6 members of SCA’s Massachusetts AmeriCorps Program help Bostonians get out from under 7 ft of snow
The Danger Six, a “Special Operations Unit” composed of SCA Massachusetts Americorps members and staff, traveled to the city of Boston to aid in snow removal efforts. For three days and two nights, the unit cleared snow and received positive encouragement from many Bostonians. Although their service in Boston is complete for now, the Danger Six remain together and are willing to serve whenever they are needed.
The following text is excerpted from a field statement written by Danger Six member Daniel Dobrosielski
Driving into the city of Boston for the first time on Wednesday reminded me of all the wonderful commuter traffic I left in DC to go live in Western Massachusetts to serve with SCA Massachusetts Americorps. It felt a little bit like home for the first half hour or so. But after a few rounds of standard road trip games to pass the time, all of us in the van just wanted to get to our site and start shoveling. When we arrived at the Hatch Memorial Shell (a public amphitheater on the Charles River) we were greeted by a small team eager to get us started. We soon left the Shell to go shovel the neighboring footbridges until it was time for us to leave to go back to our temporary residence in Milton.
Over night it snowed an inch or two and a lot of what we had worked on the first day seemed all but completely undone. Admittedly, I couldn’t help but think, really? we just did that. Which got me thinking, I am just serving for three days, the people I am working with have been doing this day in and day out for months now. Yet despite this they are cheery, welcoming, and work just as hard as any one of us. Their spirit and attitude was truly something to be admired. Trying my best to follow their example, I continued shoveling.
Before we knew it our three days of service were up and it was time for all of us to return to our positions in Western Massachusetts. We left Boston knowing that all of our service will soon be undone by the next storm, but also (and far more importantly) that us being out there, even for a few days, helped lighten the load of the team of people that having been working so hard day in and day out to keep Boston moving.
