On Monday my team went to tour Camp Korey's main camp and their camp garden. Camp Korey is a summer camp for kids ages 7-18 that have chronic illnesses/disabilities. Their grounds are beautiful! They have different buildings for different activities that they have during camp such as a Art, music, indoor recreational building and so much more! Camp Korey even has a high ropes course that is accessible for everyone. One of the 4 high ropes courses in the country! They are driven to let every camper have the same experiences as every other child has. After the tour we went across the street to their farm in which they grow all kinds of different vegetables, many of which I have never heard of. They have this garden so they are able to show their campers how plants grow. They also use many of their produce that they grow, in the meals that they cook for their campers.
Tuesday we first went to "Mountains to Sound Greenway" (MTSG) base in Carnation, learning a bit about the invasive/native/ invasive-native plants that we will come across during our time here. We also met a few of the staff that will be doing a lot of the field work with us. After that we traveled to Seattle to the MTSG base in the city. I'm not one for offices, but theirs was fairly nice. I loved the big windows that let in natural light and how open it all was. We met a few more of the staff, followed by two more meetings. The first was about who and what MTSG does and who they work with. We had lunch outside in Old downtown Seattle square. Then headed back for the second training on how to be in charge for volunteer events. Once all the meetings were done we walked around Seattle for a little. We went to the Klondike gold museum for a while then headed over to Century Link Stadium where the Seattle Seahawks play. Of course I had to FaceTime my dad to show him where I was and I'm pretty sure I made him a little jealous.
Wednesday we did a full day of blackberry removal. A ridiculous invasive plant that was brought here for the sweet berry's but now is just a nuisance. The removal process was next to a golf course, one in which I thought was amazing because right next to the golf course was a gorgeous view of Mt.Si. Which is a well known mountain around here. I found out that a lot of people decide to only go hiking once a year and Mt.Si is the one they always hike.
Thursday we had a to help be in charge at a volunteer event. The majority of volunteers were from a upcoming company called Docusign. After talking to one employee I found out that it is a website in which you are able to securely sign and manage documents online from any device with the most widely used e-signature solution. It was difficult at first to interact with this company because 1.When I am in charge of different events its usually within the church and I'm in charge of teens that are either my age or younger; so its a lot easier to talk and give directions to them. 2. I had to teach 20+ year olds how to plant a tree. As the day went on I got a lot more comfortable with the experience. By the end of the day the volunteers planted about 1,200 trees and shrubs.
Friday we had another volunteer day but this was with a 4th grade class on a fieldtrip. This was defiantly more my speed haha. We had to teach them how to pull up different weeds (such as the infamous blackberries). Then after lunch we taught them how to plant trees! The 2 girls that I had picked a Douglas fir (which is slowly coming into my top 5 favorite trees). They did an amazing job and ended up naming our tree "Buddy". Along with the three worms they found that they named "Buddy 2", "Buddy 3" and "Buddy 4". I thought all the kids were little troopers with the constant rain that we had.
Saturday is always a volunteer day. So that meant we were helping at another volunteer event. It was yet another full day of planting trees in a forest. And another full day of rain. In all honesty I don't mind the rain or the mud. I just get annoyed when people keep complaining about being wet and cold. After the event was over we were in charge of bringing all the tools and tents back to their base in Carnation and washing them off. When we were done we got a green t-shirt with the logo "Life outside" and mountains in the background; that all the volunteers got. I'm sure you'll see me in some of my pictures because I love it!! We then headed back home ready for some soup and our beds.
~Savannah
outside Century Link Stadium
Mt. Si
Mt. Si with the golf course
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