“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
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| Volunteers pulling invasive species and Himalayan blackberries. Photo by Wendy Feltham |
The past month or so, the other AmeriCorps and I have been planning the 6th annual weed pull for Martin Luther King Day. Last Monday we finally got to see all our hard work come together and it turned out great!
MLK Day is a day of giving back and serving your community. In partnership with AmeriCorps and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, we were able to bring 48 people from the community together and fill three very large trucks with invasive dune grass and Himalayan blackberries from the beaches here at Fort Worden.
MLK Day is a day of giving back and serving your community. In partnership with AmeriCorps and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, we were able to bring 48 people from the community together and fill three very large trucks with invasive dune grass and Himalayan blackberries from the beaches here at Fort Worden.
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| Sea Scout using all his strength against blackberry bush. Photo by Wendy Feltham |
I woke up Monday morning to a beautiful sunrise and no rain in sight, lucky for us... Around 9 a.m., all the AmeriCorps began our set up and run-through for the day.
Around 11:30 a.m., volunteers began to show up and mingled with one another until Lily, the AmeriCorps citizen science educator, gave a short presentation on the invasive species. Then out we went to work!
The group split in half and began to tackle the plants. As the day went on, more and more sand was being revealed and the piles of invasive plants were growing taller on the beach. So much was pulled that we weren't able to fit it all in the trucks.
The group split in half and began to tackle the plants. As the day went on, more and more sand was being revealed and the piles of invasive plants were growing taller on the beach. So much was pulled that we weren't able to fit it all in the trucks.
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| Stacking blackberry branches on the beach. Photo by Wendy Feltham |
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| Volunteers helping State Park Ranger Todd fill the trucks with blackberries. Photo by Wendy Feltham |
As an AmeriCorps member, we serve our community in many different ways but having the chance to serve on MLK Day with so many different people and organizations with the same common goal was an amazing experience!
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| AmeriCorps members Emilee (left) and Lily (right) haul dune grass of the beach. Photo by Wendy Feltham |
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| PTMSC volunteer Linda Dacon helping pull dune grass. Photo by Wendy Feltham |
Written by Emilee Carpenter, AmeriCorps Natural History and Volunteer Educator
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