By Loretta Jordan, Communications Associate
On Monday, November 2, at 5:30 A.M., 8 other Americorps and I left for the Austin airport. We were travelling to Shocco Springs, a Baptist conference center in Talladega, Alabama, for the 2009 National Service Leadership Conference: Serve, Learn, Lead.
I, for one, was not particularly excited for a week of classes and cafeteria food. I ended up being pleasantly surprised. Nearly 600 Americorps from 154 Habitat affiliates across 36 states gathered together, along with many affiliate site managers and HFHI staff. It was a great networking opportunity. I met another second year Communications VISTA from the wonderful Charlottesville, NC, affiliate, as well as the marketing and social media specialist from HFHI. I even had the opportunity to meet the executive director from Coastal Habitat in my hometown of Spring Lake, NJ, who as it turns out, helped write the legislation for the Americorps program.
We had many great discussions and fun learning activities. In one of my classes, we competed to see who could work as a team to build the highest balloon castle (my team won). After our classes, the fun continued, and I even forgot about my non-athletic nature and participated in Four Square and bowling. I drew the line at Capture the Flag.
The final ceremony was an emotional one, as we heard from both Clive Rainey, Habitat for Humanity’s first volunteer, and the first single white male Habitat homeowner in Texas. Together, all 600 Habitat for Humanity Americorps recited the Americorps pledge to “get things done.” I believe I speak for us all when I say we returned with renewed motivation and enthusiasm.
Check out the video: http://sharing.theflip.com/session/2ddc95127d0582ab6487e7854aa07ba1/video/7123037
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I also attended the conference with 3 other AmeriCorps members from our affiliate (HFH-Montgomery County, MD) and although we went in with low expectations we were pleasantly surprised!