A New Perspective

While working here, sometimes I forget that Friendship Circle is also a Jewish Organization.  In additions to the various projects that I have been taking on for them, I also have participated in some of Rabbi Yossi’s more spiritual responsibilities.  For example, the Rabbi has Torah study sessions with a few people this week.  During one of the sessions that I sat in on, I met a man who told me that he has been spending his time hitch hiking through Latin America.  He explained to me that he was meeting his friend in Buenos Aries, and instead of flying he hitchhiked through Mexico.  Not knowing any Spanish at the beginning, he learned Spanish as he travelled, made his way to Guatemala where he eventually got a job in a hotel and later as an English teacher.  Meanwhile, over the course of a few years, he never ended up making it to Buenos Aires.  He then came back to the United States, where he finished his college degree and just now began studying Torah again with Rabbi Yossi.  I got to see a completely new perspective on the way someone can live his or her life. By the time the study session had ended, we haven’t even flipped to the first page of our books.  Instead, we had a discussion about the different ways

The Importance Of A Child Life Specialists and Volunteers - Day Nine

One thing I have realized was that many children are left alone all day for several days of the week. Their parents either have to work, take care of their other children at home, or they simply cannot find time. I have learned to really appreciate the work that child life specialists and volunteers do for the children who are alone in their rooms all day. We supply books, games, and toys for children, and offer to be a "buddy" for a while. There's a playroom (activity center) that we open a few times a day as well. This gives the kids a chance to just be a kid and play around while they're in the hospital. There is one baby I have visited all week and his parents do come to the hospital, but they never spend time with him while they are there. He is unable to go the playroom because he is too young (only 2 months old), and they go without him. I don't quite understand that specific situation. 

Other parents do come, and stay every minute of the day with their child. I have so much respect for these parents who take off work. However, I totally understand that it is very exhausting to wait in the room and try to entertain their child, especially if their child is older. There was this one mother today and she was in the room the entire time I was with her daughter. She really appreciated me playing with her daughter for 3 hours because she was able to take a break downstairs in the atrium (cafeteria) and even take a nap. I could tell she was exhausted too. 

~Clare

Another Day

This morning I will be spending another day in Peds ENT with Dr. Arnold.  Time in Peds is very different from spending time with adults by process, energy and end goal.  Almost everything I've ever watched in Peds is tonsillectomy which is interesting the first few times, watching the bovine pen direction and then seeing the inflamed fleshy kidney shaped mass removed, however, with multiple tonsillectomies in one day and spending 4 or 5 total days watching them, they get very old, methodical and boring.  Part of what being a surgeon entails is being methodical and muscle memory, that much I have gathered.  But the part I hesitate with in Peds is how tedious the same task so often can be.  In Adult ENT, there are similar procedures but always different histories, lifestyles, diseases, mental states, largely varying ages and surgical histories.  There is also a larger field to work with which provides more room to work and brings more people into the room to assist with the often more involved cases.  Ultimately, this helps me decide that I do not want to go into surgical pediatric care which is very helpful.  And fortunately, this is my last day in Peds so from here to the end should be interesting and appealing.

Visions of Garlic Mustard

      For the last few days, Sarah and i have been laughing about how Gary, the "boss" of the 3-4 person segment of the Holden Arboretum conservation crew we're working with, must have nightmares or at least dreams about garlic mustard, the invasive plant that we've all been picking this week. But earlier today, I closed my eyes and found that the shadow of the spindly, tall green shoots was etched into my mind. After spending two days walking around canvasing the forest floor for the stuff, and hearing from Gary and the others about what it and other invasives can do to an ecosystem, I think that I really will have nightmares about it as well. It's not that the work is scarring. In fact, we're having the most fun we've had yet on project because we get to see beautiful parts of the arb not usually open to the public, and are working with amazing people. It's because garlic mustard is scarring.

       If you have an area of your backyard that isn't mowed or very well weeded, you probably have garlic mustard in it. 

images from: http://www.onlyfoods.net/garlic-mustard-alliaria-petiolata.html

If you do, you should pick it, and throw it away or burn it. You can spot the stuff along the sides of highways and roads, in backyards, and on the grounds of Lake Metroparks, where they've made the decision not to battle with it because of a lack of funding, and the seemingly unstoppable nature of its advance. It is biennial, and this is it's off year, but even in the area we were working in this morning, which has been managed for invasives by the Arboretum for years, five of us hiked out for lunch with ten trash bags full of adult plants. The plant takes over fields, the edges of streams, and patches of woods like the one shown in the second picture, where a break in the canopy lets in sun. It is extremely hardy and chokes out native species, and spreads its seeds through waterways, bird and animal scat, and mud that animals and humans track into different locations. Invasive plants in general tend to harm ecosystems by choking out the biodiversity and even the landscape of an area; if garlic mustard takes hold, it can prevent new trees form growing in an open spot, converting it permanently. 

     The debate among parks and people about whether or not we should pull invasives is a hot one; it takes tons of time, money and manpower, often involves the use of chemicals, and generally seems pointless given that not everyone in an area is going to eliminate the species on their own property, and so there will almost always remain a seed source. It takes a lot of resources, but as we've seen, areas that the Arboretum has maintained continuously, where they've made sure that there isn't an upstream or uphill seed source and perhaps that they've sprayed with a herbicide, contain very little of the stuff, and since the park's mission is as a preserve, the pulling makes sense. As I mentioned, Lake Metroparks doesn't pull garlic mustard, and Gary is currently trying to convince them to at least mow dow a patch of it that's directly across the street from a relatively garlic-free and hard to penetrate patch of Arboretum land that holds an endangered species of Ohio Rose. If the garlic mustard takes over that area, it very well could choke out this area, but since it is a rose and bramble patch it's very hard to maintain, so Gary needs to at least try to limit the seed sources. The effort to maintain biodiversity cannot be successful on a single tract of land; the neighbors, and everyone in the area, has to care enough about Ohio's nature to make an effort  and pull some weeds. 

     

Mr. D's visit

Today, Mr. Dlugosz came in to visit School of Rock. Today was a rehearsal day for the Jam Bands group, and Mr. Dlugosz came in just before we started playing. I had the opportunity to show him around a bit and introduce him to some of the guys at the school. We talked briefly about the school, and I got to learn a little bit about Mr. Dlugosz history with Rock and Roll and his chance encounter with one of my favorite musicians, Frank Zappa.
Before we could talk more, the rehearsal started, and Mr. Dlugosz got to see me in my element. We started off with a song called Soul Shine, originally written by the Allman Brothers Band. The group was a bit small today, so I had to fill in on vocals. My brief time as a singer was fun and got to show Mr. Dlugosz how fun it is to play with the students at School of Rock. Afterwards we played a song that I played guitar on. Mr. Dlugosz got to see a little bit of that before he had to go. Thanks again for coming today!
For the rest of the day, I filled in on auxiliary percussion, laying down some beats on the conga for a Santana song. My hands felt like raw steaks by the end of rehearsal, but that's just a sign of hard work! Even though not everyone showed up, the students that were there made a lot of progress towards their final performance. I couldn't be more excited!

Working with Lake Metroparks

Last week, Emma and I worked with the Lake Metroparks to help build a trail as well as help out on any other projects they were doing. When we first started, we showed up at the warehouse where we were instructed to meet everyone. Wearing our work boots and colorful raincoats, we tromped inside to meet the crew. I couldn't help but laugh as I saw how out of place we were. I have to admit that I felt a little silly being the smallest people by far. We were definitely not the muscular men surrounding us. This initially made me question whether or not we could actually be of any help. From this experience, I got the feeling that being a girl automatically puts you slightly out of place. It was very clear that women are not part of the crew, probably because they are generally not able to do a lot of the work if it involves much physical strength.

Anyway, let's get back to the part where Emma and I are in the warehouse staring back at the intimidating crew that soon will become our friends. We are finally sent off in a vehicle to our first work site, where we are to help build a trail down to a campsite. 

First, we layed down fabric along the 6ft wide trail.

After that, they began laying down gravel on top. While we couldn't operate any machinery, we did make ourselves useful by raking it out.

After two days, the trail was almost complete. The final steps were to first build a couple of water bars, and then to use a tamping machine to compress and smooth out the gravel. Emma and I both tried using the tamper, but we found it a tad more difficult to move and control than we had expected.

Building waterbars to reduce erosion from surface water

By the end, I feel like we became much more aware of how much time and effort it takes to create trails as well as make them sustainable so that they will be maintainable in the future.

Here's a look at the finished trail and the campsite that it leads to:

 

We also planted some Canadian Hemlocks to improve the aesthetics at the Chapin Forest Reservation in Kirtland.

New Adventures, New People - Day Eight

I get to meet lots of interesting people-student nurses, doctors, professors, students (mostly from Case), and other seniors finishing their own senior project-while at Rainbow. I've become really close to the other volunteers on my floor, and we've sort of become a tight-knit community. One girl left last week because it was her last day for her senior project-so we were all sad to see her leave. She and I were the only ones who volunteered consecutive days. There are several other volunteers, but they all alternative every day and none of them are here all day like I am. So for the last week, I have sort of taken the reins in the morning and clean, organize, and put away all the toys and books in the playroom by myself. The other volunteers, when it's their day, usually come for 3 hours from 9:30-12:30.

The past 2 days, another volunteer has been here for the few hours. She and I put the kids in their strollers and paraded around Rainbow 6 floor. It was a blast, we all were waving and cheering as we past the nurses, and the kids loved all the attention! Just imagine 2 strollers with little kids in them, another patient in a wheelchair, and 2 volunteers finding joy and entertainment with their mini-parade.

Today, I met a student from Case. It was really interesting to hear all about her studies and how she wanted to take a few summer classes at Rainbow. As a junior, she's now deciding to major between engineering or pre-med. She thought it was really cool that I was volunteering for my senior project and wanted to hear all about my experiences at Rainbow. Of course, I said I've absolutely loved my project, and it's one of the most rewarding experiences I've had.

~Clare

A Visitor - Day Seven

I met Mr. Dlugosz on the first floor in the atrium this morning, smelling like bleach and clorox. That's because I had been cleaning toys that had not been washed over the weekend

Mr. Dlugosz chose the perfect day to come and visit Rainbow-it wasn't too slow, but it wasn't too busy on my floor. I basically gave him a very brief tour of my floor and daily routine and introduced him to one of the patients I have been playing with for the past few days. This boy loves to run, so Mr. D. and I chased after him around and around...and around the floor! I hope Mr. D. wasn't too tired. Mr. D. came on a pretty chill day, since I wasn't always occupied with crying babies--again, he was lucky! Most of the babies from last week were discharged over the weekend--yay!!!!!

Right after Mr. D. left, I had the most exciting adventure I've had on my project. I took an 18 month old patient (the on I had been playing with) downstairs to the atrium/cafeteria. This was so exciting because most of the patients on my floor are either too young, too fragile, or always sleeping. The little boy was absolutely thrilled to see something new and take a tour of the first floor of Rainbow. I pushed him around in his stroller and even took him to the gift shop, where he stared at the stuffed animals.

~Clare

A Week With Lake Metroparks

Last week Sarah and I worked with various departments of the Lake County Metroparks, helping to build trails and improve natural spaces and also learning about how they manage human access in their parks. Lake Metroparks has some very unique concerns in terms of the development and maintenance of its parks. As a publicly funded system, their job is to allow access to as many people as desire it,  and as a system with limited funding they have to carefully consider the cost of their projects. Guy Wagner, who was in charge of the Maintenance department we were working with, said that one of the ways that they have tackled these issues when they're developing parks is to put in an 8 foot wide road all the way through a property and build gravel and dirt spur trails off of it. This saves a lot of money and time during construction and maintenance of these spur trails, as they can drive almost any vehicle on these 8 foot trails. At  first we thought that is was strange that the system puts in 6 foot wide gravel trails almost everywhere instead of just using a well-made dirt trail, but then we learned that this was an effort to allow greater access for people with disabilities, and also that due to the high volume of foot traffic that many of the parks get, even the gravel paths are destroyed by people walking, and a dirt trail would be impossible to keep free of mud patches, and impossible to keep people on. The parks do have dirt and horse trails, which Guy says are by far the biggest drain on their maintenance efforts, as well as lots of boardwalks, which are constructed both to allow wheelchair access, keep people dry and to lower the impact that a trail has on an environment.


The trail that we were working on building was one of the 6-foot wide gravel trails, a very short stretch that runs to a small new campsite that people can rent. The park system has put in five other rustic campsites, which are rented out to a single group at $10 a night and stocked with free firewood, in an effort to bring more people into the parks and give them a new experience. The main reason for building a gravel trail to this spot even though the foot traffic to it will be relatively minor is so that they can deliver firewood in a vehicle.

 On our first day working with a trail building crew we learned just how much work it is to maintain parks in an area as big as Lake county; we met at the main maintenance building on Spear Rd in Painsville, and after the men we were working with loaded all the machinery that was stored there we drove to our site, which is connected by a stretch of 8-foot trail to Penitentiary Glen, and then had to wait around for about 20 more minutes while they drove into Pen Glen and came back by that trail with a Skid Skid. A big part of all of their jobs is driving, shuffling equipment and machines, and looking out and reporting what needs to be done at various parks and sites.

The new Lake Erie Bluffs park makes great use of boardwalks because they provide wheelchair access right up to the beach, allow the trails to go through wetlands instead of skirting around, and also ensures that people wont go off into areas that they have identified as fragile. The land was once slated for development, but after the recession the developer sold it, and the Metroparks have been slowly building trails to allow people to access this prime birding spot. We spent one day flagging the wetland areas of what will soon be a new trail, most of which will be boardwalk, which will indicate to the trail building crew where they should definitely be building boardwalk and also be careful to disturb the area as little as possible.

The Future Building of Friendship Circle

Friendship Circle is planning on making some big renovations to their building in the upcoming year, and I have been a part of the process of making those plans real.  Rabbi Yossi, the executive director of the organization, had some initial designs drawn up.  The biggest change that is happening is that they are building a simulated real life town.  There is one room, which now is called the sanctuary, that is a very large open space.  Next year, the plan is that this space will be transformed into what looks like a town.  Small spaces will be cut out and turned into different shops.  For example there will be a doctor’s office, a salon, a bank, etc.  What this does is it teaches the kids that Friendship Circle services real life skills.  Some kids may have difficulty seeing a doctor or getting their hair cut, and this simulated town will help them learn to be comfortable in those situations.

My role in this has been to lay out the preliminary designs onto the actual room so that we can see how much space we have and what this town will look like.  I have been taking the designs and scaling them up to match the real room.  Using a measuring tape and some masking, I laid out the floor plan of the future room. Hopefully in the next week or so, an architect that Friendship Circle ahs hired will come and see if this vision is possible.   

Hearts, Hand Turkeys, and Puzzles - Day Six

Today reminded me a bit like a day at the camp I work at every summer. I work with kindergarteners every summer, so their ages range between 4, 5, and 6. Today at Rainbow, I spent a while with a 4 year old girl. When I first met her last week, she was a bit shy, but today she loved company. I love children at this age, because they have such a fresh and vibrant personalities. All she wanted was to watch me put together all kinds of princess puzzles (Frozen, Cinderella, Princess Sophia, etc.)! We kept going from one activity to the next. It was so cute when she asked me to bring her exactly 7 pieces of colorful paper and exactly 7 markers. She had me draw big and little hearts to make for her family. I made a little family of hearts for her “daddy” from her. When she seemed finished with that, she immediately started to make “hand turkeys” with my hand. She got marker all over her hands and mine. She reminded me of my campers because there was never a dull moment. She kept jumping up and down on her hospital bed and onto the floor. It was quite entertaining, and it was really refreshing to play with an older kid since I had mostly been holding babies and toddlers last week.

~Clare