One of the long-term projects we did in IASB is in Greater Worcester Land Trust (GWLT), an organization which works in preserving open, green spaces in the Greater Worcester area. The headquarter lies in Cascade Park, not too far away from Clark, and it is a great place to go hiking. The work is mainly manual and outdoors; whereas the organization itself is incredibly people-friendly. Over the course of 3 days, we had plenty of sunshine as we worked outside on the open land by the woods. Sarah shares her story in GWLT:
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| The Tree Farm |
From 7-9 March, a few fellow Clarkies went to the GWLT in Worcester, MA with the goal of trail clearing, wood working, and much,
much more. Colin, the head of the GWLT, was extremely patient with all of us and really made us feel right at home working with tools
that we had never seen before in our lives.
On
day 1, we began by creating trail/hike signs from scratch. This included stenciling
letters onto the front and back of large pieces of wood, cutting out those
letters with a router, and finally painting the letters so that they would be
visible to the public. Although the majority of us had never done any of those
tasks before, we were up for the challenge and were eager to get straight to
work. Colin was able to place us in areas where we worked best and after that
we were ready to go! In the beginning, it was tough getting started, but as the
hours passed we began to get comfortable with our jobs as well with one
another. We started to look like a team and in the end we created some
beautiful looking signs.
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| Colin and Jordan moves the log as Mary watches. Colin and Mary kindly taught us how to do woodwork. |
Day 2
was absolutely gorgeous! It was 60 degrees and sunny; the perfect weather for
some outdoor work! After getting to the GWLT around 10, we went straight into sawing and chiseling away large blocks
of wood in hopes that in the end they would look like sign posts. This was an
all-day event that was not as fast paced as we had hoped. However, every
Clarkie there worked their hardest and we ended up finishing a few projects by
2 o’clock. After that, it was time to clear out the debris that had fallen onto
the trails over the past few months. Each Clark student did a fantastic job of
picking up trees, large sticks, and working with one another in order to get
yet another job done. Needless to say, at the end of the day we were worn out!
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| Gaia chiseling away |
Day 3
was much colder than day 2, but we dealt with it and got right back in the
swing of things. For the first few hours we worked on clearing larger trees and
brush from the other side of the hike, while a few other Clarkies finished up
some wood work and chiseling. The day went by much faster than before,
particularly because we were getting the hang of working with our hands as well
as having a great time in the process. The wood-chipper came out and chipped
away all the debris we cleared in order to make some mulch to spread over the
parking lot. During the second half of the day, we painted more signs, carved
more wood, and all worked together on spreading the mulch across the front
parking lot. It was an ending to remember, one of great accomplishment and hard
work which would not have been made possible without the help of a few great
students. Although the GWLT project was only a few days, I have no doubt that
Clark students will want to go back and help throughout the year.
-Sarah-
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| Gaia, Sarah, and Jordan posing proudly on the wood they worked on |
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