ABCs Day Five: Forest Park Conservancy

I can't believe my week is already drawing to a close! It's been an incredible experience so far bonding with the people in my "Green Geese" group and also getting to know the other die-hard ABers at this conference. Tomorrow will be our last full day at the Portland ABCs and the thought makes me sad, because the community that we've spent this entire week building will go on their separate ways. Regardless, I think I've learned so much both from the workshops and the people that I've met here in Portland.

Today was by far one of the most exciting days of service we've had this week. We were assigned to work with members of the Forest Park Conservancy, which included Jeff and a few other Americorps volunteers. We fortunately arrived at our site without getting lost, which was the first time for our group! But even more, I think the most remarkable thing about our trip to the site was the fact that we only had to drive 20 minutes to become immediately immersed in the forest. I remember Matt mentioning later that he was so surprised to see that such a green, lush, and thriving wilderness could exist so close to a large city. This was the first time the entire week that our volunteer work took us so deeply into outdoors, completely "enveloping" us in it. The site made feel like I had stepped straight into the Jurassic Period into an ancient, pre-historical forest.

There are over 70 miles of trails that are maintained by the conservancy, and our group task was to create a turnpike for the Wild Cherry trail. Bethany and I made trips bringing large wooden slabs up and down the trail, and we did other work also. I learned how to use a palaski and to rip out large underground roots with my bare hands! It was work that truly made you feel connected to the environment, and trail regulars came and thanked us as they passed by. One man even stopped to talk to one of my group members and got thrilled about the Alternative Breaks national movement! He said, "I wish there were more people like you doing the work you're doing." The scenery, the people, and the cool chill of the Northwest morning kept our spirits up and for me, made it one of my favorite sites out of the entire week.

Service was followed by a vegetarian lunch (pasta salad and other amazing food) and workshops on Alcohol policy and Fundraising. I liked the reasoning outlined in the Alcohol policy and learning about the budget break downs for national trips. Learning about setting up and conducting a national trip has motivated me to lead one or participate in one within the upcoming years, perhaps after my year as a coordinator. Dinner was also great and was followed up with Social Night, where we went to a local park in Portland playing basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, and also completely crazy group games. I played Basketball and Frisbee for a while and then played Spud! and "Vegetable" afterwards. What I find to be truly amazing is how everyone in our group is so outgoing that people throw themselves into these games! Even "Vegetable"became pretty intense at the end with the competition, with Colleen, Sophie, and Jillian facing-off and making strange noises trying to scare each other.

I'm typing this now and feel sleep coming to me. More will come tomorrow!