OEC Staff Training April 2012

This weekend at House In The Wood we had our first OEC staff training (next one is May 5-6). So meet some of our staff...

Left-Dara, Peggy, Colleen. Right-Jenni, Eric, Alex

 We all met together on Saturday to have our general training. It was mostly going through the OEC staff manual to make sure everyone understood the policies and procedures at House In The Wood .

And then on Sunday, we split into separate groups. Here, Alex trains the fourth grade trail leaders for the Aquatic Study Lesson. 

Dara, Alex, Jenni

Look! We found some kool stuff in the lake!

4th Grade Trail Leaders-Dara & Jenni are dipping with Alex looking on

Look what Dara found! He was sooo still that he was camouflaged--he blended in perfectly with the lake weeds. WOW--he just ate a fly while we watched! Totally kool.

Jenni works with Rowe Elementary School now through Northwestern Settlement's AmeriCorps Project YES! program, Dara is an elementary school substitute teacher and Alex is House In The Wood's Outdoor Education Coordinator.

The other group of staff in training are some of our cabin counselors and they spent Sunday training with Colleen.

Colleen, Peggy, Eric in a cabin. Peggy shows off her cabin job wheel.

Colleen was a night counselor last year and she will be a night counselor this year with the third grade girls. Peggy and Eric both work with Rowe Elementary School now through Northwestern Settlement's AmeriCorps Project YES! program. Peggy will be working with the fourth grade girls. Eric will be one of two cabin counselors working with the fourth grade boys.

For more information on House In The Wood please go to our website at www.houseinthewood.org

We are operated by

 

AmeriCorps Project YES! Gets Us READY!

 

 

 

AmeriCorps Project YES! Gets Loads of Work Done

AmeriCorps Projects YES! from Northwestern Settlement in Chicago spent their Spring Retreat at House In the Wood. They arrived on Monday and participated in team building and reflection activities all day. And at night, what else, but a campfire with s'mores. On the next day, there were 28 willing members to help us prepare House In The Wood for our Spring groups.

They spent ALL day Tuesday, March 20 working on various projects. They built a new trail to our new aquatic study area, trimmed a quarter mile of brush and trees along Bay Road, painted 4 buildings, did the Spring cleanup for the four rain gardens and two dining hall gardens (with master gardeners Carol and Mary), changed all of the batteries on the Smoke/CO2 detectors, completed a long list of preventive maintenance, destroyed some BIG furniture (a favorite job) and hauled it to the dumpster, and cleared out an entire cabin full of stuff.

We still have a few more things to do but their help went a LONG way to helping us get things ready for our first Outdoor Education Center group of the season in May.

A very BIG thank you to the 28 AmeriCorps Project YES! members.

We have other WORKBEES scheduled:
April 14 & 15 with the Northwestern Settlement Chicago Board and YOU?
June 1-3 is our annual SPRING WORKBEE

We have monthly VOLUNTEER WORK DAYS scheduled for every third Tuesday
April to October from 9am to Noon.
April 17
May 8 (date change)
June 19
July 17
August 21
September 18
October 16

We also work with groups and individuals who would like to provide community service to House In the Wood.

Contact Val to sign up.
E-mail: val at houseinthewood.org
Phone: 262-728-2752