M.O.V.E. Service Extended Trip Kentucky CAP

This Spring Break I was lucky enough to participate in one of M.O.V.E. service trips which are offered on breaks. I got to go to Jackson County Kentucky and work with CAP (Christian Appalachian Project) work-fest. CAP has work fest every year where they have numerous colleges come during their spring break for a week to help repairing houses. Work-fest is three weeks long and we went down for the last week of work-fest. During the week we get divided up into teams so different colleges are working together (I was the Green team). Each team gets assigned a house and family and does repairs and work depending on the needs of their family. At my site we were mainly working on siding the trailer and putting up the roof. I am now a master at siding and ventured up on the steep roof...I never had a fear of heights until I was on that roof! (My crew leader Pat was a great sport and helped me get up on the roof and enjoyed my ridiculousness and new discovered fear of steep roofs).

My group was comprised of all girls who are from NYC, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Chicago! Our crew leader Pat put up with our screams, are laughter and korny jokes all week long and taught us all our skills. By the end of the week we were getting along so well and had really connected. We had started off as having limited skills to talking and knowing all the construction lingo....J-channeling, snips, a level and many more technical skills. It was a great trip to get to know new people from other schools along with a group of Saint Michael's kids that I really didn't know prior to the trip.

As a SMC group we bonded as we had travel delays and long waits sitting in various airports due to weather delays. We even wrote a poem about our crazy travel adventures to get to Kentucky (thank you Mischo)! We all were silly together and then could have really great conversations about all our experiences and work we had done. To this day I still think about Kentucky everyday and CAP and my family that I worked with. Kentucky now means a lot more to me and I hope to return some day and work with CAP again.

I Think every Saint Mike's student and faculty member should go on one of these trips because they really change your perspective and allow you to get close to other SMC students that you didn't really know before hand. Check out my slideshow to see the kind of work I did and some fabulous group photos!!

Ktuck <3

beth