#cfcis

[projectpower]

Our members are headed off to Greensboro today to take the AmeriCorps pledge on the 20th anniversary. There's a live celebration on the White House South Lawn. Click here to stream it.  

[projectpower]

We'd like to wish a Happy First Service Day to the Team. Here's a song to ensure that is starts off well. 

[projectpower]

All of the above are from the culmination of week one of orientation. The Team was tasked with a scavenger hunt of West Asheville. They were originally split up into five teams with glorious team names but somewhere along the way they morphed back into one, giant team. 

Thanks to all of the gracious West AVL businesses that let us interrupt their regularly scheduled business day. Those businesses included: Short Street Cakes (thanks Dougie), Battlecat, The Walk, Harvest Records, Hot Stuff Tattoo, Second Gear, Blue Ribbon, The Hop West, West End Bakery, Biscuithead, Westville Market, Public Library and Waking Life. Some of these businesses weren't open at the time but we appreciated the ability to leave clues in your space. 

Keep calm and Slackjaw on. 

[projectpower]

First Impressions: Lauren

Where are you from?: Burlington, NC

Where did you attend college?: UNC Asheville

What was your major?: Anthropology

What is your motivation to serve?: I am motivated to serve so I can actively work to combat inequalities and encourage children to realize their capabilities

What is the motto live by?:  I would have to say my motto is "you never know the entire story."  It serves as a reminder that no matter how involved you are in something, it is impossible to fully understand another person's situation.  Therefore, you should always try to be understanding

[projectpower]

First Impressions: Nicole

Where are you from?: Statesville, NC

Where did you attend college?: UNC Asheville

What was your major?: Sociology/African Studies

What is your motivation to serve?: I am interested in serving for AmeriCorps because I want to thrive more in the community while working with youth and learning as much as I can during the experience

What is the motto you live by?: My life motto is to be the type of friend you would want to have

[projectpower]

First Impressions: Ashley

Where are yo from?: Greenwood, SC

Where did you attend college?: University of South Carolina

What was your major?: Political Science

What is your motivation to serve?: I have always been drawn to serving others, because I think it brings people together and makes me feel like I'm contributing more to the world as a whole. Serving others, no matter in what capacity, makes me step back and realize that we're all just human, and we all have specific needs. If there is a need out there that needs to be filled, I figure, why not me?

What is the motto you live by?: "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have." - Teddy Roosevelt

[projectpower]

First Impressions: Kimberly

Where are you from?: Richmond, VA

Where did you attend college?: University of Virginia

What was your major?: Environmental & Biological Conservation

What is your motivation to serve?: To see a child try a tomato, hold a worm or let a daddy long legs crawl on their arm for the first time is magic. To be witness to this and to be able to provide these experiences for our youth, is an honor.

What is the motto you live by?: " We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it."  - Wendell Berry

"Hope is a different thing from optimism. Optimism and pessimism are based on the idea of how things are gonna turn out. Hope is grounded in the present; it's not about the future. It's about the reality of possibilities , this sense of possibility that you can do better. Friends, others give me hope . Hope lives on hope." - Wendell Berry

[projectpower]

First Impressions: Madeline

Where are you from?: Lexington, VA (in the Shenandoah Valley)

Where did you attend college?: Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana

What was your major?: Environmental Studies

What is your motivation to serve?: I recognize (& remember!) how hard it is to be a kid and grow up wile navigating the challenges of the world...it's exciting to have the opportunity to play a positive role in the process.

What is the motto you live by?: "[it] takes all kinds of people to make up a world"  - Kurt Vonnegut