The Shady Blog (UTK AFB Identity and Inclusion 2016 Last Night Blog)

The Shady Blog (UTK AFB Identity and Inclusion 2016 Last Night Blog)

This is the Shady Bunch (UTK Alternative Break Identity and Inclusion 2016 Atlanta) concluding our time in Atlanta. 

Lights came on at 6:30 am SHARP! Colette was not playing any games. Today, was the last day and the most anticipated day of our trip. Today was the day we were volunteering at the Gay Pride Festival. First stop was breakfast at Kasey and Drew's house (Alumni of the UT and of the program) where we expressed our interest in the trip and educational goals as well as walked through the most romantic "How I Met Your Mother" stories there is (I mean, literally they were #GOALS!). P.S. Kasey & Drew, if you're reading this, The Shady Bunch is up for adoption!  After getting the best southern welcome and feasting on some vol-tastic pancakes, we loaded in our trademarked Shade Bus and cruised to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site showcases the journey of his hand in the Civil Rights Movement in America during the 50s and 60s. One of his most potent and lasting messages was the use of non violent protest inspired by a similar movement by Mohatmas Gandhi in India. He believed that expressing love is the basis of change in society. This is pertinent to our trip's theme of Identity of Inclusion. People may have different views on things you have to show positive regard. We hope to come back as a group to finish reflecting on his life and legacy on a later date. 

 From there, we hopped back on the Shade Bus and cruised off to Candy Land (a.k.a. The Gay Pride Festival, the maps looked like the game Candy Land). We met our fellow volunteers at what they called "Greystone" to receive a quick training of our tasks, materials, and  Powder Pink tshirts!!! For the record, WE SLAYED at this service. We walked around the festival handing out maps and pride guides to help the fabulous Pride goers get around. At the festival, we noticed protesters picketing at the festival gates. In response, many of the Festival goers picketed signs of love to negate the hate at the gates. The peaceful response opened our eyes to the correlation between Martin Luther King Jr.'s message of non violent protests to oppose hate. In this moment, we realized that non violence is truly the most powerful weapon against oppression of any kind. 

10,000,000 miles of walking later (a note from the leaders: this is dramatic it was only a few reasonable miles), we made our way back to The Bus feeling woke (awake) and wanting experience a different cuisine. For our dinner, we got some Thai food and witnessed the Vols suffer a massive defeat at the hands of Texas A&M(side-note: Thai restaurant owners don't understand southern football culture as they were very concerned when we were letting out screams of frustration).

All in all, we learned that change cannot and will not be made if we continue to be complacent. We have to be willing to risk something in order to be rewarded. We must step out of our comfort zones to have those difficult conversations about various issues regarding marginalized peoples. These minor conversations can have a major impact on people's perspectives, identities, and society as a whole.

Most impactful quotes of the Day:

"Bloom where you're planted." ~ Latasia Woods

"...Non violence or Non Existence." ~ Martin Luther King Jr. 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead

Shady Bunch. Out. GRRRAH GRRAH GRRAH *dab*

NOTHING SHADY OCURED ON THIS TRIP

Today we worked on a house being finished by the Homestretch organization, which helps build houses for homeless families. Most of the work done today included painting the walls, ceilings, basebaords, and doing some minor cleanup of the windows and taking out the trash around the house. With an army of 14 people painting and whatnot, we nearly finished painting and cleaning the house within the span of 5 hours.

The second project we worked on today actually dealt with our current housing site. The City of Light church has been a very hospitable organization, and is still in the process of "moving in." We were fortunate to be able to give back to them by rearranging furniture, cleaning up the rooms, and taking out trash throughout the building. Just like at Homestretch, we ended up doing much more work than we had expected with our small, motivated army.

Today was a bit more immersive in the volunteering rather than yesterday. Working with Homestretch had more of a personal effect on me especially, because I was in a position earlier in life where I was nearly homeless. One of the project leaders had told us that Homestretch focuses on families that are victims of homelessness, which requires the family have at least one dependent (minor). The average age of a homeless person is 8, and that really put more things into perspective for me. I was about 9 when my family almost lost our home because of some medical issues. It really makes you realize that homeless isn't a result of doing a certain number of "bad things," like getting addicted to drugs or refusing to go to work. Sometimes all it takes is getting really sick and being unable to care for your family. Being able to work on a project that specifically focuses on families that have good intentions and have the will to succeed and be self-sustaining is very refreshing, because homeless gets a much worse reception by society than how it should.

Staying at the City of Light has been an absolute pleasure too. The folks here have been infinitely kind to us, and they really believe in the things that we're doing here. Their entire mission is to be all inclusive in their services, and it's very refreshing to meet others that share the same vision and values as you do.

We're all really tired, but we also started to bond more as we went through the services today. While we were painting a few people took turns playing music on their phone, and nearly everyone in the room we were painting were singing at the top of our lungs. It was like clockwork, but with a fun twist.

It really goes to show that no matter what you're doing, having hardworking, motivated, and genuinely selfless people to surround yourself with makes anything better.

Identity and Inclusion

On Thursday, Oct. 5, 2016, we left Knoxville at 7:15am, and after 3 hours in the car, we finally arrived in Atlanta, GA. We were welcomed graciously into the church by Sarah, a transgender woman and a leader in the church, and Pastor Paul, who is a gay male, at The City of Light. The City of Light Church has a mission to spread love and happiness and empower people to achieve their goals and help them with whatever they are struggling with. The church offers ESL classes, has a publishing company that hires people in need on the third floor, and provides a safe space to anyone and everyone. They also host approximately 20 different colleges who participate in Fall Break Programs.
After getting a brief overview of all of the things the church does for this community, we were off to our first service site at the International Rescue Committee. At the IRC, we helped to restock a "thrift" store for refugees who could get anything that they needed from the store for free. After hanging, stocking, and organizing loads of clothing, we heard from Duncan, the volunteer coordinator. He explained to us the impact that we would have, even though we would not see it directly. When the refugees come in on Monday morning, we helped to make sure that they arrived to a fully stocked store that will hopefully provide what they need. Individually, the service we provided over two hours raised enough money to pay for approximately 15 refugees' utility bill for the month.

When we returned to the City of Light, we began to help Dr. Paul organize and arrange the offices in the new building. These offices will eventually house nonprofits that will contribute to the actions of the church and continue to help this community in various ways.

Our service projects today contributed to our theme of Identity and Inclusion by allowing us to see and become more familiar with communities and others we may have never paid attention to otherwise. We worked hard to help the organizations who include people who otherwise may have not been included by providing them a service which we hope will begin a ripple effect to empower these individuals.

To break the tension between all of us who had only briefly met, we played the "knot" game where we grabbed hands from the person across from us and tried to untangle ourselves. We ended up even more tangled than when we began. Then, as things were getting rough, Sarah walked in and, thankfully, didn't ask very many questions but laughed and showed us to our room.

If you want for info:
City of Light Church: http://citylightchurch.net/
International Rescue Committee: https://www.rescue.org/