Under a grey misting blanket of clouds, the brave (and slightly sleepy) Fiddleheads came together with the Salish Seals on a Saturday morning to serve, learn, play, and connect at the Bellingham library. As girls gathered at Lee Memorial Park (behind the library), we played a couple rousing games of Head Butt Tag and Your Biggest Fan to get our blood circulating and warm our spirits for our task ahead.
At our check-in, we moved our bodies according to how we were feeling this particular morning, and there was lots of stretching, for sure! This image of stretching extends into Stretching Your Edge, a EC motto sure to apply over the course of the season, and the years ahead. These mottos serve as a reference to the culture of respect and growth we are continually fostering here during our outings. Other mottos explored by these girls were Widen the Circle, Walk Your Talk and Our Cups Overflow. Test your daughter's memory by asking her what these mean, and maybe even ask her to show you a demo of Our Cups Overflow! (All of our mottos can be found on our website: http://wildwhatcom.org/mottos/)
We talked about the importance of serving in a community, and came together with the Fiddleheads for the Our Cups overflow activity. We widened our circles by playing a couple of bonding games (Loggers Handshake and People to People) with these new friends! Energy was high and we were all warmed up and ready to tackle our service project en force. We walked over to City Hall and were greeted by the friendly staff at Greenways. The FIddleheads were excited to learn that we would be helping an "island," a lovely cluster of plants in the middle of a concrete walking path. Rae, the knowledgeable and welcoming leader from Greenways, led us over to the island and taught us about the overgrown plants we'd be removing to make the area more beautiful AND more safe for everyone who walks by: Bindweed (or Morning Glory) and dead fern fronds. Greenways crew provided us with many tips to keep our Safety First, including wearing gloves and carrying and using tools safely.
These Fiddleheads went to work removing the designated plants, using their hands, clippers and hori hori tools to clean up the island. While working we Widened the Circle by partnering up with someone we did not know very well. Many of these girls focused their abundant energy on taking down the wild and thorny rose bushes, and a few girls have the war wounds to prove it. Getting poked by the thorns did not slow us down much. We did marvel at the thorn structure and ability to protect this plant.
After finishing our service, we went to help the Salish Seals clean up their site, only to find that they had been cutting back and collecting rose hips from native rose bushes within their site! Since the Rose hips were so plentiful and ready for harvest, we gathered several pounds of Rose hips for their beauty and their medicine, as Rosehips have a lot of Vitamin C! We hope to turn these hips to tea, and provide a warm drink on a cold outing in the future!
These girls worked with integrity and great focus, and had more fun than they expected for nearly 3 hours in the spitting rain and chill of the day. Despite these conditions, parents may be surprised that there was ZERO complaining. There was a few discussions about who's turn it was to use the clippers, as these were the most useful tool today and in high demand. Waiting when you REALLY want something is a good exercise in practicing patience, right? We may have discovered that doing good physical work can be fun! After finishing our service project and walking around the island (A Victory Lap) to see the difference we had made, Rae with Greenways came over to thank us for our service and help us haul our load back to City Hall.
We wrapped up this outing by eating lunch together as a large group and returned to the library lawn to hold our closing circle with a round of our Attitude of gratitude in which we give thanks for one thing about our morning. We left just enough room to play Toilet Tag, Turkey Vulture Tag and an excellent game of Snort.
Our Words of the Day?: "Helping plants and nature survive through service!" For a complete photo album of this service day, click here!
-Hannah
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