Outcomes for 2012!

As 2012 comes to a close we would like to reflect on the amazing accomplishments of our Corpsmembers. All our Corpsmembers were eligible to receive AmeriCorps Education Awards upon completing their terms. The total amount earned by our Corpsmembers this year totaled $$253,36.. This is one of the many achievements of our Corpsmembers. See below for many more statistics that make up only a snapshot of the work that took place at Mile High Youth Corps in 2012.

• 6 miles of trail constructed in the Hayman burn area
• 13 miles of trail constructed and maintained
• 50 acres of noxious weeds removed/1,584 feet of fence constructed
• 11,722 trees cut down
• 85% of the project work completed will last more than 10 years
• 100% of enrolled summer AmeriCorps members earned their Education Award

The Following Statistics represent the work of our Second Term Water Crew.

• Homes serviced over 1,000
• Toilets installed 1,242
• Gallons of water saved annually 8.6 million gallons
• Olympic pool equivalent 13.4

Thanks to all of our Corpsmembers who made 2012 a year to remember!

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Top Ten Sports to Watch in the Olympics

As the Summer Olympics came to a close in London we asked our Corpsmembers what were their favorite sports to watch. They even wanted to demonstrate their athletic skills in their favorite sports. Check out the Top Ten Sports to watch in the Olympics as reported by our Corpsmembers.

#10) Shotput

#9) Javelin

#8)Weightlifting

#7) Fencing

#6) Track

#5) Volleyball

#4) Diving

#3) Cycling

#2) Synchronized Diving

#1) Gymnastics

Thanks to all of our Mile High Youth Corps athletes for showing us their skills. Hope to see you in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio!

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In the Summer Sunshine

The weather in Denver is becoming more and more unpredictable. With September ending and October gaining speed, I expect to see leaves changing, feel cool breezes coming through and sense a crispness in the air. These are the things I have come to expect from my fall growing up on the East Coast, but I am here now. And Colorado offers us longer days with more FAR MORE sunshine, and you know what? Who could ask for more!?!

Colorado gives the summers a couple extra weeks that only few in the country are lucky enough to have! Our summer work is over, but the sunshine and 65 degree + days are constantly reminding me of all the good memories that the last couple of months gave me. Let’s take a second to forget that school started, swimming pools are closed and BBQs have been put away, and instead remember the most recent Colorado summer.

All photos were provided by an incredible day at the end of summer to celebrate the work MHYC CMs did in the field and to have a little fun! Our winners of the Olympics were CO Springs crew, H1N1, who beat out everyone in the tug of war and mini contests throughout the day.

What a great look back on the summer… The Aspens are changing in the mountains reminding us that an even better fall season is still ahead

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Mechanics in the Shop

Right now, we are at the shop at Canosa beginning our training to prepare us for getting on the construction site. The mechanics have learned a lot over the last three weeks and we wanted to share our new skills with you!

Things we now know how to do:

• How to build a little house, complete with window, a door and a roof.
• How to read a tape measure.
• How to identify tools and use them.

• How to use a worm drive and circular saw.
• Use construction terms.
• Learned construction process by visiting Red Rocks.

Along with working and learning, we had a lot of fun playing games that had to do with construction and competition.

~Devon Martinez and Scottie Gomes, YouthBuild ‘12

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A New Family At MHYC

Who would have thought that two weeks of orientation could be fun? I mean come on, how much could you cover in two weeks that couldn’t be done in one week or a few days for that matter? The answer to that question came swiftly on the first day as the majority of the time was spent filling out paperwork. Oh gosh, is this all it’s gonna be? But as I look back on the entire two weeks, the paperwork was hardly anything. A lot of the time was spent in engaging team builders that got us energized for the day as well as becoming familiar with our MHYC family.

There were also educational videos that gave a more in depth look into the purpose as well as the pleasure of being part of the conservation movement. We got to see how youth of similar age and stage in life were changing the world, one toilet at a time. I think it’s safe to say that orientation showed us the value of changing the light bulb in our heads and replacing it instead with one that flowed more efficiently.
The next step was trying our hand out in the field. We went to a private school where we were able to see and participate in pulling dead toilets and setting high efficiency ones in their place. It is completely free for the clients whose buildings qualify and at this particular place; the principle of the school rewarded each of us with a gift card. Granted, this won’t happen every time, but on the first day out in the field it felt good to know that what we were doing would be appreciated and even if a time comes where it isn’t, we can always look forward to the fact that what we’re doing is helping conserve our natural resources.

On the last day of our orientation, we went to an urban farm where we did a service project with the other programs at MHYC, each person servicing in a different area and way. In the first week we were told that we would have to do service projects on top of our work, and going to this farm enabled us to experience more of what it’s like serving the community.

As of now, we are a few weeks into the program and the opportunities presented to us during orientation are finally coming into play. We were told that what we put in is what we’ll get out, and with so many available resources at hand and people eager to help, how could we not do so? I look forward to the days ahead and spending them with a new family that I have found at MHYC.
~Joel Johnston, Water Crew

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A Nation of Youth

There we were: a mass of twenty something’s, all under a big white tent, our sights on the beach and the weekend ahead of us.

As a delegate through MHYC, as well as an ambassador for ASPEN, my outdoor education capstone project, I didn’t quite know what to expect at the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit. But I’ve found that this is the best way to go into things lately, without any preconceptions. I think this mentality yields the best results for anything we do.
I can only imagine how much fun it must be for the Outdoor Nation to travel across the country as a band of revolutionaries, getting young adults stoked about their jobs and their futures in the outdoors, and even throwing a few new pairs of Merrell shoes at ‘em in the process.

We got right to work when we arrived Friday morning. The hundred and fifty plus delegates were responsible for identifying actions we should take as individuals working in the outdoor realm. This included a draft of an Outdoor Nation Declaration, which outlined our commitment and priorities as outdoor leaders, educators, conservationists, etc., which would soon be submitted as a Special Report on America’s Great Outdoors for President Obama.
Pretty cool, right? Check out the ever-evolving draft of our Outdoor Nation Declaration.
The next day we got our gears cranking even more. We split up into groups to come up with what regional outdoor issues we have and some program ideas to try and mitigate them. A lot of the day was spent coming up with ideas to get children outdoors (much of the basis for Outdoor Nation, as well as ASPEN and other outdoor education schools around the country, comes from a book (and philosophy on “Nature Deficit Disorder”) by Richard Louv called “The Last Child in the Woods”). And to stoke the fire even more, the top ideas would receive $2,500 each (four from Denver), as well as other grant opportunities in the coming months.
By the evening time we were all pretty tired. And accomplished, too. From full bellies of food to the kayaking and rock wall climbing to tent-setup competitions to campfire talks from the North Face ambassador’s incredible stories, I hunkered down in a crowded tent city with a clear sky of constellations hanging out above me.

Sunday morning came and it was time to leave the beach and wave goodbye to the delegates that came all the way from Texas and Montana. But not before we voted on the top program ideas and awarded them a hefty amount of seed money to get their project going. What was most startling was how Outdoor Nation was able to provide us with connections between different states and how easy it was to collaborate ideas for such diverse regions. I’m excited to begin helping out with programs here and abroad as well as take some of the ideas for my own outdoor education program in Denver.
Let’s all be outside together.
~David Cumming, ACLC ’10

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YouthBuild Gives Public Housing a Makeover

Public housing…try to think for a moment of what that looks like to you. Over the past several decades, public housing projects have been notorious for their substandard quality of life. Images may be conjured upon hearing that word of less-than-desirable homes, in the worst part of town, with little concern for the happiness and well-being of those inhabiting them. That stereotype is exactly what the YouthBuild program is helping to dissolve.

Previous concept for public housing.

Current YouthBuild project at Pearl St/Park Ave.

YouthBuild focuses on helping youth, ages 18-24, to achieve their G.E.D., while applying themselves to construction projects throughout the Denver Metro Area. Sounds like a pretty typical non-profit initiative, right? WRONG! After being associated with Mile High Youth Corps for the past year and a half, I imagined that the program was as simple as it sounded. However, upon visiting the current work site at Park Avenue and 23rd, I learned that YouthBuild was on the front-line of progressive sustainable development in the United States.

Living in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood last year, I would often walk to the grocery store and see the bustling work site. Sharp, loft-style high-rises began to line both sides of Park Avenue as the year progressed and I often thought to myself, “How do I score a place in there?” It’s not every day that city public housing projects have that kind of curb appeal. Though the building aesthetics, surrounding amenities and location are all overly desirable, none of those factors are as impressive as the construction aspects and infrastructure.

The Park Avenue project is shooting for a LEED Platinum rating (the highest level of environmental standards). This kind of ranking is no easy feat. To gain the LEED Platinum title, the construction team and developers implemented environmentally sensitive materials and practices into each step of construction. For example, the heating/cooling of the building is conducted by a geothermal system. This means that cool air captured under the Earth’s surface in a series of tubes and sent above-ground to cool the homes in the summer, and heat them during the winter. Since the temperature underground is a constant 50-55 degrees, the air is able to offset extreme temperatures in both directions naturally.

In addition to heating and cooling, solar panels cover the roof to supply a portion of the project’s energy needs. The sun also supplies hot water to the site with a heat-harvesting system which allows water to be heated naturally by the sun’s rays. These are examples of some of the common-sense ways that energy and resources can be derived from the Earth with far less effort and environmental impact.

Solar panels on Park Ave project.

Lastly, the current project on Park Avenue also implemented a pre-fabricated building method. This means that the building is actually fully constructed in a remote warehouse, and then disassembled. The structure is then transported to the job site and reconstructed like a piece of furniture purchased from Target. The reason that this technique is so efficient is that it disables poor weather conditions from holding-up work, significantly reduces the risk of damaging materials, cuts costs, and expedites the building time to be completed in only a few months.

Considering the intricacies of the projects taken on by MHYC’s YouthBuild Program brings new light to exactly how much goes into these projects. While the physical environment is being changed with each beam anchored into place, the social environment is strengthening with each individual. Not only does this work have transformative impacts on the youth that get involved, but the benefits resound throughout the community by bringing higher quality and standards to our public housing. Therefore, YouthBuild is helping to shape development trends and to promote environmental awareness, but most importantly, to prove that social change is happening every day in our city.
~Derek Berardi, Outreach and Recruitment Assistant, ACLC ’10

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The Mind Of A Pathfinder

Have you ever heard the saying, “you don’t know a person or what they go through until you step into their shoes?” Of course you have. So how do you do this for a team? Let me tell you. First, you will need boots (steel toe), a hard hat, and working gloves. Now, pick up a tool and prepare to carry rocks. This is the mind of a PATHFINDER.

With the grace of a ballet that we have learned, we venture from park to park performing projects that leave the land better then how we found it. BALLET?! Yes, ballet. A bonus during a unique session of Environmental Education (E.E.). With this job comes a great deal of E.E. Not only was the E.E. new information for us, but it opened our eyes to the real world and opportunities that lie outside places, such as Starbucks and even the bus.

As a team we’ve encountered a collage of tasks and obstacles, ranging from the construction of “bunny condos”, aka wild life piles, to our battles against the Dalmation ToadFlax. Another plant we battled was the Thistle Family. We have come to learn that picking thistles in the great outdoors is a brilliant way to engage in long, fun conversations and make new friends at MHYC.

It is now 1 pm. Just after lunch. So far, it has been a scorcher. The “Red Rocks” make it seem to be 110 degrees. As we pack slowly, getting ready to get back to the days work, this is a moment to take a deep breath and look around. If you were standing where we were today, your eyes would be filled with bright blue skies, giant white cotton clouds, tall ponderosa pines that enrich the forest with the scent of butterscotch, and of course, many rocks. This scenery being what makes the heat bearable.

It’s amazing what people can accomplish together. With our team strength to move dinosaur egg shaped rocks, we’ve been able to finish our 8 projects with plenty of time to spare. SPARE TIME is GAME TIME! Though we have found other projects to breeze through, we have adopted many games along the way. One of our favorite comes from our Crew Leader, Alex. The title? “STICK.” The cool thing is all you need is a stick
(A lot more fun than it sounds).

Be it food or games, we find ways to get through each day. Team chemistry goes a long way. Along with one other opportunity we have yet to talk about… I.S.P. Independent Service Hours (I.S.P.) is a plus. Not only do you get the opportunity to volunteer your hours to helping a community, but it’s also an excellent time to work on your farmer’s tan.

Above all, this is a day/life of a Pathfinder. Hey are you still there? Good, we could use two extra hands.

~Pathfinders Crew, 2011

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Third Times The Charm

If I had been asked in the first half of my very first summer here if I would ever think of coming back to work at MHYC again, I’m not entirely sure what my answer would have been. As a friend and fellow ’09 CM, Chris, once said, “This is the hardest job I ever loved.” And I think that is the best way to sum up my work here at MHYC. I was blown away when I started here, it was the first time that I ever had to do real, hard labor for ten hours a day and then as I moved to the office I had to negotiate between phone calls, copy machines, emails, and various paperwork every day. Each of these summers has been a totally new and totally different experience for me. But it was a chance that I have grown to take full advantage of and really appreciate all that it has brought to my life.

This is the final week of my third summer here at MHYC, and as I sit here and reflect on the various summers and what I have gained from working here one thing stands out—my growth, both personal and professional.

As much as I have tried to contribute to MHYC, I think that I will leave here having gained so much more than I was ever able to give. For three summers now I have given my time, my energy, my hard work, my perseverance and my laughter. And the past two summers, I have spent long days orienting new CMs, sorting through piles and piles of paperwork, travelling from crew to crew to offer support in any way I could, hiring and recruiting new members to MHYC for all our programs, and helping crews get out of the door in the mornings as efficiently as possible. Yet despite all of this, I think that when I remember my times here at MHYC it will be all of the things that I have gained that I will remember most fondly: the friendships that I created that will continue for years to come, the dance parties in the vans to and from project sites, the courage to be myself, the support from all of the staff members no matter the endeavor, the knowledge about the environment, nonprofits, and life in general, the importance of loving and having passion for what you do, and most importantly how it is the little things that you do every day that are the most important when it comes to making a difference.

I like to think that I grew into the person I want to be because of my work at MHYC. I was pushed and challenged in so many different ways and situations that I now have professional skills that will help me for the rest of my life, and I personally have learned so much about myself, who I am as a citizen of this world as well as how I see the world and what I can do to change it.

I would also like to offer my sincerest gratitude to all of the staff here at MHYC, whom I believe have been the extremely influential when it comes to the great experience that I have had.

~Roni, Summer of Service Super Corpsmember!

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Celebrate Earth Day!

How did it start?

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media and persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair. More at: http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement

Want to know YOUR ecological footprint?

Take this short quiz to find out how many planets it takes to support your lifestyle: http://www.earthday.org/

Find out ways to Get Involved and give back at: http://act.earthday.org/events/search/distance/10006

Picture found at http://www.squidoo.com/EarthDayNews

Nothing in your area? Gather your friends and family and create your own!

Have a great Earth Day on Saturday, April 23rd!

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