YSOP 2013 - Day 3

 LOL today was another great day. Our big group of eleven was split into two smaller groups, the Red team and the Black team. Each group went to a different site for service during the day.

            The fabulous Black team included the best and brightest of the students; Caroline, Nicky, Grace, Jack, Peyton, and Ellie, and was lead fearlessly by the one and only, chaperone Coach Karen Albright. Managing to find our way with ease during our hour-long odyssey thanks to stellar directions from Jack, we arrived at our site after taking the metro, the bus, and walking a lot. Upon entering the home of Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock** and her son Bartholomew Rudolph Germaine III, (we were asked not to use real names nor take pictures), we were orientated by social workers Karen Currie and Sonya. We snapped on our rubber gloves and surgical masks and we were off! We began our four hour-long journey to cleanliness. Our work today was for the Elder Buddies organization. Elder Buddies works to help tenants by creating a clean, organized, and acceptable living space. The goal is to satisfy both the tenants and the home inspectors. If their homes are not up to a certain standard of cleanliness, there is the possibility of eviction, which would therefore leave the former tenants homeless. To sum it up, Elder Buddies is an organization to prevent homelessness. Each member of the group was very flexible and willing to be given any job necessary. Some of our tasks included: Grace scrubbed grease off of the microwave, walls and floors, Caroline cleansed the steps and floors, Nicky cleaned the threshold, door frame and floors, Ellie scrubbed the floors and walls, and Jack and Peyton helped Bartholomew Rudolph Germaine III inflate an air mattress for him to sleep on until he received a replacement bed, and also cleaned the floor. The lovely and talented Karen Albright was a designated mopper and scrubber of the floors. After a lovely afternoon of intense cleaning, we bid Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock and Bartholomew Rudolph Germaine III goodbye and headed to the bus stop. The bus ride to Anacostia station was long, but full of scenery. Everything was going swell, and we made it to the metro station with a minute until the arrival of our metro. Unfortunately not all of our metro cards cooperated and we were delayed a bit.  After the metro ride and several @R+$y (“artsy” to those who don’t speak teenager) pictures taken proudly by Peyton, the fabulous Black team hit up the ice cream joint by the church. All in all, the day was rewarding and extremely fun!

A sample of Peyton's work.

Unlike the Black Team, the swagtastic Red Team, composed of Catherine, Aven, Kelsey, CJ, John, and fearless leader Mr. Mark Palyo, had no trouble getting to or from their work site for the day, which was the DC Central Kitchen. The DC Central Kitchen is an organization that makes and provides 5000 exquisite meals a day to the homeless shelter upstairs and other places that provide meals for free. Catherine led the way to the kitchen and we arrived excited to start our work around 8:30. After a brief orientation, we were on our way! We donned our very attractive hair nets and plastic aprons, washed our hands and put on gloves, and headed into the kitchen. CJ and John were given various cleaning chores and had soo much fun doing it too! Kelsey, Aven, and Catherine were taken to a different section of the kitchen and were tasked with slicing bread. Although normally not a difficult assignment, it proved a slight challenge for the girls. Within 10 minutes, Kelsey and Aven had both managed to cut their fingers, but after being bandaged and re-gloved, they resumed their work. After an hour of bread-slicing, the girls switched tasks and began preparing salads.  When all the work was complete, we and the rest of the volunteers were rewarded with a delicious lunch made by the staff of the DC Central Kitchen. Around 1:00, we left the kitchen and made our way back to the church. While waiting for the Black Team to finally return, we decided to take a trip to Starbucks and do some sight seeing. Equipped with coffee (and tea for Catherine), we made our way to the White House. There were many tourists at the White House, and for some unknown reason, some foreign tourists wanted to take some pictures with Mr. Palyo and us. But it didn't stop here. Thinking he was some famous celebrity, a couple other groups even came up to Mr. Palyo wanting some pictures! After this photoshoot with strangers, we walked around the block.  While walking around the back of the White House, Kelsey and Catherine decided to step around the chain on the sidewalk to avoid the large crowds - quickly drawing the attention of the Secret Security Police and a directive to return to the other side of the chain. They quickly got back on the sidewalk. Then we made our way back to the church to rejoin the other team.

Pictures from the Red Team and DC Central Kitchen:

            Once returning to the church we took a quick rest period soon to walk downstairs and cook a warm meal for some less fortunate guests. We all were assigned to different cooking tasks to prepare the night, whether it was setting up the room, cutting vegetables, or making sloppy joes. Our friends arrived and we soon would take a seat with them and have the opportunity to meet some new people and exchange our stories. Some of the more interesting stories included past memories from our guests. One of our favorite moments was when a man named Nathan told us a story about John Paul Getty’s granddaughter. Needless to say, it was a very interesting story. Nicky and John shared an experience they had with one of the guests who sat at their table. They said a very talkative woman named “Re Re” shared lots of very interesting stories from her High School experiences. Peyton and CJ introduced everyone to a friendly man they had met named Bill. Bill was one of our personal favorites since he was such a fun loving and giggly man. Bill shared us how he had always dreamed of becoming a mechanic. This really touched us because it showed that even a man who was so down on their luck could still laugh and have fun with life. The reflection period following dinner reinforced how meaningful the evening was to each of us.

Pictures from the dinner at church:

            After our dinner we used the last hour of our night to see Washington DC’s main attraction, the White House. Soon after arriving to the home of the president, most of the girls in the group all joined in on doing the most typical girly thing and instagraming “artsy” pictures of the white house. Jack saw a group of protesters and wanted a photo with them. The boys ran off to all take group photos with the hippies. We returned to the church to spend the rest of the night talking and enjoying our time together. We had a great time stopping and smelling the roses, except for when the roses were actually the fumes from Kelsey’s poor attempt at microwaved popcorn.

**references aliases used by Phoebe on an episode of Friends.

WRITTEN BY: Ellie Fleming, Grace Hourigan, Aven Jones, John Cantor, CJ Wittmann, and Hack Mac