A group of 20 AmeriCorps members and volunteers from various New Jersey
colleges ventured to Ashville, North Carolina from May 16-20 to weatherize
old homes. An enthusiastic group of present and recent college
students=small changes to energize the difference..
So first of all, why NC you ask?
Asheville, NC was hard hit due to the recession. Along with Community
Action Opportunities from Asheville, we sought to help people who could
not afford to weatherize their old homes. It was our mission to facilitate
4 apartment units to optimal efficiency with the hearts and hands that we
had. Still you ask, why NC? Whether we are weatherizing in New Jersey or
10 hours away, energy which is wasted is energy that can be saved. When
one takes a step back and looks are the larger picture through prospective
eyes, every single person’s impact (negative or positive), affects
everybody else, eventually.
Work Work Work
Everyday from about 9:00AM to 4:00PM we weatherized homes. People crawled
through tight attic spaces balancing on beams and scrap wood in order to
seal up cracks and holes which were abundant in old homes. Cracks and
holes were found in the attic, the main living floors, as well as the
basements. These energy wasters allow heat or air conditioning to escape
homes, thus the use of more energy to reach the desired temperatures. We
had to find them ALL.
Work/Play
The definition of “work” was quite different on this trip. Because
everyone believed in this cause, it was easy to find willing hands. People
rotated jobs for personal enlightenment–to be able to better assess and
fix homes to make them more energy efficient. Every night, we debriefed
the day in order to organize our thoughts and suggestions. We debriefed
our lives to better understand each other.
Some Play
Asheville provided an interesting array of clothing, music and art stores
which we all seemed to fancy. After devouring delicious pizza from the
Mellow Mushroom we browsed through bookstores and bought trinkets from
kind shops. This artificial beauty captured us as much as the natural
beauty we were surrounded by. The beautiful Appalachians’ luscious,
charismatic greenery could be seen for miles and miles.
Overall, we spent a great deal of hours weatherizing homes and just getting to know one another with a gorgeous nature-y backdrop.
Ah the simple life.
