ASB: Continued Involvement

By Rachel Manuel

Today was by far our best day out working, as our entire team (Team BA from Top to Bottom) was able to stay together. We worked extremely hard and at the beginning of the day were told they weren't sure how far we'd get, but by the end of the day they were so excited by how much we had accomplished including mudding, sanding and starting on priming. Tomorrow we think we will be working on the same home and hopefully we will be able to finish with primer and move on to painting and other projects.

Today we heard a lot of positive feedback from the participants involved in the community assessment. Originally, I think some of the participants were uncertain about doing something outside of construction, but they have all seemed to really take to their project, as we have heard story after story about the people they have talked with in the community. Many of their stories are sad, and they have had to deal with some really tough situations. Just yesterday, they encountered a family that was having some really hard issues and they were able to help connect them to local resources. Additionally, the teams have been able to provide the homes they survey with information about United Way 211, which helps connect people to human health and service resources. Of course, the community assessment end result is providing enough survey information to enable the community to determine what resources are still needed that maybe are not being provided or where needs have increased.

This evening after our "town hall" meeting, which is where we give shout outs to people that went above and beyond throughout the day we provided the participants with four breakout sessions about how they can stay involved in their local communities after UW ASB. They learned about starting a Student United Way (UWCI works with Drake on Student United Way), internship/career opportunities with United Way, staying involved with UW ASB in the future, and I spoke about becoming involved with state service commissions. It was really motivating to hear so many students interested and excited about staying involved once they return home after ASB.

P.S. I want to give a shout out to my team -- for being such hard workers and having fun in the process from TOP to BOTTOM!