Et cetera : NCCC Oak 7 serving as camp counselors in Michigan

Oak 7 members are serving as camp counselors this spring.

Oak 7, a NCCC team, based out Vinton, Iowa, is at Lake Sherman YMCA Camp in Augusta, Michigan from March 11 to April 26. They are counselors for campers of the Kalamazoo area, with students ranging from 4th to 6th grade.

The NCCC team is working with underprivileged students of the community to help them build self-esteem and better their interaction skills, while allowing them to get out of the city and into the wilderness. Acting as cabin parents, Oak 7 is responsible for taking the campers to various activities as well as having meals and sleeping in the cabin housing with them. As cabin parents, Oak 7 are also doing reflection activities such as Roses and Thorns, where the students say the best and worse parts of their days. Another activity is making a community commitment, which is a written agreement between the cabin mates of expectations, goals and rules they will follow while at Sherman Lake. By the end of the campers two and a half days at the Lake Sherman camp, the NCCC team wants to be positive role models, which many of these campers may lack.

Oak 7 consists of 10 members from all over the country, bringing different backgrounds together to serve America. Led by Team Leader Calvin Landrum from Waco, TX, the team hopes to continue building stronger relationships with each other through their NCCC projects.

A goal of Oak 7 is to gain a quarter of their independent service project (ISP) hours during this project. Every Corps Member needs a total of 80 ISP hours to graduate NCCC. To achieve this goal, the team is researching various potential organizations such as animal shelters and nature preserves to contribute more to the community other than their responsibilities at the Y camp. The NCCC team also has plans of an Earth Day celebration for the Lake Sherman community to participate in. It would involve tree planting in a specific area along with lessons on environmental stewardship. Though it is so early on in this project, Oak 7 has set high expectations of themselves, and hope to go above and beyond to serve NCCC and the Augusta community.

PHOTO CAPTION: From the back left: Dan Morrison, Nick Hawthorne, Calvin Landrum, Jimmy Coker, Logan Smith

Front Left: Kate Bolinger, Victoria Gates, Melody Jones, Kenny Tunner, Molly Byer