Whatcom Creek Service, 9-19-15

Under a grey misting blanket of clouds, the brave (and slightly sleepy) Salish Seals came together with the Fiddleheads 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 idea 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.)

We talked about the importance of serving in a community, and came together with the Fiddleheads for the Our Cups overflow activity. 

Hannah demonstrates Our Cups Overflow for Salish Seals and Fiddleheads

We widened our circles by playing a couple of bonding games (Logger 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 Salish Seals were excited to learn that we would be helping an "island," a lovely cluster of plants in the middle of a concrete walking path. Zandra, 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: rose, horsetail 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.

Rae with Greenways preps the girls for their service projects

These Salish Seals went to work removing the designated plants, using their hands, clippers and hori hori tools to clean up the island. While serving we Widened the Circle by working together to tackle the overgrown plants. 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. 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 Rose hips have a lot of Vitamin C! Our EMA, Hilary took lead on our harvest. We also encountered a mystery in the rose bushes. We found some interesting Dr. Seussian mossy blobs (insect gall) near the end of a few branches. Our curiosity took ahold and we cut one open to peek inside! Ask your child if she saw what lies within. Clue: they were wiggly. Very wiggly.

Holly and the girls work hard to remove these thorny rose bushes!

Harvested Rose hips

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 were 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. This area we had been working on, across the street from the northeast corner of City Hall, has been an Explorers Club service project site for years, so we are now part of this special tradition! 

Hauling our overgrown plants back to City Hall

We wrapped up this outing by eating lunch together with the Fiddleheads 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 Snorts. 

* Words of the Day? Clean-up Committee, Tag-a-Thon, Happiness Party!

Check out our photo album for a full look at our day!