Et cetera : Class 18 NCCC Team Leaders Serve on their First Project

By: Stephanie Ferguson, Dania Munnigh and John Miller

It has been nearly a month since the AmeriCorps NCCC Team Leaders settled in at the NCCC campus on the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School grounds. On Monday morning, they ventured out on their first service project in Coggon, Iowa. The group of 27 young adults is working at the YMCA's Camp Wapsie, a facility that hosts a variety of programs year round. Its focus is to provide children and families with a unique camping experience. Last year’s NCCC Class 17 members completed a service project at Camp Wapsie repairing damage from the 2008 flood. The camp's amphitheater and construction near the lake had suffered a large amount of erosion, and the team did a lot of rebuilding.

Class 18 Team Leaders have been divided into three units: Cedar, Oak, and Maple. Some of the projects that they are completing include sanding and staining Camp Wapsie's benches and tables, and performing maintenance on the cabins and kitchens. This means three months’ worth of work is being completed in just three days. Through their service to the camp, as well as the community, the Team Leaders are learning more about the educational programs Camp Wapsie offers to the public, how to properly and safely use tools specific to their tasks, and how to work together through team-based community service.