Day Five-Thursday

Thursday, August 25

When our bus arrived at South Campus, no one wanted to move. Not because our arms and legs were sore from working strenuously on Burnside Plantation or because we were moving historic paintings in Kemerer Museum, but because it was raining and we knew we were scheduled to work outside.  But within seconds, Kyle spoke, and we were all off the bus.  When we began walking towards The Colonial Industrial Quarter, where we planned to spend our day cleaning up after the flood from two weeks ago, the rain shower quickly transformed into what felt like a hurricane.  Our team reacted to this in many different ways.  Few complained, some came equipped with umbrellas and others sprinted as if they would not be soaking wet once they reached shelter.

After attempting to dry off as much as possible, we all went straight to work.  My job for the morning shift involved scanning historic photographs to a computer.  This task seemed never ending.  There were binders and binders of photographs all of which had no use until saved onto a desktop.  Although this was not a hard process, it was very time consuming.  I could have easily sat at the computer for the rest of the day, but after lunch we all worked together moving everything from the bottom floor of the Mill House to higher ground because heavy rainstorms are in the forecast.  This was so crucial because the industrial quarter floods relatively easily and it is important to preserve all objects as long as possible.  After diligently moving everything from the first floor to the second or third floor we all continued our yard work from the previous day. 

We not only ended our day, but our entire week of hard work with a celebration dinner in Colonial Hall.  I could not have pictured a better way to recognize how hard every single team member worked to make this whole experience possible.  After Sasha and Kyle presented an award to every group member, Katie and Nicole presented Sasha and Kyle with awards for their leadership skills that not only helped guide us through the week, but also made the 1742 Experience more rewarding and unique than I thought possible.

~Sam B. '15