Week Two

Summit 1: Developing Project Worksheets in Clinton, MS

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” - Mother Teresa

We exit week one by serving the community. Our POLs (Project Outreach Liaisons) set up a day to help at the Jackson Zoo, helping them prepare for the fall season with decorations and scenery. Our SLIs (Service Learning Initiator) set up a day for us to visit the Mississippi State Fair 2012.

We have paired off into five separate teams, each team with an experienced Project Specialist in Public Assistance as our mentor: David and Jay; Dan and Alyssa; Chelsea and Rafael; Rii and Zach; Aaron and Amy.

These five teams of ours are serving in Public Assistance Crew Eight in Mississippi, the largest crew in the state, serving fifteen different counties in central Mississippi.

Out of training and into this new environment, we start into the Southern Region, trying to change things, attempting to “get things done,” as our AmeriCorps NCCC pledge compels us to. With the best of intentions, Summit One enters this new environment that is the Clinton Joint Field Office. Somehow, we got the impression that we’d get here and the world would turn upside down because of our spunk and ambition. Maybe it’s from the NCCC corps members of the past that have boasted about their life-changing experiences. Who knows? No one’s to say what led us to believe we can save the world from our cubicles in Clinton, Mississippi. We had to realize, though, that’s not our goal.

We aren’t superheroes, but here’s what we do know: We can make a difference and we will. We already have. Our first week is over and we’ve improved productivity here in gaining help to these brave communities that endure these horrific storms, like Hurricane Isaac, the disaster from which this Joint Field Office is currently helping recovery. Already we’ve created ripples. They’re not title waves; this much we know. Summit One isn’t a tsunami-making device. Our goal is to toss as many stones in as possible. A few have already been thrown. Sometimes we can’t see the effect of the stones that we throw. The ripples are all we see—the smiles in the faces of the communities we help are the only seeming evidence of our work, but where the rock lands in the water, where it hits the ground under the surface, that is the effect we may never see. Our hope is that it is one that encourages others to start skipping pebbles, to join us in making a difference, one skipping-stone at a time.