Friday marked our last day of service (sadly) after an amazing week here in Ft. Collins. We headed out to Lory State Park at 9 a.m. The state park experienced a devastating forest fire last week and our job was to help start the cleanup process. Our day could be summed up pretty simply by saying "we got dirty." Ash covered each and every one of us from head to toe shortly after the day's work began.
We were broken up into 2 groups: one led by Isabel (Maelly's awesome co-worker who is basically Wonder Woman) and the other led by Tanner. The two groups helped cleanup some bridges that had been destroyed in the fire and then we began "swamping". For those unfamiliar with the term it's basically a fancy way to say drag cut down tree limbs to a designated location that is often quite a distance away. Isabel is an extremely hard worker and those of us in her group definitely had our most exhausting day of the trip. The other group worked hard as well, but they definitely reserved ample time to break out into dance parties…
At the end of the day Maelly stopped by to say goodbye. He did an awesome job of coordinating all our amazing service opportunities this week and we've all basically fallen in love with him. As he drove away one final time, tears were shed all around (I think Kaityln might still be crying).
After our service today we headed to the Community Center for some MUCH NEEDED showers. We then headed to the downtown district of Ft. Collins for a night out on the town. After a week's worth of hard work, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal at Austin's. Definitely recommend if you find yourself in Ft. Collins. We ended our night with some ice cream (I'd been having withdrawals so I was pretty ecstatic to finally have some sweet vanilla goodness in my soul).
Upon arriving back at the church, we made an on-the-spot decision to close out our last night by going stargazing outside of town. It was a truly incredible experience and one I will remember forever. Laying side by side with 11 other people that have become great friends over the past week and staring into the infinite wonder of the universe is pretty dang cool. We've worked in nature all week, but this was one final reminder of how awesome this planet is. And we are so, so small in respect to the majesty of the universe, but I'm confident this week we have done our small part to give back to this spellbinding planet named Earth that we all call home.
Tomorrow we arise at dawn and head home. Unless we decide to stay… If it weren't for that whole school thing I think we might just stay here forever. Eagles fly eastward tomorrow. It's the final day of what many of us have called the "best week of our lives." While some may say it's impossible to have a fun car ride across Western Kansas, I beg to differ because we have Zach and that means constant entertainment. We'll be having a blast all the way across the plains. Our journey may come to a close once the vans roll back into CoMo, but I'm confident our family will forever fly together.
- Sam
No comments:
Post a Comment