Friday, July 30, 2004

my first build as a second

My supervisor at KaBOOM! wrote this about my first playground build (San Jose)!:

San Jose, CA;
The Home Depot and Seven Trees Homeowners Association

And, last but not least, Tabitha led a build in San Jose, California. Hope was out there as a Second for the first time and did a ‘fabulous’ job. The build did come with its challenges as the volunteers (~60) from one local The Home Depot store did not come out for the day as they were mourning the recent death earlier in the week of one of their Associates. In spite of this sad news, the volunteers who did come out (100-125) definitely helped to make the day a success. In addition to building the playground, they painted the basketball court, built planter benches, and did a lot of landscaping including creating a butterfly garden. Sherry Caraway came out from The Home Depot. As with the other builds yesterday, there was a lot of media – Evening Magazine was out for the whole day and NBC and ABC also both were there. The kids learned how to plant flowers and then each one brought home a marigold to plant at home. Congrats to Tabitha and Hope for a job well done.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

mural in the mission


Juana Alicia

There is this beautiful mural of La Llorona--painted by local artist Juana Alicia--on the wall outside of my brother Tony's apartment (over a mexican dinner/low-end burrito place at 24th x York) in the Lower Mission District of San Francisco. Check out http://www.juanaalicia.com/ for more info about it and the artist.

work begins

this is an email that i wrote to friends and family last thursday and that i thought should be shared with the world:

Subject : KaBOOM!

hello all!
apologies for the mass email, but i don't (and probably will never) have time to write you all individually about everything that's happening with me... so here it is.

the transition in SF, welllll... i only had 4 days there before coming back east (to DC) for training and a playgroud build. in my short time there, i visited some towns on the peninsula, met up with a couple friends of friends, and found a place to live (near where my brother lives)! it gave me a brief feel for the whirlwind that i'm just now entering with the new job... craziness.

the transition into my new job has been great, but my brain is beginning to overload a wee bit. the good news is I LOVE IT! and everything about it kicks butt! (except for the massive amount of anticipated conference calls and such). this week as been crazy: M-W & F have been training (i.e. learning all about the matrix of KaBOOM!) and today was a giant playground build b/w a public housing neighborhood and an elementary school in DC (300 volunteers from KaBOOM!, AmeriCorps NCCC, DC Housing Authority, Home Depot, and National Capitial Police Dept.)... so, yeah, i'm pooped (and sun-burnt). the trainings have been awesome, fun, interesting, engaging, and not really all that boring... not to mention, their office space here is so much fun!! it's huge (about 1,000 sq. ft. or something). it's painted all purple, orange, yellow, and white. the ceilings are high, unfinished and painted white. they've used some industrial venting (?) to divide some office spaces, while other spaces are roomed off. the main conference room is duely named the "garage" for its garage door partition. the kitchen is in the center and has B&W speckled cabinets, a nice metallic refrig. and dishwasher, and a big orange, oval counter top table in the middle. it's so much fun to come to! AND everyone is so awesome! unfortunately, i won't be in this office on a regular basis. in fact, i will only get to come here about 2 times a year. :( sad for me... maybe i should have picked DC to come to. oh well... SF will be AWESOME too! because I'LL be there! anyway, i'm MUST go shower and rest before we go out to eat. i'll write more when i can.

love, hope

http://www.kaboom.org

p.s. no cell, yet, but i'll send you contact info soon!

Monday, July 05, 2004