Thoughts on the Job

by Corey Romero, Crew 12: Taos YCC

Day 1, Monday 6/14:

The first project of crew 12 we started on was improving the environment around the Rio Lucero River and helping the river look healthy. We did things like thin trees, picked up trash and improved the scenery and environment around the area. Day one started fresh with a commitment to hard labor and I noticed how much the crew grew. They learned from each other; getting good vibes of inspiration and positively working together as a team.

Day 2, Tuesday 6/15:

Right away we finished what we had left for the next day and the area around the river already started to look like a huge improvement. More people would pass by thanking us and giving out appreciation with words to feel good and be proud. The trust grew; I would guess that is because of teamwork. We improved obstacles of staying together by not feeling scared or shy, speaking our minds with ideas and sharing ideas, sharing thoughts and collaborating a bit more.

Day 3, Wednesday 6/16:

It was more work of the same today, but the more effort equals a good job and the environment looks better and better. I can already see we are starting off as a real crew team would because of how much effort we put into it.

Day 4, Thursday 6/17:

Today is the last day of out project on the Rio Lucero River, the section on Upper Ranchitos Road. After this week I am sure I can say that it was an accomplishment after the effort the crew put into it. Learning how to understand how differently people work, having an open mind towards our differences and asking questions made communication easier. The more the crew got to know each other, commitment and labor became a common goal. I think we are learning by seeing our accomplishments and I hope to experience more of this with new projects to work on. The feel of being appreciated by Taos citizens inspires us to keep it up. Now we can pass by what we worked on and know what was done. The river looks better and there was a huge improvement on the piles and piles of trimmed and dead trees and all the trash. Now hopefully the crew will show more teamwork and keeping up with the effort we showed.

April on the Forestry Crews

The last couple of weeks have been an exciting debut to an unforgettable experience that everyone in this program has encountered.
Though some days can be overwhelming, those days are also healthy. I am in the forestry crew, also known as Crew 1 with eight other members including my supervisor. We have all been introduced to trail and forestry work. We’ve gone on the “Arsenic Trail” to help out Game and Fish which included hiking down into the Rio Grande with cut throat trout on our backs to restock in the rivers. We’ve worked on a dedicated employee’s house that has a trail leading to his farm animals. There we learned how to construct tread maintenance, erosion control, and retaining the already built structures. We’ve worked on a trail called “Dos Arroyos” that the town of Taos issued last year. This trail is used for recreation and as a safe route to the hospital. On Dos Arroyos we put in posts and rails that look a lot easier to put in than they actually are. We’ve also been working on our personal development. A part of this development is our team building and knowing the ins and outs of our peers. I myself have worked on my own personal etiquette, which can be overwhelming at times. I am gaining the patience and strength for my future, and it’s not an easy job. I will say that I am grateful for this glorious opportunity and am making friends along the way.
-Caleb Cruz, Crew 1

Reflection

How I Feel at Times:

It’s my surfboard

And I wash away

I float in the middle in an

Ocean of decay

Tides are rough, pieces of my

Board float away.

Stuck in the middle of the sea;

I have no one to talk to or

listen to me. My skin is wrinkled

From the water, no searches,

not even a bother! I see the sea

Serpents that float under me,

Reading my mind, hatred and animosity

even the goldfish judge a fall

the smallest ones are the worst of them all!

looked to them and made me small.

The ocean is too big for m

In time try not to sink in the sea

and let time tell what it’ll do for me!

-Javonne Garcia, Crew 3

Field Crew Season 2010

CREW 4 (GREEN CREW)

The Green Crew's objective is to make existing homes more energy efficient. In the last two weeks we've learned to use equipment that is necessary to run energy audits. Learning how to use a blower door may be the easiest of what we've done thus far. There are more challenging tasks that have presented themselves in the past two weeks. One includes crunching numbers to determine the most effective amount of insulation to put in the roofs of these homes. In addition to finding the point of diminishing returns (balancing the cost of insulation with the potential energy saved), we've had to take into consideration what type of insulation should be used and the most effective blower machine to use. We want to insulate as many homes in the least amount of time as possible. In our third week of work we presented our finding to our partner in this project, the Taos County Housing Authority. This week we will begin to follow up with them to ensure that the materials we need to make those homes more energy efficient. Until we can begin to tackle the insulation of these homes, we will continue to run energy audits and practice our people skills.
-Karen Mirabal, Crew 4

Eat and Play Family Day

On January 15, 2010 Rocky Mountain Youth Corps hosted “Eat and Play Family Day” to address childhood obesity in honor of Martin Luther King Jr's vision of healthy communities. The event aimed to increase parent’s and children’s’ awareness of preventative measures they can take to decrease their risk of becoming obese and health issues associated with obesity.
260 members of the Taos Community showed up and participated in interactive activities set up to demonstrate for kids how much fun healthy food and games can be. These activities included hula hooping, Dance Dance Revolution, food art and letter writing to congress. Each attendee received a “Passport to health” which got stamped at each station they visited. Once six stamps were earned the participant was able to collect a goody bag of healthy snacks. It was great to see children making healthy choices and enjoying doing it.
We would like to thank all of our supporters in making this event a success:
Rocky Mountain Youth Corpsmember Council
Field Institute of Taos
Holy Cross Hospital
University of New Mexico-Taos Library
Taos County Economic Development Corporation
Safe Routes to School
Building Bridges to the Outdoors
Protecting You, Protecting Me
Taos Physical Therapy
Twirl
...and of course the Taos Youth & Family Center

AmeriCorps Kickoff in Las Cruces!

The Community Leadership Crew made the six-hour car trip to the Court Youth Center in Las Cruces for the New Mexico Americorps kickoff. Some of us had never been south of Albuquerque and marveled at the unique desert landscape and all of us certainly enjoyed the warmer temperatures.

Upon arrival we dove into an array of workshops like First Aid and CPR, True Colors- personality assessments, energy harnessing, drumming, Positive Youth Development, working with youth, and conflict resolution. That night students from the charter high school, Court Youth Center, served a delicious meal prepared by the culinary art students, while the flamenco dance team swirled around on stage.

The next morning we participated in a World Café and had the opportunity to talk with fellow AmeriCorps members about their reasons for joining their projects and future plans. We also learned what other AmeriCorps programs in the state are doing this year. After lunch our crew created a six-word vision statement “Developing Communities, Improving Landscapes, Reaching Youth” and an accompanying presentation to share with the kickoff participants. We all went on stage to present our statement and artistic interpretation.

On Make A Difference Day we helped paint a house across the street from the Court Youth Center, participated in recycled art, including making a mosaic garden table for the garden at the school and making earrings and magnets out of bottle caps. We enjoyed the chance to let our creativity flow and socialize with other AmeriCorps members around the state.

Crews 1 & 10 SPIKE!

Hi everyone his is Coy from Crew #1 at Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. This past 8 days, crews 1 and 10 went work on the continental divide in Southern New Mexico. We packed up our vehicles on Monday, September 28^th and we started our long drive down to Socorro, New Mexico. The drive was a long one. Everyone was cramped in the Suburbans with our equipment and bags. It’s about a 6 hour drive to Socorro. Every one caught up on sleep on the way down. When we finally got to Socorro we met up with our BLM sponsor. Then we had another 2 hour drive to the plains of San Augustine. When we reached our final destination, we were at our rocky camp site.

The first day was all travel but the second day we went to work on the trail. We were putting in trail head posts and building cairns. We did a lot of hiking throughout the plains. The first day we hiked about 3 ½ miles. After the first day lots of Corps member’s feet were sore. As we worked we ran into lots of wild life. We found horny toads ranging from babies to adults. They just ran away from us, but us being us we chased it and caught it. We let it go after looking at it and taking pics of him or her. I was lucky enough to get a pic of a Blue Tailed Skink. We ran into some Tarantulas and Brown Recluses. Not too many snakes out there at this time. We kept running into dirt mounds of dirt that looked like prairie dog holes but ended up finding out that they are pack rat holes. The biggest animal we saw the whole time was antelope. Crew # 10 ran into a coyote. Another person and I wanted to run into a rattle snake because we wanted a pic of one.

We worked hard day in and day out. When we were done with our work day, camp needed attention from wood being split, to cooking dinner, and many other chores. Almost everyone went to sleep early. There were only a couple of us that stayed awake till midnight. The first night was not that cold, it was a really nice night actually. The next night got really cold, then after that the rest of the time it was cold. In the day the weather was really bad. We worked in strong winds and cold conditions some days. Due to all the weather and conditions we were sun and wind burned. Lots of people’s lips got chapped badly. We all made it out fine.

We enjoyed our time out there and are looking forward to returning. Were going on another 8 days out to the same area to work on another section of trail. We enjoyed meeting the ranchers that lived out there. They told us what has been going on out there with the wildlife and with their cattle. They not big on bringing the Lobo back down there to that area not because of their safety but to protect their cattle. A Lobo is a small wolf that is native to New Mexico. They told us stories and shared what they know. We all had some laughs with them. Then we called it a night. Well until next time and enjoy the photos.

Coy Gokey