The Waiting

 Written be Patrick Gallo, a crew leader with the Los Valles Region:

The project work was one of the best parts of Crew Leader Training. It gave us a chance to work together and sharpen our trail skills before our crew members arrive.

The anticipation is killing me. With six weeks of crew leader training in the books, the staff gave us some time off to collect ourselves before our crews show up for orientation. Don’t get me wrong, the time off is a much needed respite, a reminder that there is a world outside of a trail crew. However, I am at the point in my break where I am itching to meet my crew and get the season underway.

Since our corps members aren’t here yet, I figured that I should take full advantage of my free time, and I ended up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Aside from appreciating the irony of taking my time off from camping in the woods to go do more camping, I found my mind on the upcoming season and the people who will be apart of it. As I lay awake in my tent at night, I can’t help but be excited about all of the great things that are about to happen.

A fellow crew leader bringing down a rock for a lesson on how to build retaining walls

I have had the good fortune to be apart of service organizations for the past three years. Ever since I threw on my first gray AmeriCorps t-shirt, and set off for my first service project, I have been amazed at what can happen when you put together a crew of young people. Organizations like ours work on the premise that you can take six strangers, hand them some tools, make them sleep in tents all summer, and you can expect them to not only work together, but perform a quality of work equal to a professional trail crew. To me, that speaks volumes to the kind of people who join programs like ours. They come from all parts of the country and they all come for different reasons, but they all come to the same place. They all come to serve.

I know that it may be wrong of me to assume so much of people I have yet to meet. But if experience tells me anything, it is that the people who will become our corps members are driven by something more than the simple desire of having a summer job or adding a new line on their resume. This summer has a chance to be amazing because of the people who are about to show up in a few days. That is why we spent six weeks in training, that is why I can be patient till our corps members arrive.