绿奴天花板

Eight 绿奴天花板ampa students are in Seattle this week for a spring break focused on service and culture. Madeline McMahon M.A. 鈥�24, a writer in 绿奴天花板ampa鈥檚 Office of Marketing and Communications, is accompanying the students and will send reports and photos back to campus through the week.

Read on and check back to learn what it鈥檚 like to go on a spring break trip with 绿奴天花板ampa鈥檚 PEACE Volunteer Center.

----------------

Tuesday

On a second visit to Mary鈥檚 Place, the 绿奴天花板ampa crew got a deeper look into how the organization operates. As the largest service provider in Washington鈥檚 King County for families experiencing homelessness, Mary鈥檚 Place runs several programs to meet families鈥� specific needs. Seeing them firsthand allowed everyone to feel the impact that the nonprofit has on the community.

On Tuesday, the eight PEACE volunteers assisted in the Mary鈥檚 Place marketplace, sorting donated clothing for the families to choose from, and played with children in the cafeteria while their parents were served a hot lunch and got time to relax.

Eyethu Simelane 鈥�29 appreciated the quality of the clothes in the marketplace, which allows for a sense of normalcy for the parents and children receiving them. Mariel Olsem, volunteer coordinator at Mary鈥檚 Place, explained that the items are purchased by their guests on a point system, giving them autonomy, and points can be earned through actions like chores around the shelter or employment efforts.

Chase Robinson 鈥�29 said her favorite part of the trip so far was having fun with the kids. She created a beaded bracelet with a child wearing head-to-toe Bluey swag, while Simelane and Zariah Johnson 鈥�29 built houses out of magnetic tile toys with a young boy who proudly showed his creation to everyone in the cafeteria. Robinson and Terah Smith 鈥�28 have both participated in 绿奴天花板ampa鈥檚 Spartans Against Homelessness and agreed that volunteering at Mary鈥檚 Place was a highlight for them.

Out of all the programs and services offered by Mary鈥檚 Place, the kids club is consistently rated the highest by families after they are stable enough to leave the shelter, Olsem said. Having a designated area to let kids be kids, plus an additional space for teens, is vital in reducing trauma associated with losing a home. Children under 18 make up the largest percentage of guests in the shelter, and within that, more than half of the children are under 5 years old.

After the shift, the 绿奴天花板ampa students made time for some sight-seeing, checking out the Museum of Pop Culture. On view were costumes used by pop culture legends 鈥� like Beyonc茅, Jimi Hendrix and Jack Nicholson 鈥� plus the largest video game exhibition in the world and a guest-curated exhibit detailing the history of African American music. But the group favorite was the sound lab, where Kaylen Valentine 鈥�29 made beats on a DJ controller, and Bella Troxel 鈥�27 and Anna Rosen 鈥�27 had a private jam session in a soundproof recording booth.

On Wednesday, the students will turn their focus to another area nonprofit, EarthCorps, and will participate in a forest restoration project in Mount Baker Park.

Monday

At Seattle's Mary鈥檚 Place, the mission is to ensure that no child sleeps outside. Javin Smith, the director of donor events and volunteer services at Mary鈥檚 Place, said that it could take an individual employee upwards of several hours to accomplish what that the 绿奴天花板ampa students did in two.

Everyone helped in organizing new items at the Mary's Place donation center 鈥� such as toiletries, books, clothes and toys 鈥� that were to be distributed to families in Seattle who are experiencing homelessness.

In their free time, the students visited the Fremont Troll, often considered one of the most famous pieces of public art on the West Coast. The 18-foot-tall troll 鈥渓ives鈥� under the George Washington Memorial Bridge, about a five-minute walk from the hostel.

听

The experiential learning continued at the renowned Seattle Aquarium on the Elliott Bay waterfront. While the ocean wasn鈥檛 new scenery for the Floridians, several marine trivia facts were. An aquarium guide explained that an octopus hiding in the corner of its habitat is typical of the antisocial species. Another one pointed out a seal in banana pose, where its head and tail curved upwards in a display of contentment.

Tomorrow, the Spartans will go to a different Mary鈥檚 Place location that caters to families. Volunteers will serve lunch and lead family activities while meeting local residents of different backgrounds and perspectives.

Saturday-Sunday

In what is sure to be a week of 鈥渇irsts鈥� for the 绿奴天花板ampa students on the PEACE Volunteer Center鈥檚 spring break trip to Seattle, add snow to the list. For Terah Smith 鈥�28, Eyethu Simelane 鈥�29, and Zariah Johnson 鈥�29, that first glimpse of the white stuff happened as soon as they got off the plane on Saturday.

It had already been a long day, but the Spartans were determined to get acclimated fast. Ramen in the quirky Fremont neighborhood, where the group is staying in a hostel this week, followed by shopping in an underground antique mall, gave everyone a quick introduction to Seattle and the week ahead.

Chase Robinson 鈥�29 is the site leader on this trip, and neither she nor any of the other students have been to Seattle before.

Many of the students have never done a service trip before, either. This week, the group will visit and help at several Seattle-area nonprofits, including Mary鈥檚 Place, an organization that supports the local homeless community, Mount Rainier Food Bank, Food Lifeline and Earth Corps.

But first, on Sunday, the Spartans hit the iconic Pike Place Market downtown for Beecher鈥檚 鈥渨orld famous鈥� mac 'n鈥� cheese, tea and spice emporiums, flying fish, gorgeous flower bouquets, handmade trinkets and more, including a Dracula-themed gift shop and a colorful kawaii boutique.

The group cooked dinner at the hostel and played card games before calling it a night in anticipation of a busy Monday at Mary鈥檚 Place.

----------------

Check back here through the week for more reports from the Pacific Northwest.