Our West Bayfront

Dear friends, family, and supporters, Welcome to the Our West Bayfront Spring Break 2019 Blog! Thank you for following and supporting us. We are preparing ourselves for an 8 day service trip in Erie, Pa (Home to Gannon University). The student leaders are Maddie Rowley and Katie Gress. We Leave in ...  https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20190303T12&p0=814&msg=OWB+SPRING+BREAK&font=cursive I am a junior PA Major from Cleveland, Ohio. My freshman year I had the opportunity to go to Guatemala on an ABST during my spring break. I made many new friends and connections who I still am in touch with today and learned so much about myself and others. My ABST experience impacted me greatly and is definitely one of the highlights of my Gannon career. I am very excited to embark on this 8 day adventure, meet new people, and help the OWB neighborhood while learning more about the place I have called home for the last 3 yea...

Blog #6 To friends and family - this is Caden with the last blog post of the trip.          This week has been a life-changing adventure where each person has grown from the different experiences we have all encountered this past week. On our first day of the trip, we saw the most beautiful but mistreated people in the Erie community and it was truly an honor to serve them at Sunday Supper. Each morning we helped build the Saint Joseph Faith in Action home, which is one of the embers of hope in the Our West Bayfront/ Gannon community. I see this house as a spreading a fire that will reignite the surrounding community.           We also met with truly beautiful people who see Erie as the most marvelous place on earth and are dedicating their lives to the revitalization of Erie. Some of these people are not even original members of the city but have adopted it as there own.  It is truly a sight ...

Hi there this is Mariam one of the group leaders blogging today. So today we woke up early in the morning about 6:45 and prepared breakfast and were ready by 7:45 to work on the St. Joseph house to work on the dry wall. We finished the kitchen area so we really felt a sense of accomplishment because we started working on the house and it was just a frame inside.and now we can actually see the rooms and how every thing going to look like. But when we went today because of the weather we had to start an hour later. So instead we want to the MLK center and asked them if we can do something and they told us to prepare and clean a classroom so we did then we want and worked on the dry wall tell lunch time. Then after finishing lunch and cleaning up we went to the MLK center again to work on the library. We worked on organizing the books into the shelves and make sure that the books were for the right age group which was from 6 to 12 years old. After that we got the chance t...

GOOD MORNING FMAILY AND FRIENDS Blog # 5 the coolest of the blogs ;) My name is Caden and I’m taking you on bards tale. 6:00AM … Our day started with a wonderful breakfast, made by our amazing team leaders Sam, Maddie, and Mariam. It gave us energy for the hard work for the rest of the day. As we sat down we spoke about how much the R and R from yesterday boosted our spirits and moral. We also spoke about how we were ready for the new day! 8:00AM – 12:00PM … We were definitely underdressed for this occasion (not expecting the temperature drop from the high 60s to low 30s) but nerveless we were not broken. We pushed on and made it to our destination. The St. Joseph Faith in Action Home, it was the day we’ve been waiting for. Drywall day, with our stout hearts we were ready for this challenge. Unlike our last for insulation, drywall is a much harder challenge to traverses and to conquer. Though we only put up three walls, we felt that we had a su...

Hey Family and Friends!   Group leader Maddie is checking in with you all tonight! ABST OWB day four started out with a beautiful walk to Bayview Park to experience the sunrise together as a group.   The night before a couple group leaders made individualized overnight oats (chocolate peanut butter or brown sugar blueberry flavored) for the whole group to munch on while we watched the sunrise.   It was beautiful to experience the view that Our West Bayfront residents get to experience each morning. Following our sunrise experience, we went back First Pres (where we are staying) and we rested.   The introverts in the group really appreciated this.   We had the morning off from doing construction work at the St. Joseph House because our insulation job, that we did earlier this week, was being inspected.   After spending the morning resting and recharging, we decided to spend the afternoon exploring the city and bonding as a group.   One ...

 Hello! Cathy here tonight. Today on the work site, we did interior insulation and finished all the gaps and cracks around the windows. We were expected to take all week to do the insulation, but we finished with an hour to spare today! We need to wait for our work to be inspected before moving on to drywall so we may have a break from the construction tomorrow. I really enjoyed the productivity and how our group works together. Sam and I had a really nice rhythm to put up the interior insulation, and it's good to see how our group, in general,  anticipates each others' needs. We also had the chance to walk to the house today and see the neighborhood around it. It was sad to see how much litter there was on the streets. However, there were many beautiful houses nearby as well! For lunch, we had oatmeal energy bites as dessert. I made about three or four dozen last night, and only one remained by the end! Hopefully, I get the chance to make more for tomorrow. ...

Good evening lovely ABST readers! Thank you for following our journey so far as we rediscover Erie, PA! My name is Kendra Walker. I am a junoir accounting and finance major here at Gannon. Today, I have the honor of relaying the epic journey that we have embarked on. Sleeping in Solidarity  Our day started bright and early with breakfast at our host site the First Presbytrian Church of the Covenant. First off, I have to say even though we are sleeping on air mattresses it is pretty cool to think that we are staying in what looks like some lost European church but that is less than 10 blocks from my apartment. The First Presbytian Church of the Covenant really is an amazing place that I wish that I had spent more time at before this week. I am so honored at how welcoming the community has been to us and the works that they are doing in the community. As Sam had mentioned yesterday we had the opportunity to talk with Pat Tracy Sunday. There she mentioned that the church turns t...