Tour 40 Team Phone: 1-208-608-6321 Email: tour40team@thesca.org [1] Twitter: @Tour40Team Address: Coming to a city near you! Project Dates: 6/17/2011 - 9/28/2011
Dunkin’ and Bunkin’ in Boston [2]
Yesterday wrapped up our very quick trip to Massachusetts on the tour. Tyler, Diana, and I drove there on Monday afternoon in our stylish mini-van designed for the ultimate soccer mom. This was Tyler’s first time to Boston so he took half a day and explored the city with a climb up the Bunker Hill Monument and miles of walking and catching up with an old friend. Diana and I took full advantage of our New England locale and made as many visits to Dunkin’ Donuts as possible. Wednesday morning rolled in and it was project time already. We worked on Pier 1 of the Charlestown Navy Yard and it was awesome to be working in such a historic place. The U.S.S. Constitution and the U.S.S. Cassin Young were docked on either side of the Pier and the Boston skyline was in the background. We had a small but eager group of volunteers including Southwest employees, an AirTran employee, friends of Diana and Tyler, and an SCA employee. To start off the day Ethan from the Park gave a quick history lesson on the area and then Diana and I gave our safety talk complete with flight parodies and of course hand signals to further clarify. Our task was to remove weeds from hardscapes on the Pier to make the area more visually appealing for the millions of visitors it gets every year. This may sound boring and tedious but it was actually very relaxing and the morning went by very quickly. We were lucky the weather cooperated and it was cloudy and cool throughout the morning. All in all we filled two 55 gallon buckets with weeds. After the project Tyler and I enjoyed lunch at the Warren Tavern that dates back to the 1700’s! Tyler got his bowl of New England clam chowder that he was itching to try and they had great vegetarian options too.
- Becca
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When in Rome [7]
When In Rome…
Wednesday morning the Tour 40 team met with enthusiastic volunteers of all ages at Rome Point in the John H. Chafee Nature Preserve in Saunderstown, RI. After a great introduction to the area by Ranger John Downing the group took a hike through the preserve on the way to what would affectionately be called the trash pit. The trash pit has long been an illegal dumping site in the area and expectedly the low lying area was filled with a variety of trash including appliances, automobiles and decades of household refuse. The Southwest volunteers went to work in a fashion that the Tour 40 Team has become accustom to, which is quickly and efficiently filling bag after bag and wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow .
We quickly realized that if there was one good thing about the trash pit it was that at least it was filled with interesting trash. For the duration of the clean-up many volunteers participated in a very informal Who Can Find the Strangest Item? competition. Some of my personal favorite finds include a creepy doll head, a scuba flipper and an extremely bent up tricycle.
This day of service was wildly successful. After several hours of hard work from our volunteers it looked like a brand new pit. We took out over 65 bags of trash, 7 wheelbarrows of scrap metal, 2 refrigerators and a dryer. Thanks to the John H. Chafee Nature Preserve for hosting us and as always thanks to all the volunteers who came out and made this yet another awesome Tour 40 event!
Andrew Bousquet
Tour 40 Team
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Viva Manch Vegas [11]
About 2 months after this internship started, we are finally on the East Coast! We battled through the heat and humidity of the southwest and the Midwest, and were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves not sweating every time we stepped off the RV in Manchester. Not to say that we didn’t get our fair share of work done at our most recent project though!
We had one of our biggest turnouts of the trip, 74 volunteers who blasted through the work at Livingston Park. Marchetti led one group who transported and spread gravel along the Dorr’s Pond trail to level out the ground there. Kim led the other group, who, after taking a 10 minute scenic tour by coach bus to the site at Stark Landing, cleared out about half an acre of Japanese Knot Weed and anything else in their way! In the process they also managed to collect 14 bags of trash, not to mention a couple pillows and other odd items.
Big shoutout to the Manchester Community Crew who completed their part of the trail so fast, Andrew decided to play a couple games with them testing their inner ninja. The Tour 40 team also finally got to put some faces to names as we got a huge show of support from various SCA members and management who came to the event.
As always, thanks so much to all the volunteers who came out (SWA employees, Customers, friends, and family) Come see us in any of our upcoming cities! Boston/Providence is next!
Kim
and the Tour 40 Team
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Going Deep (Dishin) in Chicago [18]
We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day for our Chicago service project at Theodore Stone Forest Preserve. The sun shone through the clouds and blasted us with some good ol’ vitamin D. We had another great turnout with 33 volunteers, 5 of them SCA crewmembers of the Indiana Dunes team we trained with in Washington. It was great to show them exactly what the Tour 40 Team has been accomplishing all summer long and talking about the successes of the Dunes Team and what the future holds for them.
After acquainting ourselves with old and new friends, it was time to get to work. Theodore Stone Forest Preserve provided us with two projects: clearing out a trail for visitors of the park to hike through, and removing two nasty invasive plants, European buckthorn and bush honeysuckle. These two plants possess no natural predators, thus nothing can kill them off. Since nothing can contain them, they thrive and out-compete native plants that support the ecosystem of the park. Removal of these plants is necessary not only for the health of the park, but also the health of Chicago. European Buckthorn and bush honeysuckle block sunlight for understory plants, which causes these organisms to die. With no understory plants, bare soil is exposed and then washed away by rain, draining into the water supply of Chicago. The additional soil decreases the water quality, and can add pollutants to the water supply as well, thus the removal of these plants is also key to a healthy water supply for the inhabitants of Chicago.
With the hard work and dedication of Southwest volunteers alongside SCA leaders, the two groups ended up removing five 6 foot by 8 foot piles of European buckthorn and bush honeysuckle which equates to about one acre of invasive plant removal. The trails crew also paved out over 450 feet of new trail for visitors to enjoy a nice day walk after a picnic. Overall, the day was a success and everyone went home with a big ol’ smile on their face
Marchetti
and the Tour 40 Team
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These boots were made for Mil-waulkin' [24]
Our most recent service event brought us to the Urban Ecology Center at Washington Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Center aims to provide outdoor science education for youth, promote community by offering resources that support learning, volunteerism, stewardship, recreation, and camaraderie, and protect and enhance natural areas and the surrounding waters. Our project with the UEC involved removing various nonnative weeds from an area of rehabilitated prairie as well as the removal of an exotic invasive shrub called buckthorn.
On the morning of the event thunderstorms threatened to put a damper on the day, but the crew kept positive and we prepared the way we would for any event. Apparently the volunteers had the same idea because we had a great turnout from Southwest, AirTran and a special appearance from the Milwaukee SCA High school group. After we were welcomed to the park and given a brief history of the area by Willie and Joel from the UEC, we made the short walk to our worksite and got down to business. One group of volunteers scoured the one year-old prairie, removing load after load of nonnative weeds. The other group went to work pulling buckthorn from around the prairie and along a fence line. This was no simple task as mature buckthorn is more like a tree than a shrub, and it took the use of shovels, weed wrenches, and saws to remove it.
After all was said and done, nearly thirty wheelbarrows worth of weeds and buckthorn were removed and carted away to a composting area, and as an added bonus not only did it the weather hold out but it turned into an excellent sunny morning. The Tour 40 team considers our service event at the Urban Ecology Center a huge success and we would like to thank everyone who came out and played a part!
Andrew
and the Tour 40 Team
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We give St. Louis a 10 [31]
We wrapped up our 10th stop at Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park yesterday afternoon after a fun and messy morning painting two of the buildings at the special needs camp. The beautifully green Missouri park really hit home with Tour 40 Team member, Becca. In fact, she felt like she was literally AT home in the park. We were not expecting Missouri to look so similar to the Northeast. Watch out St. Louis, Becca will be coming back!
The park was located a bit further out from the Southwest station than most of our other projects, but volunteers were still more than willing to make the trip out. For the first time, the majority of the volunteers were Southwest Customers instead of employees. Looks like Customers are sharing the LUV!
By the end of the day we ended up doing more work than we thought we would be able to get to. Despite the lingering wasps and the heat, the volunteers painted the exterior of one 4080 square foot building and painted the front of another. A big thanks to everyone at Babler State Park for all of their help throughout the day!
By the way… any suggestions on getting paint out of jeans? :-D
-Kim and Diana
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Out of the Mud and into Missouri [39]
We had a short lived and busy day and a half in Kansas City, Missouri. After we got out of the mud in Denver we got right on the road for Missouri and arrived at our campground at about 12:30 am on Tuesday morning. We stayed at Weston Bend State Park where we would also host our service project. After getting the RV all tucked in for bed, organizing ourselves, and some pre-slumber chatter, we got to sleep around 2:30.
The next day brought us the usual pre-project planning and an RV overhaul to get all the mud and dirt out of it that it acquired from the field in Denver. Marchetti and Eric spent their evening off going to a Royals game and Kim, Tyler, Andrew, Diana, and I went to Jack Stack BBQ for a very late dinner. Kansas City looked very nice and I wish we had more time to explore. Jack Stack was good- even though I’m vegetarian. We got fried mushrooms to start and then I indulged in a veggie kebab and French fries. The meat eaters got burnt ends and I think the favorite dish of the night was the baked beans. Andrew and Tyler both drooled over them.
Today the alarms rang at 5:30 and we all silently started getting ready. Our group is not the most chipper before the sun rises. We took the 2 minute drive down the road of Weston Bend State Park to the site where we would be working. We had 24 volunteers, a lot of them were from VML, an advertising company that does work for Southwest Airlines so it was great to have them there along with SWA employees. I was in charge of photos and videos today while Diana and Eric roamed amongst the groups. I really enjoyed walking between the groups along the trails. The smells were great and I got to see some cool wildlife including an ebony jewel wing damselfly which I was very excited about. They’re so pretty!
Andrew, Tyler, Marchetti, and Kim were projects coordinators. Andrew’s group installed 20 water bars along a trail. The volunteers didn’t know what water bars were so they had no idea what they were getting themselves into until they hit the trail. At the end of the day their shirts were sweat stained and caked in mud but they definitely felt a sense of pride and accomplishment at getting all 20 bars put in.
Kim’s group stained a wooden overlook with a
beautiful view of the Missouri River. What’s even cooler is that there will be a wedding at that overlook next weekend so their work will be seen and appreciated by a lot of people! Marchetti and Tyler took a group of volunteers out on a 3 mile trail to clear brush from the sides and top of the trail. They covered a lot of ground and at the end of the day they were able to cover 2 miles of trail!
I give all the volunteers, my team members, and the Park employees and volunteers a lot of credit because today was extremely hot and humid but everyone powered through it and made a huge impact on the park. We completed 3 to 4 weeks’ worth of work for the park staff in a mere 3 hours. Great job Kansas City!
Becca
and the Tour 40 Team
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Denver: We put new meaning to the word: "Flexible" [44]
Guess what everyone?! We’re finally out of the mud and rolling to Kansas City, Missouri! For all of you Tour 40 Junkies who couldn’t join us in Denver, how about I tell you a little about it. On July 16th the tour 40 Team arrived at Barr Lake State Park where we had planting trees and seeding a grass field on the brain. Too bad those thoughts were quickly erased due to the fact our RV got stuck in the mud. In order to make room for all the volunteer’s cars the team needed to park our RV in a soggy, wet field. The sheer weight of our RV caused it to sink into the muck where it sat for the whole project (and a couple of days).
It’s all good though, for the Tour 40 Team put a new meaning to the word flexible. An RV in the mud could not stop us from completing this project with the Southwest Airlines Employees and Barr Lake State Park staff and volunteers. While the boys went to work with shovels and wooden blocks to get the RV out of the field, Becca, Diana, and Kimbo held registration down and organized our volunteers textbook style. It was a race against time to get the RV out on schedule for the service project, but only four men can’t pull an RV out. Thus it was time to call in the reserves, the reserves being Southwest Airline’s Employees! We rallied up 15 Southwest Airlines employees for an attempt to push the RV out of the mud, but that failed as well. No matter what we did that RV just would not budge.
Our fun and energetic volunteers took our minds off our RV woes. We once again had planting trees and seeding a grass field back on the brain along with some other tasks. We teamed up with Barr Lake State Park’s Lake Appreciation Day volunteers for a service day of epic proportions. With the hard work and dedication of the volunteers of Southwest Airlines and the Barr Lake State Park Staff we ended up raking and seeding 1/3 of an acre of a field, installed 12 concrete blocks for parking, planted 15 trees, and mulched around 35 trees. Talk about a productive day, right?!
In the afternoon, our superb volunteers were rewarded with enjoy canoeing, archery, face painting, a BBQ lunch, and even a bounce house for the kids! Even though our RV did not get recovered until July 18th, the Tour 40 Team had a blast and a half with everyone who came out and volunteered. Thanks a lot everyone. You made a sticky situation spectacular!
P.S. We got to shoot some arrows at the archery range…be jealous!
Marchetti
and the Tour 40 Team
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Viva Mulch Vegas! [50]
Greetings from hot and humid Las Vegas, Nevada! We finished up another Tour40 project at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve this morning where we assisted their gardening crew in mulching, sweeping and litter clean up. The volunteers arrived full of energy and ready for anything the day would bring them. It was difficult pulling them away from the work site at the end of the day! Due to a storm blowing through the preserve yesterday, there was an extra amount of debris covering the pathways and some trees had been blown down. By the end of the project we had spread mulch over a large majority of the gardens and public walking areas and picked up ten full bags of litter! A big thanks to everyone from the Springs Preserve for all of their help during and after our service event!
We pulled into the city that never sleeps on Friday evening where we checked into Bally’s Resort and Casino for the next three nights. Our free time was spent strolling the infamous Strip, winning (and losing for some) money at the casinos and even catching a Cirque de Soleil show at Treasure Island! We also indulged in a 24-hour buffet pass which granted us unlimited access to seven different buffets across the Strip. From 7pm Friday night to 7pm on Saturday the only thing on all of our minds was when and where we were going to eat next. I think we consumed enough prime rib and King crab legs to cater an entire wedding!
Breaking News: We have added a temporary 8th member to the Tour40 road team! We welcomed Bill, our resident videographer into our RV family this morning , where he will be riding along with us all the way into Denver! He will be a great new addition and we heard rumors that he’s a fantastic cook! Just what we need after our Vegas Buffet marathon!
Welp, That’s all for now…See y’all in Denver!!
Diana and Tour 40 Team
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A Giant(s) Bay Area experience [53]
Our experiences in San Francisco were filled with nothing less than fun, laughter, sunshine and beautiful views of the picturesque bay. We arrived late at night on July 2 to our 5th home on the tour, Coyote Park Recreation Area. Thankfully one of our awesome service partners, San Mateo Parks, let us stay on location of where a project would take place.
Thanks to our groovy project leaders, Tyler and Eric, we had two days off to explore the Bay area and see what new cultures, people and places we could discover during the 4th of July weekend. Andrew, Marchetti and Tyler quenched their thirst for the great Red Woods of the west by visiting Big Basin and going on a grand six mile hike while Diana, Becca and her friend from New York went whale watching and won some tickets to the Aquarium by the Bay. Marchetti, Andrew and Kimi headed out to Berkley for the 4th of July to enjoy some rock climbing while Eric went into San Francisco. Becca, Diana and Tyler escaped the crowded city to a hike in Muir Woods for the day. We were lucky enough to cap off the night with a view of the fireworks show from our RV site right on the Bay.
After much preparation, July 6 rolled around the corner with enthusiastic, energized and joyful Southwest Airlines employees. This time, we put on two projects with two great service partners, San Mateo Parks at Coyote Point Recreation Area located in San Mateo, CA and East Bay Regional Parks at the Tidewater Boating Center located in Oakland, CA.
The project at Coyote Point Park entailed planting 50 trees around a stellar playground that included a 20 foot slide and various swing sets. Now children and their parents will not only take pleasure in the playground, but they can also enjoy freshly planted trees. The team and volunteers also painted repaired 17 benches around the park which really brightened the picnic area. Special guest Jay Watson, SCA's Western Regional Director, joined us and helped the volunteers in completing the task at hand. We also would like to drop a special shout out to the park rangers of Coyote Point Recreational Area for being friendly, fun, helpful and awesome people to work with.
The East Bay Regional Park at Tidewater Boating Center project encompassed removing 40 bags of invasive weeds that crowded the shore line along with the planting of 30 trees. We also ended up collecting six bags of micro-trash at the end of a stream that discharges into the bay. It felt amazing to give back to this center since the Tidewater Boating center boasts epic scenes of the bay along with views of rowing teams competing against one another in a channel that flows out into the bay. Along with the Southwest volunteers, Tidewater Boating Center’s employees, and Bettina Mok and Katie Myszka of SCA’s Oakland office took time out of their busy schedule to come support the team. They definitely know how to share the spirit!
We would like to thank all of the volunteers that came out to the July 6 events in the Bay Area. Words cannot describe how much we all love interacting and sharing our time together with each and every one of you. This project could not be possible without the support of Southwest Airlines volunteers and our service partners. For the Bay Area project we would especially like to thank Laura Jackson and Brad Hawkins for their awesome volunteer spirit. We know how busy your schedules are and appreciate all of your efforts!
Marchetti and the Tour 40 Team
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Diana Forbes - Corps Member [60]
Diana joins the Tour 40 Team this summer coming to us from Agawam, Massachusetts. She graduated from the University of Tampa last May and spent the following season as an Intern at Walt Disney World as a scuba diver and conservation educator. Having never done a SCA program before, she is excited to partner with them as well as Southwest Airlines to hit the road and see the country!
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LA-Xtravaganza [64]
What’s up LA?? We rolled in to LA on Tuesday evening and are staying in Burbank (about 15 miles north of LA). Last night I went to Runyon Canyon with Diana and Marchetti in hopes of seeing celebrities. At least Diana and I were hoping to see celebrities, Marchetti could have cared less. We convinced him to come with us by conveniently leaving out the part about the celebrities. The drive to the canyon was great. I drove by NBC and WB studios where lots of TV show magic happens I’m sure. Unfortunately Diana's and my dream of celeb spotting was not fulfilled but we got great views of the city and mountains from the top of the canyon.
After that we tried to make our way to Kim's house because her mom was cooking dinner for all of us. Dinner with Kim’s family was wonderful! The food and the company was great and it was nice to eat at a real dinner table again. I definitely took for granted the comfort of eating dinner around a table before this project.
Today was our Los Angeles project. We worked with Million Trees LA and Heart of LA (HOLA) to distribute 200 fruit trees to people in the community and judge an art contest. The art contestants were members and alumni of HOLA and the winners received SWA tickets to visit the college of their choice. I could tell how much these tickets meant to the kids as I was talking to them so I was really touched to be a part of the event. Marchetti and Andrew headed up the trash pick-up group while Kim was being paparazzi all day. Diana and I took care of a lot of the behind the scenes work with Eric, registering people, setting up the water/snack tables, and making sure everything ran smoothly.
After the event we had a great photo shoot with RJ, the SWA photographer. We were outside the RV alongside the road in Burbank. We were definitely a spectacle to cars driving by but we all had a good time and hopefully RJ got at least a few shots where we all look good. Thanks RJ! Tomorrow is our day off so we are ready to hit the town and see as much of LA as possible before we head up to the Bay Area on Saturday.
Becca and the Tour 40 Team
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Phoenix Heat Wave? No Problem! [70]
On the morning of Monday, June 27, a group of roughly 70 volunteers woke up with a common goal in mind.
What drove them to wake up as early as 5am to reach the Rio Salado Audubon Visitor Center? Was it the rush to beat the rising sun? Or maybe it was to get into an early rising routine?
What if we were to say it was to perform service for the community? Well that sounds about right.
Our Tour 40 team worked alongside the Audubon Center and Phoenix City Parks and Recreation to develop three projects for the service day. These included: invasive plant removal, trash clean up and trail maintenance.
From 7am to 10am, teams of volunteers worked on all three projects while combating the desert sun. Water was provided at several locations throughout the project site to ensure volunteers had ample access to water. As the day progressed, volunteers continued to bring a great attitude to the projects.
We even had a visit from Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly! Gary and other staff from the Southwest Dallas headquarters were part of a great opening ceremony to start the service, worked alongside staff from the Phoenix airport throughout the volunteer day and helped close out the day on a high note.
The Tour 40 team was able to manage the project successfully thanks in part to the great volunteers who arrived eager to work and make a difference.
Overall 15 bags of invasive plants, 10 bags of trash and 6 bags of recyclables were removed near the riverbed by the Audubon Visitor Center. In addition, volunteers helped Phoenix City Parks and Recreation staff to rake 30 piles of brush for removal.
Thank you to all the SWA Staff and Volunteers for coming out and making this a great event in Phoenix. Thank you to the Rio Salado Audubon Visitor Center and Phoenix City Parks and Recreation for accommodating the project and for a great day!
We’re headed west--Los Angeles here we come!
Tyler and the Tour 40 Team
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Albuquerque: Conquered! [74]
Well, our time in Albuquerque has already come and gone but the folks we met there didn’t need long to make an awesome impression on the Tour 40 Team. We know that it should come as no surprise that volunteers from Southwest show up to an event enthusiastic about serving their community and prepared to work hard, but our team is blown away each time. If the Dallas and Albuquerque events are any indication of things to come then the Tour 40 should result in an incredible amount of great conservation work.
Volunteers arrived bright and early at the beautiful Albuquerque Open Space Visitors Center where they met the Tour 40 Team, marveled at our awesome RV, and prepared for the day with sunscreen application and ample hydration. These folks were on top of group safety! Before getting down to business the group heard from some of our excellent hosts at Albuquerque Open Space, Jim and Steve. They gave us a brief introduction to Open Space, some history from the area and prepared the group with project specifics. The volunteers were charged with improving a wetland area by removing non-native plants that steal vital nutrients and growing space from local flora and then planting saplings that will grow into a natural wind break for the area, a challenge they were all willing to accept.
Now came the moment everyone was waiting for, time to grab tools and get to work. Becca’s crew made it a bad day to be a weed at Albuquerque Open Space. With hawk like vigilance her crew removed five truck-loads of non-native plants. The banks along the wetland looked totally different after this dream team rolled through. At the same time this was happening Andrew and his crew were digging holes and prepping saplings for planting. Sounds like a simple task doesn’t it? Well the hard Albuquerque ground had other ideas. Despite adversity the volunteers powered through with smiles on their faces and at the end of the day there were sixteen new trees in the ground.
We can’t thank those who came out enough. The Tour 40 Team had a blast meeting you and serving alongside of each and every one of you. We hope that we will see you all again at a stop down the road.
Thanks for everything Albuquerque! For now, on to Phoenix!
Andrew and the Tour 40 Team
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Tour 40 Kick Off - Dallas [79]
Thank youuuuu Dallas! The Tour 40 team just kicked off the Conservation in Action Tour and wished Southwest Airlines a happy 40th birthday by celebrating in true SWA and SCA style with three different service projects and a huge party…in an airplane hangar. Gotta LUV working with an airline company!
At 6:30 Friday morning, after scarfing down the hotel breakfast buffet that we all had come to know and love, the team donned our yellow staff shirts and was ready to divide and conquer…our different Dallas service projects, that is.
Diana and Becca were leaders at the Texas Trees Foundation, the largest urban non-profit tree farm in the nation, where over 300 canyon-blue clad volunteers arrived at 8 in the morning to the sounds of a DJ, SWA CEO Gary Kelly, and the sight of over 500 trees ready for a new home. Becca took charge of showing volunteers how to repot trees that had outgrown their smaller planters, and Diana worked with a group who dug holes for larger trees to be placed in. All in all, after a flurry of activity from eager volunteers, a month’s work was done in only a couple of hours.
Kimi was flying solo with her team over at the Trinity River Audubon Center, complete with a wonderful LEED certified building with recycled jeans soundproofing and an even more beautiful setting next to the Trinity River. We never would have guessed it used to be a landfill. One man’s trash is another man’s gorgeous conservation site apparently! The 100 or so excited volunteers that arrived were placed to work all over the site, helping repair fences, widening trail, planting native grasses, collecting seeds, and even removing some dead Christmas trees.
Over at Rochester Park, Andrew and Marchetti’s crew of a 100 volunteers quite literally followed in the footsteps of a previous SCA crew that had first created the trail system that brought new life to a park that had been overrun by off-highway vehicles (OHV). The Tour 40 team cleaned up that same trail and dominated the litter bug by collecting about 50 bags of trash, 20 bags of recycling, cleared over 1500 feet of trail, and restored a vandalized kiosk.
Thanks to everyone involved in our first project, from the SWA Communications Team that gave us a second home at headquarters to the SCA community that flew in from all over the country to support us for the day. And of course, the amazing volunteers who showed us the Southwest Warrior Spirit in 100 degree weather and learned our most important rule: stay hydrated! The RV that we are currently riding on, thankfully, is nicely air-conditioned and taking us away to Albuquerque for our next project on Monday. One project down, 38 more to go! Can’t wait to (as the Texans say) see y’all out on the road!
Kim and the Tour 40 Team
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Tour 40 - Dallas Training [84]
Oh me oh my, how much training did the Tour 40 Team get?
This is the third different post and the second different region.
After Seattle, the team flew to Houston to pick up their retrofitted RV that they will be traveling, working and living in throughout the entire Tour 40. 4 months, 7 people, one RV!
From Houston the team took the RV to Dallas and placed it in a secured Southwest Airlines parking area where it would stay until the day of Southwest Airlines 40th Anniversery celebration.
Team members were in Dallas for two weeks, attending different workshops with Southwest and SCA facilitators. The team also utilized this time to finalize logistics for their first few projects and to figure out what living on an RV really entailed.
During this time the Dallas Mavericks were playing the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals and the city of Dallas was buzzing with excitement. The team got to celebrate the victory as we watched it unfold on the television screen. It was a great time in Dallas and getting to celebrate the kick off of Tour 40 was just the beginning!
Tour is on the way!
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Seattle Training [87]
After a great CMT in Longview, Washington,
The Tour 40 Team traveled into Seahawks and Mariners Country. Seattle, Washington, home of some large coffee chains, computer technology companies and Piroshky Piroshky!
Team Members stayed at a Hostel in the international district, allowing them to walk to many great restaurants and markets.
Training consisted of working with staff at the SCA Seattle Office and Jill Baum from the SCA Boise Office.
Throughout the week the team went through cold call pratices, setting up projects, risk managment at projects and starting their initial contacts with site partners for the Tour 40 Conservation in Action Tour.
At the end of the week the team participated in National Trails Day and worked alongside the SCA Seattle Community Program and local high school students. Projects included restoration of a trail due to water damage, repainting SCA tools and putting up new wooden fence posts.
On their off time, team members got to wander the streets of beautiful downtown Seattle and surrounding neighborhoods.
All in all it was a great time and the team was ready to get to Dallas for some more training!
Stay tuned for the next update,
Tyler and the Tour 40 Team
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CMT in Longview Washington [91]
It all began in a place far away in a time long long ago.
This land was called Camp Evergreen and the time was a little over 2 months ago.
The team first met at Camp Evergreen for Corps Member Training in late May.
Members got participated and completed trainings in:
1)Wilderness First Aid
2)CPR
3)Work Skills
4) SCA Orientation
5) SCA Drive Safe Drive Smart
The team also interacted with many other Corps Teams that were traveling to various parts of the country to work on projects in: Fire Monitoring/Education, Building/Maintaing Trail, TRACS, Native Plant Corps, Invasive Plant Removal and other great opportunities.
Overall it was a great week of working and sharing time with others who were about to get into the field.
Attached are a few photos,
We hope everyone at that training has been having a fantastic season!
Cheers,
Tyler and the Tour 40 Team
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Many Updates to come [96]
Hello SCA Corps and visitors to our site,
We'd like to apologize for not getting this up and running sooner but we're catching up now.
WE have A LOT of updates coming your way.
Mostly these will be pulled off the www.southwest.com/tour40 [97] and the SCA micro site: http://tour40.thesca.org/ [98]
So in the next few days we'll be uploading our past Tour 40 projects and will keep you updated from here on out on our whereabouts.
Thanks for reading,
Happy Trails,
Tour 40 Team
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Kimberly Teruya-Corpsmember [101]
Kimberly is from Los Angeles, California and graduated in December from the University of Southern California. Although she studied graphic design and communications in school, after spending a year abroad in New Zealand she decided to become more involved with conservation and the environment. She just finished up an internship with Southwest Airlines where she designed the Tour 40 Team RV wrap and now gets to live in her creation.
GO TOUR 40!
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