Alternative Spring Break trip to Atlanta, Georgia
March 5-12, 2011
Our journey from Coe to Atlanta started bright and early at 8 in the morning. Our first day of driving took us all the way to Nashville, where we stopped for the night. We ate at the famous Nashville Palace, and the locals there taught us how to line dance! We spent over two hours on the dance floor, showing off our mad skills. It was the perfect bonding experience to kick off our week of service.
The road to Atlanta was gorgeous: there were waterfalls, misty hills, and a lot of cow herds to see. However, we were glad to reach the city on Sunday afternoon. Right away when we arrived, we explored the headquarters of the CNN empire and got to take a tour, which included seeing a live broadcast. For dinner, we went to Daddy D's, which proved that you can't judge a book (or barbeque joint) by its cover. Though the outside looked sketchy, the food inside was absolutely delicious.
We got to St. Mark's Church around 8:30 and unloaded our things. We met David and Megan, the coordinators of DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection). They gave us an outline of our week and helped us settle in. We also met the choir; they welcomed us with a special rendition of "Seasons of Love". Talk about southern hospitality.
Our first day of service in Atlanta was wonderful! We split up into three groups and dispersed to conquer the city. The first group went to work on a CSA farm, which grew vegetables in a low-income neighborhood. The supervisor there was Farmer Tim, who had "the most epic beard ever." The second group worked with Catholic Charities handing out basic supplies to needy families, and then switched midday to Books for Africa to package donated books to send to kids in Africa. My group worked with a program called Decatour Cooperative Ministries. We cleaned up a transitional house by scrubbing down the walls, blinds, and floors. During the lunch break our supervisor, Sue, explained how they help about 800 families a year with housing. It really hit me when she told us that without our help the family wouldn't be able to move in for another month.
My group went to Calvin Court, an assisted living residency, on the second day. We served over 80 residents a Mardi Gras breakfast. Then we visited the fitness center and eventually wound up in a small computer lab to teach residents basic computer skills. A different group went to a coffee shop and helped out there. It was an interesting project because their goal wasn't to directly serve people, but to decorate and stock a shop that needed extra hands. The last group went to the transitional house and started painting the walls.
Over the entire week, Coe's three groups managed to serve a wide variety of programs. One group worked with HouseProud to paint a woman's house, as she didn't have the ability and resources to maintain her home by herself. Another group went to Medshare and packaged up medical supplies to send to needy countries. One group even went to a shelter to serve lunch. It was an interesting place: instead of serving the food cafeteria-style, they brought the plates to the tables and waited on them.
Our trip wasn't all work and no play: we often got an hour or two of free time in the afternoon or evenings to explore the city. Besides the CNN tour, we took a tour of the Atlanta Underground and the shopping district inside. We also found some interesting little shops and a lot of good restaurants. Since Mandi's birthday was that week, we celebrated by seeing how much free food and gifts she could get. The grand total was somewhere over 8 - that's a lot of desserts.
We even frequented a couple of famous buildings and historical sites. On Wednesday, we took the afternoon off and visited the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. There was a tour of his boyhood home and a museum to honor all those who fought for civil rights. It was really inspiring for us and relevant to our own trip and experience, because we were in Atlanta to help raise people above their current living conditions. We weren't fighting racism like MLK, but we were fighting poverty.
Every night after dinner, we all sat in a circle for reflection. David and Megan led the discussion. The first night's theme seemed to be "the face of homelessness" - how anyone can become homeless through extreme circumstances. Another common theme that week was the impact of different types of service. We discussed how some volunteer work is like a band-aid: it helps patch the problem, but is only a temporary relief, like giving spare change to the homeless people on the street. Other projects go deeper and impact people for a lot longer, such as preparing the house for a family or growing food on a community farm. Finally, we talked about what our future plans for service were, and how we would take our experience back to Cedar Rapids to share and motivate others.
The ride back was pretty uneventful, but we did stop in St. Louis, Missouri, for the St. Patrick's Day parade. It was a festive, fun day. We finally arrived at Coe on Saturday night exhausted, but elated. We accomplished a lot in our brief stay in Atlanta. DOOR allowed us to experience a wide variety of service projects. I think we all learned something about different cultures, patience, and what service to others meant to us. I personally had a blast, and I can't wait until the next service trip!
Hannah
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