The team leaders gathered around their computers, watching the live streaming of the Congress debate. 10PM was quickly approaching in Colorado, meaning it was almost midnight on the East Coast. Midnight, the deadline for making a budgeting decision and passing a new continuing resolution. Hours trickled down to minutes, minutes to seconds... a two minute extension after midnight, then nothing.
The United States government shut down.
Over 800,000 government employees were furloughed. Being that AmeriCorps NCCC is a government program, so were we. The morning of October 1st, most of our staff went through an "organized shutdown," leaving us with less than a quarter of our staff memebers. I could go on for hours (or pages) discussing my thoughts and feelings regarding the shutdown, but there is a time and place for everything, and this blog is not it. If there is one thing that AmeriCorps has taught me, it's that it's not about me - there are hundreds of thousands of people who had it much worse than we did. In this program, and life in general, the only constant is change, and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and make the best of it... and we did just that.
So what exactly did the Team Leaders do during the shutdown?
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| They got some sun (Day 1) |
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| They did PT at the park (Day 3) |
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| They hiked (Day 5) |
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| They helped out at the Boulder Community Food Share (Day 9) |
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| They "Put the Beds to Bed" at Washington Park (Day 12) |
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| They worked out, a lot (Day 14) |
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| They cooked delicious meals (Day 14, and every day) |
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| They helped build stairs on a train for the blind at Genesee Park (Day 15) |
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| They kept their spirits up (Every day) |
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| And they celebrated once it was all over (Day 16) |
