Today, we worked at the salvation army and Nevins volunteer center.  At Salvation Army we helped bundle together information kits for donors, and we also helped families sign up for gifts.  Wrapping up the bundles was SUPER intense, and races were held to see who was the supreme bundle packing champion.  At Nevins we helped paint bathrooms, and now we're all basically professional painters.  While we were painting someone broke a sink, but I'm not WILLing to say who may or may not have broken this sink.  The Nevins volunteers were really nice, and they were WILLing to put the sink back in place.  All in all today was a great day, and we got to help out a lot of really cool people.

October 6, 2016

         The Accessibility Awareness Alternative Fall Break group boarded vans to leave the University of Tennessee campus at 6:30am this morning. After four hours of forming connections with one another, napping, and even freestyle rapping, we arrived at the Christ Lutheran Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team was promptly scheduled to complete a service project after a quick lunch and set out on our first service experience of Fall Break.

        At 2:00pm, we met a representative from Love Inc., an organization which seeks to aid "individuals living with severe needs in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community that no social service agency or ministry is able to serve." The group was tasked with constructing a ramp attached to a porch for a family whose members use wheelchairs and other forms of mobility assistance. By learning to use power saws, nail guns, and various construction tools, we were able to successfully create a ramp (pictured below) that the family we served can utilize for years to come. 

         We had the opportunity to learn the story of some incredible individuals, who have made a positive impact on our lives, and truly make a difference in theirs. While it seemed like a significant amount of time was spent humorously navigating from one location to another, the Accessibility Awareness group formed meaningful connections in Charlotte in just the first day of the trip.
         Stay tuned to keep up with the upcoming projects of our team,

         The UTK Accessibility Awareness Alternative Fall Break group

Charlotte is a beautiful city that is known for its tourist attractions and skyscrapers and is the third fastest growing major city in the United States. However, behind all of its advancement, Charlotte is a city with high disability and poverty rates. From age 21 to 64, about 48% of the male population and 52% of the female population are listed with disability. A fairly alarming number of people also receive education of less than high school degree. Disability and poor education are either results of or both leading to poverty, which in turn will create further problems.

        We are hoping to raise more public awareness regarding this topic and what could be the consequences of it. We will be focusing on helping at different service sites with disabled individuals, building community, and public-provided clinics/food bank/centers. Our reflections will mainly cover how disability is not something people can help and how much it can affect one’s life. We also hope to give encouragement to those with disabilities from the small gestures that we can offer them while we are there.

Last tuesday we received our participants! We revealed our location to them through Cake Pops that had letters in them. We are very excited to leave in two short weeks.