This Saturday was packed full with lots of exciting events. We began our day when all of us met in the dining hall for our usual breakfast. Following morning meeting we broke into groups and set out for various community service projects. Our projects ranged from traveling to a soup kitchen, weatherizing homes, chopping firewood for those who could not afford to heat their homes this winter, working on a nearby farm, and working on habitat for humanity houses. After remaining on Chewonki Neck for so long it felt good to branch out and see what the community was like that surrounds us. One of our teams that went to help people weatherize their homes set out with the goal of performing evaluations on two elderly person’s trailers. Our task was to let these people know where the heat that they were able to trap in their homes was escaping. It was an interesting experience to see how these people were able to remain vibrant even while living in such poverty. We enjoyed being able to supply them with a bit of hope, and cannot wait to actually build them storm windows and plug up holes so that they can remain safe and warm throughout the winter.
A separate team went to a nearby food pantry to help reorganize it. When we arrived, the little room was full of random boxes, cans, and freezers. We took on the task of reorganizing things so as to make more room, cleaning it up, and organizing a lot of the food onto shelves and drawers. It was an eye opening experience to see the boxes that were set out for various families of up to seven and eight people. These boxes were meant to supply a family’s food for a month and were still fairly minimal. It felt good to see the clean, organized room when we were finished and it really made us appreciate our grilled cheese and tomato soup upon return to Chewonki.
To top off our day Dish Crew Number One planned for us to travel to Roller World for our evening activity. We could not even begin to explain what it was like to see our fellow MCSers, Rhan, and Ben decked out in 80/90’s apparel with roller skates strapped to their feet. Let’s just say that there was a whole range of ability levels, but by the end everyone had accomplished something whether it was simply making it around the ring or skating while holding hands with friends. We returned to Chewonki to an awesome meal of pizza, salad, and snickerdoodles made by our dinner crew. All in all it was a fantastic Saturday on the Neck.
-Ellie Renner, Lancaster, PA
& Katharine Gifford, Woodside, CA
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