The wait is over X2!

I can officially say that the wait is over for two things that I have put a lot of time and energy in lately- Grounds for Change Coffee Fundraiser at Dickinson and Benjamin Britten Ceremony of Carols concert at St. Stephens!
The past month or so I have been working on them so much and putting a lot of effort in them! I am happy to say that they are both complete and I have some breathing room now!
The coffee came on Thursday afternoon at work at 2pm and I sorted 228 bags of coffee straight through until 4:30. I was putting the coffee in bags according to who sold the coffee and labeling each bag and putting a sticker on the bag stating that this was a fundraiser. We had one slight slip up when I miscounted the amount of ground decaf coffee I needed, but we still had some from the order we had gotten earlier, so crisis adverted! One thing that was very interesting though was the count of coffee was not correct. Grounds for Change sent us 15 extra bags of coffee, Agate Pass and Peru, and they said to just sell it as we normally would, that will be a 100% profit for service trips, which is great! I am very pleased about this coffee fundraiser, there is talk that we will do it again in the spring, but this time selling tea as an option as well. I have learned so much from doing this. I have a fairly strong fundraising background and have been doing it since I was 15 with Caps for Kids. Thinking back to when I was in high school, how did I do Caps for Kids? It seems like so long ago and a complete blur, but I did it and raised a lot of money for children with cancer. But how did I do that? I remember vividly watching the Minnesota Twins game on TV and Mike Redmond came on talking about Red's Rally Caps for Kids and how you pay  one dollar to wear a cap to school and all proceeds go to getting a child an autographed hat or scarf by their favorite celebrity. I looked over to my mom and told her I was going to do it- and I did! I'm not completely sure how I went through the motions to do it though. I remember contacting the superintendent and going through all the different promotions like television, radio, and newspapers and asking for donation requests from local businesses. Grounds for Change seemed new to me, but its definitely not. I think a lot of my eeriness on it was that it had been awhile since I did a fundraiser and I am not just a high school girl anymore, I am trying to build my professional career and if this failed, it would fall back on me. That was more incentive for me to do well and be as completely organized as I absolutely could be. I have learned a lot about working with students through fundraising because this is dealing with selling and receiving money daily, whereas Caps for Kids was a one day event. I definitely see programming and fundraising in my future, I love being able to plan for something and then get the satisfaction of seeing it turn out in the end. That is the main reason why I loved Mavericks After Dark at Minnesota State so much. Mavericks After Dark is a once a month, late night activity, that happens in our student union to reduce risky behavior but set up, the event, and take down all happens within 7 hours of each other and to me that is very fulfilling. MAD is arguably the most stressful IMPACT program but I enjoyed it a lot and learned so much in the year I did it.

St. Stephens Cathedral choir had a performance on Saturday afternoon and I am pretty pleased about how it went! We performed many different songs including Peace Advent, O Come Emmanuel, and then the infamous Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten. Ceremony of Carols is a medley that is 9 songs long and lasts roughly 19 minutes to perform and let me tell you... Its not easy! Our choir is
good, we have a lot of strong voices but we only practice once a week on Thursdays so it was stressful to learn. For the past couple weeks we did choir rehearsals twice a week but that is still not much! During the performance, we had a harpist, slideshow, Christmas trees, candlelight, and soloist. I have mentioned time and time again that I love the ladies in choir, they are what make me keep wanting to go back. I love spending time with Tina, silly Sue, and Judy. They make me feel like I am definitely wanted, I may not have the best voice in the world but it is not horrible and they give me praise on the times I succeed and then help me when I am struggling- I am lucky to have them! Today at service is the last time I will sing with them until the New Year, that seems like a long time from now but the time I am gone, I will be at home!
I GO HOME TO IOWA THIS WEEK! I have been saying that all day, with that much enthusiasm and my bags are packed, minus my daily use items! I have taking the train from Harrisburg to Philly at 9:15pm on Wednesday and then hanging out in the airport until 4am when I can go back through security and check my bags in. My plane leaves at 6:20am Thursday. During that time in Philly, I will most likely sit on my bags and watch movies on my laptop, I doubt I will sleep much, if at all, but it doesn't really matter because I will be going home to see my friends and family! I have been waiting for this moment for 4 months and have been counting down the days since 130 days to go.
Also, one of the people that help the Sycamore House so much that we care about dearly is having some major health issues and scares. Reggie was diagnosed this week with Acute Leukemia and is rather scared right now. Reggie works for the school and has a cleaning business that cleans it every night, he also works for the city of Harrisburg with security, he does the sound at every service and helps maintain crowd control at Tuesday Community Dinners. Reggie is always very enthusiastic and caring. He would also do anything for us, so please keep him in your thoughts!
I am not entirely sure if I will be writing a blog while I am home- I may do one when I get back to Harrisburg, so stayed tuned to what I decide to do. Just in case, here is a Christmas card that Ally made! The Sycamore House and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Much love,
Katie

Fundraising Galore!

Whew- What a week! This week has been busy but it doesn't feel like it went by very quickly. It seems like so long ago it was Thanksgiving and the house was empty, but that was only a week ago. I am back into my routine and back to work, which is a good thing!

Grounds for Change coffee

This week at work, I submitted the final order for coffee though the organization Grounds for Change. First of all, I am incredibly impressed by this company! For fundraising, you email a form of what coffee you want, the number of ground or whole, and then call to confirm payment via phone. They are so friendly on the phone and say at least three times "Thank you so much for your support, you have no idea how much we appreciate it." Now, I don't know if they are incredibly busy all the time because it is based in Washington, but they always call me by name and seem so sincere! The coffee is roasted 24 hours before shipment and it has been roasted and shipped within 48 hours of my phone call. The most impressive thing was my last order. I am very excited to announce that the students of Dickinson pre-sold 228 bags of coffee! Which was roasted and shipped in two days and will be in Carlisle, PA by Thursday this week- A week before I was expecting it! Grounds for Change has gone above and beyond my expectations- this is the first time we have gone through them and I foresee going through them a lot in the future! I found them via Google when I looked for fair trade coffee. If you need organic, fair trade, shade grown, CO2 free, freshly roasted coffee, I would suggest going through them! Dickinson has sold almost 330 bags of coffee through this company, which for this fundraiser is almost a $2,000.00 profit, I am honored to have been the person to go between the students and the company!
I spent my entire Monday creating a spreadsheet that is color coordinated to the coffee and the student who sold the coffee, I will be making tags throughout the week for the coffee when it arrives and then it will be distributed to those who purchased it! Also, at work I have been working on a community service fair that will be happening sometime in February. This is a fair where members of the Carlisle community can come to Dickinson College and tell the students what they do and offer volunteer opportunities. I am in the very beginning stages of this, but it already seems to be going well, but I need to contact all of the community partners.
The St. Stephen's choir has been working hard on Benjamin Britten's: Ceremony of Carols, which we will be performing next Saturday at 4pm at St. Stephens. I had never sang it before, but this medley is not simple. It is a series of 10 songs, including a procession and a few solos. I am a little nervous that the concert is so close and we have never sang the whole thing through before. The church is going to look beautiful; they have six Christmas trees that will be decorated, a PowerPoint with the words translated into English (the song is old English with some Latin), a harpist, organ, piano, violin, and we will be proceeding into the church. The church will look gorgeous, I just hope our sound can compare to the look. We have one more rehearsal on Thursday, which is good because we need it. I have been having some trouble singing the high notes in practice because we go over it multiple times, but I am a soprano 2 and some of those high notes take all my energy and it leaves me sounding very hoarse at the end of the practice. I am very lucky that I am friends with some of the ladies and gents in the choir, I do not think it would be as enjoyable without them. They are keeping me sane and make singing fun.


Sycamore House at Liberian Meal Fundraiser

On Saturday, the Sycamore House hosted a fundraiser for Ebola Relief Efforts. One of my house members was born and raised in Liberia and her family made a traditional Liberian meal as a fundraiser. I have never had Liberian food, but it was delicious! There was fried rice, baked chicken, plantain, potato salad, and steam veggies. You got the meal with a free will donation and the fundraiser raised just shy of $900.00 which will all go to West Africa. The church has been very supportive of this event because they donated money to buy the food to prepare for the fundraiser as well as give us the space for the meal. Everyone that came to this event was from the church and donated money to the efforts as well. One thing I can say for sure is that the members of St. Stephens have been very welcoming to me and have been supportive of me. Many of the members know my name and can identify parts of my life, like where I am from and where I am doing my internship. I am lucky I have made some connections with the members!
As I get closer to going home to Iowa for Christmas, I actually feel a ting of sadness that I will not be around St. Stephens for Christmas. I am enjoying singing Advent songs and being around the choir but I am definitely excited to spend time with my family because it was been almost 4 months since I have seen them- which is the longest time that I have ever been away from them. I have already told my mother that when I get off the plane, I will cry when I see her. I have been in Pennsylvania for awhile now and I am starting to see the beauty of it more. When riding into work, I see the mountains from the distance and I am growing a much larger appreciation for them. In Iowa, it is very flat and you can see farm land for miles, but it Pennsylvania, the farm land stops because of the mountains. At first, I didn't like that but now I am seeing the fog off the mountains and the different way the mountain peaks are different from the rest, they almost roll from one to another. I am not completely prepared to go back to the Midwest cold. According to my friends and family, it was been in the single digits and below zero. Today, in Harrisburg, I was wearing a sweater and completely comfortable. I will have to break out the parka when I get home! Staring tomorrow, I am in the single digits until I return home. I am getting rather exciting!
My mom sent me a package this week that totally made my week. In it contained Eloise at Christmastime. Which happens to be one of my favorite holiday movies in the world. I didn't own it and my mom had been bragging to me that she has watched it on TV at home. To my surprise I opened the package to find Eloise and some chocolate! I am such a lucky daughter!
This coming week will be busy preparing for the concert on Saturday and the planning of the community fair, but nothing will be too out of the ordinary!
Till next week,
Katie

Giving Thanks, a little shopping, and a whole lot of waiting!

First of all, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This was the first year I was not with my own family for Thanksgiving, which was very strange to me. My Thanksgivings always consisted of making pies with my mom and taking them to my aunts house and then helping set the table and thinking of fun ways to make the napkins look nice. Since I was not with my family, I didn't do those traditional things. But, I did join a wonderful family and had just as much fun with them. Ally and I went to Tina's house on Wednesday afternoon and when we go there, there was all sorts of materials to make gingerbread houses. Gumdrops, spice drops, peppermint candy canes, peppermint circles, pretzels in all shapes and sizes, frosting galore, sprinkles in different colors, powered sugar for snow, graham crackers, pasta noodles, and everything else in between! Ally and I with Tina's kids, Parker, Graham, and Layla, made gingerbread houses throughout the two days we stayed at their house. Some of the gingerbread houses got pretty extravagant! There were oil rigs, cars made out of Nerds, tricycles, ice skating rinks, chimneys, palm trees, boats, and even people! My gingerbread house wasn't as fancy as the kids, they had a year of practice on me. Last year they made a complete city! I went with a peppermint theme and made a slide going off the noodle roof to a pool with a watch walrus and a water spider watching outside the pool. I unfortunately posted pictures on Snapchat but did not save them on my IPod, but be reassured, that it was pretty great! I'm glad I could have the kids' help with it! Tina also has many animals, they have a dog named Joe who was my best friend over the weekend, 2 cockatiels named Pandora and Zeus, cat named Chewy, a lizard and 2 fish. Tina was brave to host Ally and I, she was wonderful about everything. Also on Wednesday, we started prepping some of the food for Thursday. I helped Meemaw Fran with cutting bread for homemade stuffing but I spent most of my time with the kids watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. On Thursday, Ally and I woke up to all the kids eating breakfast in the kitchen and Tina prepared both of us breakfast as well, we had pumpkin pancakes and eggs. We made some changes and touches on a gingerbread houses since the foundation (crackers and icing) was hardened and could do some decorating. We prepared most of the food and then ate a Thanksgiving dinner/lunch in the afternoon. We had turkey, ham, roasted vegetables, green bean casserole, potatoes, gravy, bread stuffing from the turkey, non-turkey stuffing, brie and crackers, pumpkin pie, snicker doodles, Oreo desserts, and then snacks in between. It was so nice to be with the family, it was a very relaxed Thanksgiving, they are not fancy about it, nor is my family. Parker had it on his holiday bucket list to go Black Friday shopping for 8 people and to get himself a pair of shoes. We went to Target on Thursday night at 6pm and that was the busiest store we went to all weekend. It was very organized chaos. We got a lot of shopping done, I bought a cardigan that was on sale and then a little girl that is close to me a doll. We were done shopping and back at Tina's by 7:30pm. One of the things I planned with the kids was to do Black Friday Bingo. I spent time and made a bingo sheet with different things you could see on Black Friday since the kids have never done it before. We played it on Friday and Graham got a bingo! Some of the things on the card were: crazy hair, crying children, long lines, security shows up, credit card machine down, someone wearing slippers, someone wearing pajamas, miserable boyfriend/husband and more. We all went to the Harrisburg mall, which I was expecting to be completely packed and crazy, but it was the complete opposite, there were less people there on Black Friday than any other day at the mall. We did not go super early in the morning, we left the house at 8am. Some of the stores we went to at the mall were Bass Pro Shop, Bath and Body Works, Macy's, Claire's, Sears, and Best Buy. Parker got his shoes and a few people off his list! Graham was very skeptical on going shopping with us because Ally and I are two girls he doesn't know very well and going shopping, When he found out I made a bingo card, he was much more excited to do it! And he won at bingo, lucky duck.


Small Christmas tree and stockings

After shopping, we went back to Tina's had left overs from Thanksgiving and then played a couple games with Layla and watched Family Feud. When I returned back home at the Sycamore House on Friday, I dug a Christmas tree out from the basement and found some decorations in the 3rd floor crawlspace. The angel on the tree is very old and very creepy. The lights blink and she has dark eyes with lights next to her face, so whenever she lights up you see dark eyes with the pupil. Pretty creepy, but its an angel. I found stockings in the crawlspace and put those on the mantel. I love decorating for Christmas and my mom does too. She told me she has put up quite a few decorations at home as well.


Broken Window

On Saturday, Ally and I went to go to one of our housemates car, which she left for us to go grocery shopping, to come to find it with its rear window completely smashed in. That was my first experience with not knowing what to do and a little bit a fear because we weren't sure what happened, we were parked on church property. We called the police and they said that they would send someone over, 3 hours later, Ally got a phone call saying that they weren't going to come, but they would file an incident report so Shannon could claim something with her insurance company. We did some investigation of the car, and found out someone threw a garbage bag and it crushed through the window. Someone dug through the garbage bag and learned that there was piece of mail in it with a name and someone from the church is going to be calling the landlord of the apartment where it was thrown from (we believe). 
I got a lot done with my graduate school application, I have applied to the graduate school and almost have my personal statement and my application to the program completed. I hope to turn that in in the next couple of days. This coming week at work will be very busy- tomorrow coffee orders are due and I will be entering data into a spreadsheet I created like a mad woman to put the order in later in the afternoon. I am very pleased and excited about this coffee fundraiser, I am hoping we will earn over $1,000.
I am also getting pretty antsy to go home. Tomorrow is officially December, which means I will be home in 17 days. I started a countdown when it was 130 days away, it is starting to become real that I am going home and spending Christmas with my family. I have been working on a few paintings and projects for Christmas presents, I am very excited to give them to people and spend time with my Iowa and Minnesota friends and family!

Almost the end of November

It doesn't seem like November should almost be over, it has pretty much came and went without a hitch. This week is Thanksgiving which is an


Last Thanksgiving with my
favorite little girl, Brooklynn

exciting and somber time all in one. I will be missing that time with my family, but I am excited because I am going to be joining another family! On Friday, it marks the one year anniversary to my moms heart attack and that is a happy thing but brings back some not-so-good memories. Thanksgiving last year was not a good day, I could argue that it is one of the worst ones I have ever experienced because my mom had her heart attack and I was in hives. It doesn't seem completely possible that it has been one year, this year has been incredibly busy and scary but I am so proud of how far my mom has come along and how well she is doing! Ally and I will be joining her church member mentor and my choir buddy and her family. Tina has 3 children and we are lucky to be able to join them! We are excited to join their family because they are such an adorable family and have so much fun; the kids play soccer, they have animals, and Tina likes to crack jokes. Plus, they are even making the turkey without rosemary and thyme for me due to my allergies, doesn't get much better than that! I will be taking an Oreo dessert to their house for the meal and Ally will be making scotcharoos. We are even planning to go Black Friday shopping and spending the night at their house. One of Tina's children has a bucket list of things he wants to do during holidays and one of the things on his list is going Black Friday shopping, he is shopping for something very practical-shoes. If you know me, I have had quite a few eventful moments Black Friday shopping! Memory Lane: I was about 5 years old or so when my mom and I went to Shopko in my hometown, Mason City, and there was a giveaway at the doors and it was this cutest little bear and I was determined to get one. When got into Shopko and went to the door where there weren't any bears left, but there were some at the other door on the other end of the store, so I proceeded to get on my hands and knees and crawl in between people's legs and made my way to the bears. I was able to get 2 bears and I was a happy camper, even though I violated many bubbles and probably scared a few people. This year, I promise I will not make a scene this year- I wouldn't be a pretty sight to see a 23 year old woman who is 5'10" crawling between people's legs!
On Saturday, there was a holiday parade right outside of our house on Front St in Harrisburg, the parade wasn't that great... there were quite a few gaps, some lasting up to 5-10 minutes, but it was really neat to be able to see people in the parade and actually know
someone! When I moved here 3 months ago, I didn't even know anyone in the state, now I am able to identify people and see familiar faces, and they know me! I had the opportunity to walk in the parade with St. Stephens but decided against it because I wanted to see it. It was very cold that morning, about 25 degrees, my bum was frozen when it was over, but I enjoyed watching it because I knew people who were walking in it. It was a holiday parade but it was mostly Christmas, but the parade was around Thanksgiving.


First knitting project!

My knitting is coming along well. I started to make that cute, chunky scarf and got through an entire skein of yarn and decided that it was too wide and not good, so I ripped it all out and started over. I think in general it is going really well, its relaxing for me and since it wasn't a big weekend, I got quite a bit done. I am learning it left handed, which is huge in making it easier on me because I am dominantly left handed. It's fun looking at patterns and actually being able to tell if it was knitted or pearled and noticing the different patterns as well.
I am making it my goal that this week while most of the house is away, to get my graduate school application done and submit it. It is not due until February 1st with interviews starting January 15th but it's highly competitive and applicants are encouraged to submit it early. When I talk to different people and they ask how many different schools I am applying to and when I only tell them I am applying to one, they often give me a look and then just say "well, good luck to you". It may be a little crazy to only apply to one school, but there isn't another school I would want to go to. I have housing arrangements made for next year, so regardless if I get into Minnesota State, Mankato Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs, I will be in Mankato. Mankato has definitely became my home away from home, but is close enough to home where I can go home and see my friends and family whenever I need to. Please take a moment and send positive vibes my way while I finish up this pesky application!
It will be a nearly empty house this week after Tuesday since everyone but Ally and I will be heading home, my time to go home is roughly 25 days away, I can't wait for that! Iowa is calling my name!

Love,
Katie

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

This week has been a little bit of this, a little bit of that. There has not been one thing that stands out from the rest, so I guess it is just another week in the books of this adventure. I spent the beginning of my week recovering and reflecting about the Pocono Retreat and about the three other houses that were at the retreat center with us. I have come to the conclusion that that retreat was exactly what I needed at this point in Harrisburg. I enjoyed myself so much, mostly because I was around so many different people who have some common interests as me and it was in an environment where you get to know one another and I am a big fan of ice breakers and games. I felt energized the whole time I was there and I felt like there wasn't enough time in the day to do everything I wanted to do. I am excited for the retreat in Philadelphia in February because I will meet more groups once again, but the New York group will be there again, so I will be seeing some familiar faces again.
This week coffee has gone on sale! For any of you looking to purchase coffee, please do so from this link (http://dickinson.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.asp?id=162) all of the proceeds from this fundraiser go to service trips at Dickinson College, as I've stated before they are going to Belize, South Carolina, New Mexico and Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia. All of the coffee is organic, shade grown, fair trade, and CO2 emission free. It makes for a great Christmas present for coffee lovers, descriptions are on the site and its 10 dollars per bag. End sales pitch :)
Work has been going well overall, I have been doing a lot of fundraisers but I feel like I have made genuine connections with some of the students. I think its great that I see familiar faces and they will approach me or wave at me, almost like my students did at Minnesota State, Mankato. One thing I really miss about being at school is being an Learning Community Coordinator. Being an LCC was an incredible experience for me. I have had some of the greatest students and made many great friends through the process. I am very thankful and lucky to have had such a positive experience. After thinking about it, this adventure in Harrisburg is much like being and LCC. Most people that become LCC's by being in a learning community and seeing what you have to do that way. I was not in a learning community because I was a transfer student, so I came into it not knowing what to expect. I came into Dickinson not knowing what to expect and it is definitely becoming a great experience, just like what happened in Mankato.

One load of boxes filled
with meals

Students packaging meals

On Saturday, there was an event going on at Dickinson called Stop Hunger, Now! This event is where you package food for children who are not getting fed or they have to work to provide their own food. This food goes to children in foreign countries or children who are being affected by disasters. The food we packages is going to West Africa to help with the Ebola families. The ingredients in the food is rice, soy, veggies, and then a packet that has 21 different vitamins and minerals. Each package of food feeds 6 and our goal of this event is to provide 10,000 meals and complete that in 2 hours. There were so many volunteers at this event and a lot of people were eager to package. Whenever we hit 1000 meals, someone would ring a gong and we would celebrate. We had a little mishap during packaging- the fire alarm was set off in the cafeteria and we were forced to evacuate and that really put a hinder on production. I was nervous we were not going to meet our goal, but I was pleasantly surprised. We packaged 10, 320 meals in less than 2 hours and that is including the 15 minutes we were forced to be outside because of the pesky fire alarm. I had done a similar event at home in Iowa called Feed My Starving Children. There are pros and cons to both, I would argue Feed My Starving Children was a bit more fun because it was like a competition, you are in groups and whenever you package a complete box, you scream a chant but the gong gave the same amount of cheer. It was a great event and was completely brought on by students, which is awesome!
I spent most of my weekend inside because it has gotten pretty cold in Pennsylvania. It has been in the 30's all week and I have decided to take on a new craft: I am learning how to knit, left handed! Being a dominate lefty, its been hard to learn because I have to mirror people most of the time but surprisingly it hasn't been too bad. I only know how to knit right now, but I will be learning how to pearl in the next day or so. My goal from this craft experience is to make a multicolor, cute, chunky, scarf! I know how to crochet, so I am eager to learn how to knit! Right now crocheting is definitely more easy but I am sure knitting will get easier as I get the hang of it better.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I am happy that I am joining a family from church for the holidays. The church has been very supportive of me and the entire Sycamore House. I had received invitations from 5 different families, they are incredibly sweet to invite me to join their family! The children of youth group made a Thanksgiving dinner for us and their families today (Sunday) and I was very pleasantly surprised on how good it was! Instead of green bean casserole they created broccoli casserole and it was fabulous! It was great food all the way around and it was very enjoyable to spend time with some of the members of Vestry and the church.
Choir has been going well- I missed last week because of retreat but I came to rehearsal on Thursday to find we are doing a song that I did in high school Concert Choir, Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning. This song brings back many memories for me because in Mason City, at the winter concert, you proceed down NIACC's auditorium stairs in the dark, carrying a candle, and we sang this song one year. I loved the song then and I love it just as much now! I cant wait to sing this anthem in church in a couple weeks!
I am beginning to get antsy about coming home for Christmas, it is getting close and I feel like time will be going by very slow as it leads up to the day. I have 32 days before I fly out of Philly. I am eagerly waiting to come home. I can't wait to see my family and friends and spend time in my homeland, I never realized how much I would miss Iowa and Minnesota until I left, I am definitely a Midwestern girl, but the East Coast and Pennsylvania is starting to grow on me. I am usually very anti Christmas movies and Christmas music until after Thanksgiving but I broke my own rule and started watching movies, shame on me! But I have been enjoying every minute of it. Thanks to my brother Rick for giving me his Netflix account information to make this happen!
Graduate school application is getting started and I have been thinking and analyzing about my plan and creating a back up plan. My application for Counseling and Student Personnel, College Student Affairs is due February 1st, that is a very competitive major and if I get it, I will be very excited, if I do not I will apply for the program Educational Leadership, which I can potentially do a lot of  the same things, like working with first year students, its just a more broad degree. That deadline isn't until July 1st and the program is actually a little shorter and less competitive. So either way, I have a plan. Applying for Graduate School has really brought out my Meyer's Brigg Personality Test. I am an ESFJ (extrovert, sensing, feeling, and judging) My judging is my planning and type A-likeness. I have living arrangements almost done, so I just have to get into grad school, cross your fingers, wish me luck, and send positive thoughts my way as I get closer to submitting it.
This coming week there isn't much out of the norm planned, it should be pretty uneventful, we will see if that actually happens.
Till next week,
Katie

I'm on Top of A Mountain!

The Sycamore House went on an incredibly fun and somewhat adventurous adventure this weekend! We joined 3 other Episcopal Service Corps groups from around the East Coast and went to the Poconos for a weekend retreat! The groups that were at this retreat were from Baltimore, New York, and Virginia, all together that equaled about 30 people spending 4 days and 3 nights at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, PA. Kirkridge is on 170 acres of land overlooking Delaware Valley and Pocono Mountains. The retreat center is actually at the top of the mountain and gives an incredible view! We arrived at the location on Thursday around 6pm and we hit very dense fog and some scattered showers when we arrived so we had no idea what kind of view we had when we got there. We could barely see 5 feet in front of the van that my program director, Emmy, was driving. When we got to Kirkridge, we were the 3rd of 4 groups to arrive and went to get rooms to sleep in and then got ready for dinner. There are rooms on the first floor and in the basement, I slept in the

basement, as did most of the others, the rooms were small but had a simple, rustic charm and was fairly cozy! There is a large dining room, living room, worship/lecture room, and kitchen. We spent most of our time in the worship/lecture room because it is the biggest and has the most room as well as a huge fireplace that was going the whole time we were there. The group from Virginia arrived 3 hours later than the suggested arrival time because of major traffic in DC, but when we all got to Kirkridge, we did interdictions played a few games, did a short goodnight worship session, and then went to bed. On Friday, the Sycamore House went on an adventure and went to the ledge of the Poconos to see the view of the mountain. It was absolutely beautiful! It's higher than I thought it would be, but not overly high. I enjoyed just looking at it and taking deep breaths. I sat on a rock and just looked at everything for about 15 or 20 minutes. There was a small farm with a tractor running and every once in awhile you would see a flock of birds leave a tree. I was very relaxing and the colors were pretty, I can imagine how gorgeous it looked a couple weeks ago when the colors were more vivid. You definitely do not see views like that in Iowa since it is mostly flat land! The weather had been pretty chilly all weekend, in the 40's most of the time,  I was bundled up and broke out my Love Your Melon hat. We did not spend as much time on the trails as I would have liked, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.


Poconos Moutains

I met some pretty neat people this weekend and learned a lot about the different programs and it definitely made me reflect on how I feel in Harrisburg. The group from New York strictly works on disaster relief efforts, mostly Hurricane Sandy rebuilding that happened recently. There are 4 people in that program and 2 of them are male. When they rebuild, they do everything from working power saws to painting to installing doors, and not all of them had construction experience before doing ESC New York. They all seem like a very close-knit group and we will be seeing them again in February in Philadelphia since they are going to be attending a retreat that we are also!


Some of my housemates and I

The group from Baltimore seems like the most eclectic group of the bunch, they have 7 members, 3 of them guys and they all have different jobs and situations then our house. We have a community dinner on Tuesdays, that is intended for anyone in the community to join us, and a house dinner on Sundays. Baltimore had a house dinner 4 nights a week and is much more structured than our house. They have jobs that very from working in the Parish to working in schools and their hours are different except for the intentional dinners. They are also located on a not-so-great part of Baltimore, it is much like Harrisburg in the sense that there are a lot of empty and abandoned buildings and it is not doing the greatest economically.
The last group from Virginia seems like they have a lot of fun together. They surprised everyone when they came into breakfast on Friday wearing matching sweatpants that they made. They have 6 people and 2 males and they actually live in a renovated duplex, so they have 2 of everything, which I thought was very interesting! They also work with the community but they do homeless persons laundry instead of feeding them. They, too, have varying jobs and my house can relate to them the most because they often have a hard time finding time for multiple dinners a week as well as bonding because all of our schedules are so different.

View from dining room deck

I definitely have more of an appreciation of the Sycamore House program, not all the groups have to be involved with the church that sponsors them, but we do. I think because we have a strong partnership with our church we know the people of the church community better. I am definitely not the most religious person in the world, but I feel support from the members of the church in so many ways. I have received many invites for Thanksgiving because they know I will not be going home for the holiday. The house receives fresh eggs almost every week because a woman on vestry has chickens. I get so many hugs from different people of the church every week and it definitely makes me feel like I belong, even if I am not very religious. I am also able to appreciate the girls of the house and having them as housemates and roommates. I was able to meet a lot of people and learned about their situations and stressors and we aren't that bad, we are also growing much closer than we were almost 3 months ago. I think the house dynamic would change if we had males in the house, but I think our house would have done fine. All the other houses have men, we are the only house that does not, so its interesting to see their perspective and ours when it comes to that situation.
I had so much fun getting to know everyone! I truly felt like I made friends this weekend, I have some really great talks and deep conversations with some of them and I was able to have fun with people I've never met before playing new and fun games like Taboo, 4 cushions, Never ever have I ever, and Apples to Apples.
I am thankful that I had an opportunity to go to this retreat and I have made connections with different people and will be in touch with some of them as well, which I am excited for! I have wanted to go to Baltimore and now I could potentially have some place to stay if I make it a weekend trip, and that is all the same if anyone wants to go to Harrisburg. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, I am hoping that everyone takes up the offers and travels to see everyone again.
This week at work, I am just continuing working on the coffee fundraiser through the organization Grounds for Change. Grounds for Change has been absolutely wonderful and so helpful throughout this whole experience and I am excited to start selling coffee to be able to raise money for the Service Trips at Dickinson College (Advertisement- If you want to buy any coffee let me know, they are 10 dollars per 8oz).
Till next week,
Katie

The Calm After the Storm

Service Trip Leaders pose for a photo

This week has been the calm following the storm! Last week was the Color Rush 5K and I dedicated a lot of time and effort in it and now that the event is over, there is some free time and now time to focus on other things! The Color Rush was a fundraiser for the service trip to Belize and we raised about $750, at first I was a little disappointed because it was not as much as they raised last year but that is still $750 more than they had to help pay for the trip to Belize. With everything put away from the Color Rush, my next challenge will be a coffee fundraiser. We will be selling packaged (8oz) coffee bags that is fair trade coffee, we are still working on which company to go through but it is definitely leaning towards the company Grounds for Change. They are completely fair trade, organic, recycled materials and CO2 free. I am hoping to solidify everything tomorrow (Monday) and we can start selling by the end of the week/early next week!

Color Rush aftermath

Every week at the Sycamore House we have an event called Community Dinner on Tuesdays at 7pm. This past week was the biggest event we have had so far! We had almost 40 people attend and eat a meal that is usually prepared by the 7 of us who live in the house but this week we had a couple members and friends of the church prepare spaghetti and salad! We had so many children this week and I enjoyed breaking out the giant sticky pads and crayons and coloring with the children. We discussed what they were going to be for Halloween and reenacted Frozen. I was Anna and did a marvelous rendition of "Love is an Open Door" if I do say so myself! I was rummaging through cabinets in our living room and found some party store crowns and dressed up with the kids. Community dinner has been a hit or miss event, we usually have at least 20 people, some eat and leave and others stay and chat for an hour or so. This week was the busiest and one of the most
enjoyable. We have regular members of the community that come every week and it means a lot to them that we open our home to them. This coming week I am in charge of the community dinner and I have to decide on what we are making for dinner; this week we will be fixing vegetable soup with carrots, celery, tomatoes, potatoes, and cabbage, as well as cornbread. I am pretty excited for the soup because vegetable soup with celery and cabbage is my absolute favorite! When Country Kitchen was in business in Mason City, Iowa, I used to eat their vegetable soup like a fish in water and my favorite part was the cabbage! Hopefully it will turn out well :)

On Friday, I went to St. Stephen's Pre-K and read a Jamie Lee Curtis book to the class. St. Stephen's Cathedral has a lot of components, not only does it house the Sycamore House and the church but it also has a school as well. The children play in our "back yard" which is actually a bishops garden. I was a little nervous to read to the children because I had not been in a classroom since I changed my major almost a year ago. I enjoy reading fun books to the children and I am a huge fan of Jamie Lee Curtis books, they are such feel-good stories that are great for children. I read  Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery and the kids loved it! Preschool children are adorable because they love anyone that crosses their path, so all of them were coming up to me and asking me my name and if I would come back again and read another story and one little boy said "Katie, I love you" and the next thing I know is that all the children one by one are saying "I love you too, Katie" or "Katie, I actually love you the most-est." Because I left the education department on a somewhat sour note, that moment with the children meant a lot to me and I will definitely be going back to read with the children again.
This week was Halloween, I did not do much to celebrate the holiday. Halloween is not my favorite thing in the world, mostly because of my huge fear of clowns. Most people think I joke about my fear of clowns, but I literally kind of hyperventilate when a picture of a clown (cartoon or real person) comes near me and definitely if someone is dressed up as a clown. Thankfully I was not around any clowns and I did go to a Halloween party. It was a costume party and I got use of that tutu once again! With help from my roommates, I decided to go as a ballerina- complete with a ballerina bun hairstyle and ballet flat shoes!
This coming week will be a fun time because the Sycamore House is going on a regional retreat from Thursday-Sunday in the Poconos! There will be other groups joining us from Baltimore, New York, and others! All in all there will be about 30-40 people doing teambuilding activities and getting to know people in the area that are doing the same thing as we are, just in a different area. I am excited to see the Poconos, I hear they are gorgeous and its only about a 2 hour drive from Harrisburg! I will let y'all know how it goes!

Till next week,
Katie

A Tutu and 125lbs of Color!

The event I have been planning for the past month and a half came and went this weekend. The Color Rush 5K at Dickinson Park happened on Saturday and I am pretty pleased about how everything went! I enjoy event planning and this event was no different. I spent my week working on the fine details and creating bags with a t-shirt, banana, granola bar, pen, and directions to keep the color in the shirt, making banners, sandwich boards, creating a day of plan, and finalizing and confirming a lot of materials borrowed. A van was loaded with 125 pounds of powered color in blue, green, purple, pink, and yellow. I even made a no sew tutu to wear from this event!


Service Trip Leaders and I getting ready to open registration

The Color Rush was successful! It was a fundraiser for the Service Trips through the Office of Community Service and Religious Life. I started my morning out by getting up at 4:50am and arriving at Dickinson College around 6am to check and double check that I had everything accounted for. The service trip leaders met me at 6:30am and we headed over to D-Park. At 7am, I had 30 volunteers come and set up the event! In all my programming event experience, I never had this many volunteers! I was delegating so much for this event, in the past I was the one doing the decorating/setting up and delegating, it was nice to be able to focus on the event as a whole and not creating the set up for it. Registration started at 8am and we had quite a few community members come to the Color Rush. We had 5 girls from a local middle school track team, we had a group from the ROTC and a lot of student participation. There was a student who ran the whole 5K in 14 minutes, I could not believe how fast he was running! We had about 120 people register and pay for the event, but only had about 80 runners. I need to remember that Dickinson is a much smaller campus than Minnesota State, Mankato, so I should not expect to have hundreds and hundreds of people. MSU's campus community is at least 6X bigger than Dickinson and having a small number is comparison to the school.
I received a lot of positive comments about the Color Rush, I got many comments that the event was well organized and I had things planned out very well. I also heard from some of the runners that it was so much fun! I, too, had fun at this event! I walked around and watched the runners go through and I stopped at the first color station to throw some color, because why not? Throwing color is what makes the Color Rush 5K one of the happiest 5K's in the world! I also loved running around in my tri-colored tutu that I had made a week prior. I went to JoAnn Fabrics and could get tulle for $1.18 per yard, so it was practically yelling my name to buy it and make a tutu. I felt pretty proud of how the event was handled, especially for putting it on in a community I do not know, a campus where I had never gone to school, and without knowing all my resources. I have learned so much about talking to different directors and working with CASE and reserving different materials needed to an event. When I was involved with IMPACT, I dreaded going upstairs and reserving materials or locations, I always feared that I would say something or do something wrong or I would get my words all jumbled up and not make any sense. I have been in contact with CASE so much at Dickinson, I am pretty much over the fear of reserving things! If I get into grad school at MSU for Student Affairs, I can definitely use all the skills I have learned and am continuing to learn at Dickinson!


The small aftermath of throwing color

I am planning to start working on my graduate school application over the next couple weeks, I am starting to get a little antsy about it, I am only applying to one school- Minnesota State and part of me thinks I should be more nervous about only applying to one school. What will I do if I don't get in? I'm not entirely sure, I know I will be back in Iowa or possibly Minnesota. But, I am not extremely nervous about it. I have a passion for the program and I went to the school for undergraduate. I am familiar with the campus and people and I have gained much more experience through this year off. I hope that and my essays will be enough for me to get into the program!
This coming week is much less exciting than this week- which I am okay with! I have been very tired this weekend but I guess that's to be expected. I am looking forward to a back-to-normal week! We will see what happens!
Till next time,
Katie

Philadelphia Adventure!

 

 On Friday, I went on an adventure to explore Philadelphia for a day! This was the first time I went to a larger city in Pennsylvania and the first time I have ever rode in a train! Ally and I went to the Amtrak train station in Harrisburg at 7:45am to buy our day tickets and loaded into the train. The train ride was very peaceful because we weren't in rush hour traffic and saw the different trees changing color along the ride. We made quite a few stops before we got to Philadelphia around 9:30am. Our day was pretty busy and we walked everywhere! We walked about 80 city blocks when it was all said and done, it was definitely something I will always remember! On our adventure, we were able to see: the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Ben Franklin's printing press, Betsy Ross's home, Magic Gardens, Vietnam and Korean War Memorial,  Rittenhouse Square, and did a lot of site seeing.


The Liberty Bell was really neat! I really enjoyed seeing it up close in person and it was pretty cool to see "Pass and Stow" in person as well as the large crack. I got a lot of history in leading up to it because there were different panels before you walk to see the bell. I haven't taken a history class in a few years and I felt like I was learning new things because I hadn't talked about it or learned about it in years. I was surprised about how close I could actually get to the bell, we could get as close as we wanted, just couldn't touch. The bell itself weighs 2000 pounds, I could not imagine trying to move it, especially in the "olden days". While we were waiting in line to get into the Liberty Bell, there was a protest going on outside with graphic pictures of abortion. I was surprised how freely they came to you wanting to give you flyers, I didn't approach them at all, so that was also a first experience for me! After the Liberty Bell, we moved to Independence Hall. We managed to get tickets into the tour and the tour lasted about 20-30 minutes. During this tour we went through doors that George Washington, John Hancock and many others went through! I saw where the Declaration of Independence was signed. And then where the Constitution was signed 11 years later. I was surprised about how the rooms looked, though they were staged rooms, the tour guide stated that some of the materials in the room were relevant to the times and some were actually there when all these historic events 


John Barry Statue

happened. While waiting for the tour, a woman was yelling "Hawkeye" and I misheard her thinking she was saying "Hot Guy" until I looked down and realized I was wearing an Iowa Hawkeye sweater. I approached her apologizing how I misheard her and then I learned she is from Spencer, Iowa! She was visiting the area and they are heading to Delaware now. It was nice to see someone who understands the excitement that I feel! It was nice to talk to someone from Iowa because they can relate to some of the excitement I feel about new things. These are not things that are easily travelled to in Iowa, you either have to book a flight or drive 16 hours to see it. She was very friendly and wished me the best of luck while I spend the next few months in Harrisburg.






Constitution



Declaration of Independence



Betsy Ross character

Next, we went to Betsy Ross's house. I never realized how traumatic her life had been. She out lived her family and her mother and sister died 3 days apart because of Yellow Fever. She was also pretty rebellious about making the flag and she later made parts for guns. While going through her house, the steps were very steep and the kitchen was in the basement of the house. There was also an actor who was Betsy and answered questions about her in character and explained what it was like to be her from her stance. Going to Betsy's house was definitely one of my favorite things I had done in Philly. We stopped and looked at Ben Franklin's printing press and it reminded me of the musical The Newsies! I can't imagine making papers like that back then. She explained the binding methods and that looks like an incredible amount of work! The speakers talked about Silence Dogood letters and it reminded me of National Treasure. It really shows how intelligent Ben Franklin was! Impressive! 

Ben Franklin's Printing Press

Next, Ally and I went to get lunch. I bought my first ever Philly cheese Steak sandwich from a food truck and we went to a local park and sat down to eat. I would have to say the sandwich was pretty good and I had a slight encounter with pigeons. We sat at a bench that had a broken cracker on the ground and one pigeon found it. The next thing I know is about 30 pigeons were flying over and were inches away from my food and body. I  was not a big fan of them, but we kicked towards them and once the cracker was all gone, they left us alone.

After lunch, we walked a few blocks to visit the memorials for Vietnam and Korean War. I have always liked history so going to the memorials really stood out to me. I saw many names on granite and though all of them are from the Philly area and I didn't know a single one, it kind of put me into perspective

Korean War Memorial

of what it was like during that time. Rows and rows of names just from that area, I can't imagine what all the names would have looked like if every single name would have been in one location.

Vietnam War Memorial

When Ally and I were finished paying our respects, we walked another 10 or so blocks to get to a place called Magic Gardens. I didn't know what it was, but I was told by multiple people it was really cool and worth the 5 dollar fee. I was expecting some flower garden with some interesting sculptures or something but when I got there, I was pleased and shocked to find out that there was not a single flower in the place. This magic garden was truly magic because everything was mosaic. The artist, Isaiah Zagar, uses materials that are

someone else's trash, I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of old glass bottles, old bicycle tire rims, broken mirrors, plates and cups... It was so cool! He used concrete to make structures you could walk under and had different levels. Some of the walls were about 40 feet high and every inch of it was mosaic. I had never seen anything like that in my whole life. It was incredible. Magic Gardens is also non-profit and helps the Philadelphia community a lot and you will find Isaiah Zagar's art mosaic murals everywhere you go. He breaks the pieces up, but I noticed that one thing he uses a lot are facial features. There are repeating eyes, smiles, fingers and toes all around his work and you can definitely tell he has a trend. I am extremely happy we went to Magic Gardens, it was something I've never seen before!

We also walked Italian Market and strolled along the different sales. There wasn't a lot going on today but over the weekend, I cant imagine out busy it would be. You could get a bunch of asparagus for one dollars, 3 pounds of apples for 2 dollars, 3 pounds of bananas for $1.50. We don't have markets like these so it was interesting to see one in person. The market went on for blocks and blocks.
Throughout the day we would need to sit down for a bit because we had been walking a lot. We stopped at a local ice cream place and ate some ice cream in a cup. The décor in the restaurant was really cute, they had painted chairs that had different story book characters like Winnie the Pooh, Charlotte's Web, Dr. Seuss, and then just inspirational quotes. Oh, and the ice cream was pretty great, too!
Before we headed back to the 30th St Train station, we sat in Rittenhouse Square for about 45 minutes. We sat to prepare for the 10 block walk we were going to finish off with and because we had pretty much accomplished everything we wanted to do that day. We people watched and made some comparisons to Harrisburg. There aren't children in Harrisburg, partly because if you have children you most likely live in Camp Hill if you can afford it and there is no good park in Harrisburg. It was fun to see young families and their children play. I saw more young people in Philly than I have seen in Harrisburg the whole 2 months I've been here. Its definitely a more populated area and it seems to be more "hipster" or "trendy" than Harrisburg.
I'm really happy I went on this adventure to Philly, my brother was also in Philly that same day but unfortunately we were not able to see each other because we were on opposite ends of the city. The city is not made for semi-trucks and I wouldn't have been able to walk 15 miles or the taxi cab was $2.80 per mile, so it just wasn't in the cards. I was really disappointed that I wasn't able to see him.
My goal while I am on the East Coast is to make it to as many different cities as I can, on my list currently, I would love to see Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington, D.C, and go to New York again. I'm not sure if all of the cities will be seen, but I am hoping to make it to as many as I can.

This week at work will be very busy! On Saturday, October 25th, the Color Rush will be happening at Dickinson College! I have been working on this for about 2 months, I started it right when I started work. I hope we get a great turn out! Right now we have about 40 runners, and would love to make it to the triple digits! I will let y'all know how it goes! It should be a lot of fun!

Love,
Katie