group of enthusiastic kids from the Sweetwater Earth Savers Club to plant an herb garden and install birdhouses on the grounds. I was even blasted from the past when Mr. Shannon, Ms. Kramer, and the students invited us to play heads up seven up before we left. At Hampton Middle School, we helped plant flowers around the school’s marquee. We answered questions about high school and college that the students had for us. e then met Charles who treated us to frozen yogurt at Menchies! It was delicious and I’m now concerned I am going to develop an addiction to froyo because of it.
Charles led us on a sightseeing tour starting with Holly Park on Lake Lanier. Worried the sun would set before we reached the top, our group got back in the van and headed to Amicalola Falls. We played fun car ride games with Charles. This was great because we were able to include him in running jokes as well as create our own based on what happened. This was the first time we felt like we were actually hanging out with Charles like he was a member of our group and not as the organizer of our trip. Charles’ integration into the group even strengthened the bond of the other participants concluding the trip with a high note. We reached the top of the falls just before the sunset. It was a gorgeous vista well worth the hike. When we got back in the van to drop Charles off for the final time, Mariah and I handed out paper plate awards to our participants and Charles.
Saying goodbye to Charles was difficult but he reaffirmed to everyone that we will continue the conversation, so I look forward to communicating with this inspiring individual and seeing the progress of Greening Forward in the years to come!
