Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Hoarach on March 25, 2010, 12:47:38 AM
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While some of you know that I am currently a college student, for others I will let you know a little more about me besides of what you know about me in AH.
I am sophomore biology/pre-med major at Western New England College in Springfield, MA. I play football for the school, part of AmeriCorps, and part of several clubs and other activities. I intend to apply for medical school upon graduation.
Now I will bring up why I mentioned West Virginia. Instead of being like every other college student who take their spring break to Miami, Cancun, and South Padre to trash their livers. Unlike these college students, thousands of college students across the country part take in a national program called Alternative Spring Break who do community work for others. I bring this up because I feel the story should be shared and prepares myself a little for the presentation I have to give about this on Friday.
There were 3 trips offered at my school this year and 27 students along with 3 professors took part in. The trips included a trip to a kid's camp in New Jersey (Camp Vamcas in West Milford, NJ) , trip to southern Illinois national forest park (Shawnee National Forest in Murphysboro, IL), and the trip I went on to southern West Virginia (Appalachian South Folk Center Pipestem, WV).
My group included 10, 9 students and 1 professor. The professor alone is an incredible woman, age 62 who was the first female state officer in Massachusetts and is giving a presentation to the United Nations congress in Brazil in a few weeks. We arrive on the 13th of March. Not really knowing what to expect in West Virginia we see houses that are much smaller than what we are used to seeing and the openness of the land. Sunday was our kind of laid back day where we went site seeing, road horses, did our food shopping for the week, and had our orientation where we learned more about West Virginia. Not only did we learn more about the culture and history but also discovered that there would be another group joining us which consisted of 15 catholic school girls from Tampa, FL. We also discovered that The South Folk Center was started decades ago by a man to help the citizens of West Virginia including lodging for those that need it and food. We also discovered that they bring in college and high school groups throughout the year to assist in rebuilding homes. These homes are discovered by people applying their home to be worked on and have to meet a needing requirement. We found out what we would be doing for the week which included the two groups working next door to each other doing reconstruction and cosmetic work on houses which the owners couldn't keep up on the upkeep. It was my group, however, that did the majority of demolition and construction work while the other group's house was mostly painting.
Monday, we arrived at the house in Talcott, WV that we would be at working for the week. Our work started at 9 in the morning and ended at 3 in the afternoon. This house, we had no idea what we would experience. The professor, the team leader, and me went into the house first with our site supervisor (an experienced carpenter) to learn of the duties to be accomplished for the week and the state of the house. The sight the three of us saw could do nothing but gasp. The state of the house was nothing to what I have seen before. There were holes in the floor, walls missing exposing old insulation or wood, the hygiene of the house was awful including permanent stains in the tub and sinks, sinks not working correctly, walls and ceiling in need of paint, and outside of the house requiring lots of work.
While much of the group spent couple days removing wall paper and priming/painting, I did most of the construction and demolition work for the next few days. old cracked and damaged walls came down, new dry walls and panels went up. Washer and dryer were installed in the basement and overall cleaning of the house proceeded.
While some people would begin to question why such a home owner would allow their house to get into such a state. We later found out that She was a cop with a criminal justice degree. This lade had taken part in assisting the help effort in New Orleans last summer. Sometime during the fall she had gotten into a car accident and was permanently disabled. She is raising 2 kids and adopted a 3rd who has a kid and another on the way. The 3rd kid, however, she basically adopted after a breakup because of the attachment that grew between the 2 during a relationship the home owner had with the girl's dad. On top of the children, she has also take in 6 stray animals to prevent them from starving to death or getting killed on the streets by other means. By doing all this, this woman is surviving on $300 a month and this simply alone hit many of us hard knowing these facts.
As work progressed nicely during the week, it was Thursday that hit many of us real hard. I know by that time I was already feeling the stress and pressure of the situation, but it was what many of us found out a few hours later which cause panic. Our team leader confirmed the suspicion that some people had that their were fleas in the house and the home owner never let any of us know of the possibility and wasn't even home that day to ask and it didn't help that when we entered the house that day we found animal feces everywhere. While I myself knowingly didn't have any with no itches or bites, many of our other members did. It was this event where I was really affected because a group vote was taken to finish what can be done in the next 2 hours and pack up and leave. I wanted to stay the full day and come back Friday but the group voted not to return as well as the site supervisor. What could be finished was, some outside work was done such as gutter removal and deck repair but there was still much that could have been done. I am not a person that likes to give up on projects so easily and this was simply being taken from me to be able to finish it.
The final jobs that were completed were new walls being put up where they needed, many of the rooms were painted but some didn't receive the 2nd coat of paint needed even though what was done made the house look 1000x better than it started. We later found out that there will be a group of 40 heading down to the same house in 2 weeks to finish the interior work and further the work done on the exterior which I hope they take care of the bug situation beforehand.
While the rest of the group decided to leave at around 1 in the afternoon, I decided to head next door and assist the other group with their work since it was the reason to make the trip to West Virginia in the first place. There I repaired windows, painted, and some minor construction work.
Instead of doing more construction work being done Friday, our Friday was a little more relaxed with lots of the yardwork being done at the campground such as laying down new grass, cutting tree stumps, and clearing brush.
While West Virginia's views were incredible including the stars, the mountains, and the overall landscape, it was there I learned that beauty comes at a price. While urban poverty is a problem but the location of this rural poverty is away from anyone that can provide help. In urban poverty locations there are shelter homes, churches, and many locations of that can assist. In this rural poverty setting, the poor seem poorer than those of urban poverty and can't receive much assistance.
This trip was very meaningful and eye opening to all of us, I know I even ended up shedding tears on the trip, Thursday night, because I couldn't handle the fact at the end of the week I wasn't going to be able to finish the house that I started and that this woman who has such a strong heart for others put others before her own health status. Yet someone like this that could use government assistance so much isn't receiving it while there are those that are getting aid that don't need aid or taking advantage of the system. The extent of poverty goes beyond what many of us see in the urban areas and while this may seem ignorant, this rural poverty is just absolutely eye opening to what many of us are used to seeing and such situations put people people into a status beyond suffering.
I hope my little story wasn't a drag for any of you that spent the time to read it and maybe those that live in West Virginia here could fill in some details about the area of Pipestem, Talcott, and the situation that these people are in this county and maybe fill me on how this country ranks to others in West Virginia.
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Good job man.
I was one of the kids who drank their way through Spring breaks. :( What a complete waste of time and energy.
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Good on ya. I did Americorps right out of school, but as a full time job in the VISTA program. Appalachia has a huge amount of poverty, which is not widely known. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/US_Poverty_Rates.svg/555px-US_Poverty_Rates.svg.png) Dark red/black = highest poverty rates.
My roomate who is now a grad student at Georgetown went down to Haiti to do some work for his spring break. Certainly a good way to spend it.
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NOTE: dark area in SD are Sioux reservation. Highest unemployment rate in the country, 98%.
Hoarch, like you, i did not wast my time over spring brake party. I was either camping in the Rocky Mountains or had a Track meet. Good for you sir. :salute
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I was one of the kids who drank their way through Spring breaks. Sad What a complete waste of time and energy.
Me too. I'd like to live in South Dakota. Or southern Arizona.
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Better to help our own before helping other countries.
Looks like time well spent.
Some folks put themselves in the worst situations.
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I live about 45 minutes from Talcott, outside of Beckley(beaver). We have a small camp/farm about 15 minutes from Talcott on the Greenbrier(Riverside Rest). Were you down here during the floods about week or two ago? Not sure if it flooded bad down that way but up my way it did, alot. Next time your down this way, I'll show ya around the area at some places.
Like:
Tamarack
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/TamarackWV.jpg)
Kanawha Falls(excellent fishing):
(http://www.semp.us/images/Biot622PhotoP.jpg)
Some pics of New River Park:
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/44445176_dd26602dc5_b.jpg)
(http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/new-river-gorge-national-river-west-virginia-wv140.jpg)
(http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/west-virginia-new-river-greenbrier-valley-region-wv101.jpg)
All in the Area.
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I live about 45 minutes from Talcott, outside of Beckley(beaver). We have a small camp/farm about 15 minutes from Talcott on the Greenbrier(Riverside Rest). Were you down here during the floods about week or two ago? Not sure if it flooded bad down that way but up my way it did, alot. Next time your down this way, I'll show ya around the area at some places.
Like:
Tamarack
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/TamarackWV.jpg)
Kanawha Falls(excellent fishing):
(http://www.semp.us/images/Biot622PhotoP.jpg)
Some pics of New River Park:
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/44445176_dd26602dc5_b.jpg)
(http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/new-river-gorge-national-river-west-virginia-wv140.jpg)
(http://www.planetware.com/i/photo/west-virginia-new-river-greenbrier-valley-region-wv101.jpg)
All in the Area.
I was there about 19 years ago. Wonderful place.
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I live in Clarksburg, WV. Its in North Central WV you probably passed through it on your way in on I-79.
Great story <S>.
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I live about 45 minutes from Talcott, outside of Beckley(beaver). We have a small camp/farm about 15 minutes from Talcott on the Greenbrier(Riverside Rest). Were you down here during the floods about week or two ago? Not sure if it flooded bad down that way but up my way it did, alot. Next time your down this way, I'll show ya around the area at some places.
The only real thing we saw was the Pipestem State Park. It didnt flood down there while we were here but the rivers were extremely high and the ground was pretty muddy.
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I live in Clarksburg, WV. Its in North Central WV you probably passed through it on your way in on I-79.
Great story <S>.
Nef lives about 5 miles from me. (he is antisocial) My wife is from southern WV between Charleston and Logan. WV may not be a high-profile state but look at the front page of your newspaper. How many high crimes are listed on average. Our front page lists the arguement city council members had over street lights....for example. Well todays front page read "FINAL FOUR". Poor Wildcats. :t