DAY 2!
After a restful night of sleep, all 8 of us arose bright and early Monday morning to start our first day of work! We did some deconstruction work on a project for the Our West Bayfront Organization. It was cold and hard, but we had a lot of fun and certainly made the best of it!
Following our morning/afternoon of hard labor, we came home to start preparing for our dinner with the mayor. We were honored that he agreed to come have a meal with us and were so excited to host him. Caroline set up different "cooking stations for us each to work at so we all had our own duties and responsibilities! We had a blast spending time together and making an excellent meal. It was really awesome to learn so much from each other about the ways we cook and the different strategies we each had for recipes and cooking!
Before the mayor arrived, Maddie and Katie posted large signs around the room that said "What we want to see change in Erie", "What we love about Erie", and "Why we chose to stay in Erie for spring break". Then we had everyone write their answer to each question on the paper. When the mayor got there, he asked if he could add his own answers to the questions! Under "What we want to see change in Erie", he wrote that he wants to see everyone be accepted for who they are and put an end to racism.
Also before the mayor arrived, Maddie and Katie had all of the students submit questions that they wanted to ask the mayor. We gave each person a notecard of their questions as a reminder if they needed it at dinner. When we finally sat down to dinner, we were able to have engage in great conversation with Mayor Schember. He was very open and honest with us and answered all of our questions to the best of his ability. We were so thankful that he was able to join us for a meal and talk to us about his job!
After the long process of cleaning up our awesome meal, we sat down for reflection. Katie and Maddie could tell that the group was really exhausted from the day so we did a bit of an unconventional reflection. Instead of the hefty reflection we had planned for the evening, we just sat down and bonded as a group by asking each other questions about our lives. It was really awesome to get to know each other at a deeper level and hear what makes everyone so special.
When we were wrapping up and getting ready to go to bed, Caroline surprised the group with personalized journals for each of us! We were so thankful for her thoughtful spirit and excited to get to start journaling together! After a long, hard day, we all crashed immediately after reflection so we could get a good night sleep for the day ahead!
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| Mayor Schember gave each of us light up pens with his mission statement on them! |
Looks like the Mayor really appreciated spending time with you guys. Kudos to him for listening to his "temporary" constituents. Keep up the great work Gannon!!
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