AmeriCorps Pledge I will get things done for America, to make our people safer,

smarter, and healthier. I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Faced with conflict, I will seek common ground. Faced with ad-

versity, I will persevere. I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. I am an AmeriCorps member and I will get

things done.

AmeriCorps Mission Statement AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps will strengthen communities and develop leaders through team-based national

and community service.

FEMA Mission Statement FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to

ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and im-prove our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to,

recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

McClellan Air Force Base AmeriCorps NCCC 3427 Laurel Street

McClellan, CA 95652

Table of Contents

History of the Organization………………………………………………………4

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………5

Biographies

Ebony McElroy………………………………………………………….…6

Eloy Arguello………………………………………………………………8

Taylor Bach………………………………………………………………...10

Nicole Callaway……………………………………………………………12

Rachel Conger…………………………………………………………..…14

Chris Couch………………………………………………………………..16

Lorna Parish………………………………………………………………..18

Laura Rodriguez………………………………………………………...…20

Allison Woodworth………………………………………………………..22

Work Away from Work…………………………………………………………..24

Specific Team Positions…………………………………………………………..28

Independent Service Projects…………………………………………………….35

Bladium Fitness………………………………………………………………......40

Alameda Extended Stay…………………………………………………………..41

Community Mapping…………………………………………………………......42

AmeriCorps Poem…………………………………………………………….......45

Backseat Bubble Advertisement……………………………………………….....46

Media Postings…………………………………………………………………....47

Next One Poem…………………………………………………………………....51

4

History The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has oc-curred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. The governor of the state in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the presi-dent that FEMA and the federal government respond to the disaster. FEMA also provides these services for ter-ritories of the United States, such as Puerto Rico.

While on-the-ground support of disaster recov-ery efforts is a major part of FEMA's charter, the agen-cy provides state and local governments with experts in specialized fields and funding for rebuilding efforts and relief funds for infrastructure by directing individuals to access low interest loans, in conjunction with the Small Business Administration. In addition to this, FEMA provides funds for training of response personnel throughout the United States and its territories as part of the agency's preparedness effort.

In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Joe M. Allbaugh as the director of FEMA. Within months, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th focused the agency on issues of national preparedness and home-land security, and tested the agency in unprecedented ways. The agency coordinated its activities with the newly formed Office of Homeland Security, and FE-MA's Office of National Preparedness was given re-sponsibility for helping to ensure that the nation's first responders were trained and equipped to deal with weapons of mass destruction.

Billions of dollars of new funding were directed to FEMA to help communities face the threat of terror-ism. Just a few years past its 20th anniversary, FEMA was actively directing its "all-hazards" approach to dis-asters toward homeland security issues. In March 2003, FEMA joined 22 other federal agencies, programs and

offices in becoming the Department of Homeland Secu-rity. The new department, headed by Secretary Tom Ridge, brought a coordinated approach to national se-curity from emergencies and disasters - both natural and man-made.

On October 4, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Post-Katrina Emergency Reform Act. The act significantly reorganized FEMA, provid-ing substantial new authority to remedy gaps that be-came apparent in the response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history, and included a more robust preparedness mission for FEMA.

FEMA Region IX, headquartered in Oakland, California, is one of ten Regional Offices. The people of FEMA serve the United States by providing help to people impacted by disasters, working with state, local, and tribal governments. Region IX's area of responsi-bility includes: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federat-ed State of Micronesia and more than 150 sovereign tribal entities.

FEMA Region IX supports the development of a regional, all-hazards, risk-based emergency manage-ment system of preparedness, prevention, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation through close work-ing relationships that draw on the talents and assets of federal agencies, state, tribal nations, localities, busi-ness and industry, and state and local volunteer organi-zations and faith-based groups.

Region IX faces several unique challenges when identifying priorities, objectives and activities. The Region spans 8 time zones, contains over 150 fed-erally-recognized sovereign Native American entities, and contains the world’s eighth largest economy, the state of California.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

5

Executive FEMA Blue 1 deployed to the FEMA Region IX Headquarters in Oak-land, CA to support the staff in response to DR - 4104 - Navajo Nation. The team was divvied up into six different divisions: Response, External Affairs, Recovery, National Preparedness, Employee Services, and Mission Support.

Blue 1’s presence at Region IX was a mutually beneficial relationship. We were more than just a helping hand. We brought light and enthusiasm into the work place with our eagerness to learn and desire to be beneficial to the staff. As the days went on you could see the staff’s excitement to have us in the office, sharing their cubicles and getting robbed by the 11th floor break room vending machine. We weren't just FEMA Corps anymore, we became part of the FEMA family.

Eloy Arguello worked in Mission Support and Planning. Taylor Bach and Nikki Callaway worked in National Preparedness. Lorna Parish worked in Mission Support and National Preparedness. Laura Rodriguez worked in Planning. Rachel Conger worked in Employee Services. Christian Couch worked in External Affairs. Allison Woodworth worked in Recovery. Ebony worked on coordination and logistics of all team activities internal and ex-ternal.

Summary

6

My time at Region IX was a mix of emails and meetings. (lots of meet-ings!) As we were the first FEMA Corps team to be placed at the re-gion it was important for the team to lay a foundation for a positive relationship moving forward. The team accomplished this through the work they did everyday in the different divisions, their attitudes and willingness to be of service to whomever needed an extra hand. I helped in our purpose by making connections with people that did not have direct contact with a FE-MA Corps member, talking about our program and how it is a benefit to FEMA and the many things my team was capable of doing.

I played mainly a supporting role. I was always available to help out on different projects weather that be inventory, helping people with computer software questions, or simply interpreting FEMA speak from project supervisors. I did get to get a few chances to get my hands dirty (as dirty as one can get an office setting). I completed an IT inventory project for the Administrative Services Branch Chief, Michael Lull and I participate in Golden Guardian exercise as the as-sistant to the Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO), Mike Karl.

T H E R E ’ S N O W A Y Y O U W O R K E D A T F E M A R E G I O N I X .

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E S : M O M , C O A C H , E B O N E S , E B , E B B I E , & B O N - B O N

E B O N Y M C E L R O Y

HI!! I AM THE FEARLESS LEADER OF THE BEST TEAM EV-ER! I AM 21 YEARS OLD (IN MY DREAMS) FROM SAN DIE-GO, CA. I JOINED FEMA CORPS TO GAIN EXPERIENCE IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT WHAT I HAVE GAINED HAS BEEN SO MUCH GREATER!! I HAVE LEARNED WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LEADER.THIS JOB REQUIRES 100% EVERY DAY, BUT AT THE END IT GIVES BACK MORE THAN YOU CAN IM-AGINE.

7

8

While I was assisting Region IX Headquarters, I supported Mission Support and the Planning Section. My tasks were to enhance mission support workforce capa-bility, agility, and engagement; to provide outstanding customer ser-vice in partnership with customers and stakeholders; and to foster an inclusive work environment that drives excellence. My mission sup-

port supervisor was Raymond Velarde. I reviewed and edit-ed the Health and Safety program manual. I completed the task of editing the program and returned it to my supervi-sor for review. The coolest thing I did was have the oppor-tunity to oversee the safety of all personnel of FEMA Re-gion IX. My supervisor gave me many tasks. I spent my time maintaining situational awareness, developing a common op-erating picture, tracking resources assigned to an incident, and developing plans for current and future use of the re-sources. I also managed incident documentation including

W h a t w a s y o u r a s s i g n m e n t a t F E M A R e g i o n I X ?

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E S : E L I & E L R O Y

E L O Y A R G U E L L O I I I

I A M F R O M D E N V E R ,

C O L O R A D O . M Y E X P E R I -E N C E W I T H

F E M A C O R P S H A S B E E N

A M A Z I N G . I A M A B L E T O S U R R O U N D

M Y S E L F W I T H I N T E L L I G E N T I N D I V I D U A L

E V E R Y D A Y . I A M B L E S S E D

W I T H A N O U T S T A N D -

I N G T E A M L E A D E R A S

W E L L . M Y F U -T U R E P L A N S

A R E T O P U R S E A D E -

G R E E I N E M E R G E N C Y

M A N A G E M E N T O R E N L I S T I N

T H E C A L I -F O R N I A A R M Y

N A T I O N A L G U A R D .

9

10

The first lesson I learned from FEMA Corps is to expect the unexpected and to be ready to respond quickly. During Round 1 at FEMA Region IX Headquarters I was as-signed with my fellow teammate, Nicole Callaway, to assist FEMA’s National Prepar-edness (NP) Division in any way possible.

My outstanding supervisors in the NP Division were Randy Brawley and Jim Macau-lay. Thankfully, Jim is a well-organized man

and provided me with a checklist of tasks to complete from the get-go. First, I became familiar with FEMA Region IX’s Operations of Continui-ty Plan, otherwise known as COOP, and updated the plan with my team-mate, Lorna Parish. My next endeavor was to set up the emergency notification system for the San Francisco Bay Area Federal Executive Board (SFBA FEB). My blood pressure went through the roof just trying to pronounce the agency. The SFBA FEB facilitates communica-tion between the 70,000 Federal employees working within the Bay Area. I set up their emergency notification sys-tem, making sure, the agency would be able to communicate with their employees in the event of a disaster in the area. Not only did I have to learn the system myself, but I was expected to teach my Point of Con-tact, Francine Roby how to use it as well. After successfully exercising a nationwide test scenario for the emergency notification system, which included all FEB members, I was requested to assist the Los An-

W H A T D I D Y O U D O A T F E M A R E G I O N I X ?

ME

ET

T A Y L O R B A C H

I AM FROM SHAKOPEE,

MINNESOTA. FEMA CORPS

HAS CHANGED MY PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE. EVE-RYTHING CAN TURN INTO

NOTHING ON A DIME AND YOU NEED TO LEARN TO ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES. AFTER THIS

TERM I INTEND TO SIGN UP

FOR ANOTHER TERM WITH

TRADITIONAL AMERICORPS

NCCC. WHEREV-ER LIFE TAKES

ME I WILL FOR-EVER BE FEMA

FLEXIBLE.

NICKNAME: CHEWBACHA, BACHNESS, OR BACHY, & TAY

Fun Fact: There are 28 FEBs located in major cities throughout the

USA to assist 85% of all Federal employees who

do not work in Washing-ton D.C.

11

12

I was assigned to the National Preparedness (NP) Division at the Region IX Headquarters for my Round 1 assignment. The NP Division consists of quite a few elements, but the ones I personally worked on were Tribal, Threat Hazards Identification Risk Assessment

(THIRA), and Individual and Community Preparedness (ICP). The Tribal program plays a very important part of preparedness because Region IX has about 154 tribes under its responsibility. As one can imagine, this is an overwhelming number, and the tribes often change names and government officials. One of the tribal liaisons, Heather Duschell, worked with me and gave me various tasks regarding tribal work. For the most part, my main goal was to complete input on the tribal database with the most accurate information I could find. The information is used to

identify what preparedness tools the tribes needed and whether they were following federal protocol. THIRA was a shorter project that I worked on with Joel Palmer that basically consisted of reviewing and analyzing all reports sent in from the states. These reports were written by each state, a few choice jurisdictions, the territories, and some tribes. They identified the most prominent threats to their areas, assessed their resources and capabilities available for dealing with those hazards, intricately explained

L E T ’ S T A L K A B O U T Y O U R W O R K A T R E G I O N I X

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E : P R I N C E S S N I K K I

N I C O L E C A L L A W A Y

I ’ M 2 3 Y E A R S O L D , A N D F R O M S A N D I E G O , C A L -I F O R N I A . M Y E X P E R I E N C E I N F E M A C O R P S H A S B E E N L I F E C H A N G I N G . S O F A R , I H A V E T R A V -E L E D T H E U S A N D M E T T H E N I C E S T P E O -P L E F R O M A L L O V E R . A F T E R T H I S , I M A Y D O A N O T H E R T E R M I N A M E R I C O R P S .

13

14

At Region IX in Oakland Cali-fornia, I worked with Stephani Fulsom in the Employee Services Branch. The Employee Services Branch provides employees with information and makes sure they have everything they need. This includes things like payroll, learn-ing materials, and employees’ paper-work. Throughout my service at Region IX, Stephani did a fantastic job at in-corporating me in the branch by as-signing me tasks and providing learning opportunities for me. I made an excel spreadsheet of all the hostels in San Francisco, Pasadena, Honolulu, Oakland, and Sacramento. This list provided information for cheap lodging that future FEMA Corps might use if they are deployed in those areas. Also, I used my power point expertise to update some of the power points in Share Point. Share Point is an online drive that provides employees with infor-mation about all areas of emergency management. I also learned about the Automated Deployment Database. This program is how FEMA Employees are deployed. I was even shown how FEMA Corps are deployed. I worked with Randy Greer on employees' leave au-dits. I got to participate in an exercise called Golden Guardian. This

W H A T D I D Y O U W O R K O N W H I L E Y O U W E R E I N R E G I O N I X ?

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E S : R A E

R A C H E L C O N G E R

I A M F R O M A C E N T E R -

V I L L E , I O W A I A M 2 2

Y E A R S O L D . I H A V E E N -

J O Y E D L E A R -I N G A B O U T E M E R G E N C Y M A N A G E -

M E N T A N D M E E T I N G

N E W P E O P L E . A F T E R F E M A

C O R P S I W A N T T O

T E A C H E N G -L I S H . O N E D A Y I H O P E

T O B E I N T H E G O V -E R N M E N T C H A N G I N G A M E R I C A ’ S

S C H O O L S Y S T E M S .

15

16

During Round 1 I supported staff from several divisions within the FEMA Region IX Office of External Af-fairs. The Office of External Affairs handles the agency’s communications with external partners and stakeholders. For example, the Private Sector division en-sures that FEMA maintains working rela-tionships with the region’s commercial in-dustries so that they may act as partners in mitigating, responding to, and recover-ing from disasters in the region.

My immediate supervisor, Mary, had a lot of work for me: I helped her

with several projects from drafting preparedness tweets to completely revamping the Region IX website. My most significant contribution was to the Region IX website: I helped format and improve many web pages by seeking out relevant and exciting photos for the pages, updating and correcting web links, formatting text, and giving feedback on the over-all layout of the website. I also helped Casey from the Intergovern-mental Affairs division draft a response to a congressional inquiry and a fact sheet about some upcoming reforms to the National Flood Insur-ance Plan. I also helped Kelly inventory national preparedness supplies for Speakers’ Bureau events in return for her help improving the design of my team’s CAP flier.

At the beginning of the project my supervisor, Mary, explained

H O W A B O U T Y O U , W H A T D I D Y O U W O R K O N ?

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E S : C R I C K E T Y C H R I S & P R O F E S S O R C O U C H

C H R I S C O U C H

HI, I’M CHRIS. MOST OF MY LIFE I HAVE FELT LIKE SOMETHING OF AN OUTSID-ER, MOVING FROM GROUP TO GROUP WITHOUT STRONG SOCIAL BONDS. THOUGH IT HAS BEEN QUITE A LEARN-ING EXPERIENCE, I AM EXCITED TO FINALLY BE A PART OF A TEAM WHERE I FEEL LIKE I FIT IN. I HAVE A VERY ANALYTIC MIND THAT GETS ME OUT OF CONTROL AND OVER THINKINKIG A LOT OF THINGS… ALSO, I ENJOY STUDING PSY-CHOLOGY.

17

18

I worked in the Acquisitions Division. Acquisitions prioritized using local business’ services during a disaster. Branches underneath this division included Mission Support and Inventory.

The Mission Support Branch for FEMA is procurement, the act of ob-taining materials, and with that I had the opportunity to work with Gerard Herrera and Charles Lingafelt in order to find contracts and develop a spread-sheet for them. The procurement de-partment worked on finding contracts or contractors that FEMA could use during disasters. The purpose of this task was that if a disaster, such as a huge earthquake hits the Bay Area, FE-MA is prepared and have contracts ready. I developed a spreadsheet so that the mission support division will not have to search through General Services Administration dur-ing a disaster to find contracts. This will make the process smoother and faster. I worked with Virgel Argel while conducting Inventory for Technical Support, Mission Support, External Affairs, and ORA Divi-sions. During this project Virgel and I documented every item that each staff member had in their office or cubicle. I recorded this in-formation and verified that each staff member was accountable for

W H A T D I D Y O U D O A T F E M A R E G I O N I X ?

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E S : T H E H E A R T O F T H E T E A M & L O R N A D U N E

L O R N A P A R I S H

I AM 24 YEARS OLD FROM FAIRFIELD,

CALIFORNIA. MY EXPERIENCE IN FEMA CORPS

HAS BEEN AMAZING. MY KNOWLEDGE OF

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

HAS GROWN SO MUCH. I AM

REALLY INTER-ESTED IN BE-COMING AN

ANIMAL CON-TROL OFFICER, BUT MAYBE ONE DAY I WILL BE RESCUING ANI-MALS WHEN A

DISASTER STRIKES.

19

20

I worked under Ian Dixon in the Planning Section of Response. Planning is the heart of FEMA. They gather all the information and de-velop a plan to cover all the essen-tials in a disaster. From the begin-ning, my supervisor and I agreed to try and make sure both that I un-derstood the significance behind each project and that my experi-ence in Planning was valuable.

I worked on a lot of projects in planning from filing old disaster plans, creating disaster injects and working as a planning specialist for the 2013 Golden Guardian exer-cise. I also prepared rooms and supplies for Golden Guardian, orga-nized spreadsheets to create a pamphlet for the upcoming IMAT teams, redacted plans into public versions, and created a PowerPoint about our experience at Camp Roberts.

Golden Guardian is California’s Annual Statewide Exercise Se-ries that involves participation from tribes, state and federal agen-cies, non-governmental organizations and private sector partners. The 2013 exercises simulated a 7.9 earthquake in the Bay Area. FEMA Region IX headquarters and the State Operations Center and simulated the response and recovery procedures to a massive earth-

W h a t w a s y o u r e n d e a v o r a t F E M A

R E G I O N I X ?

ME

ET

N I C K N A M E : G E O R G I A P E A C H

L A U R A R O D R I G U E Z

I A M F R O M C O V I N G T O N , G E O R G I A . M Y

E X P E R I E N C E I N F E M A C O R P S

H A S B E E N I N -C R E D I B L E . I

H A V E G A I N E D A N A B U N D A N C E O F K N O W L E D G E

A L R E A D Y . I H A V E T R A V E L E D

T O P L A C E S I N E V E R

T H O U G H T I W O U L D S E E

A N D H A V E M E T P E O P L E I

W O U L D N E V E R H A V E M E T . M Y T E A M A N D I

H A V E A W O N -D E R F U L C O N -N E C T I O N . I C O U L D N O T A S K F O R A

B E T T E R O P P O R -T U N I T Y .

21

22

I worked in FEMA Region IX's recovery division under David Clayton's supervision during Round 1. Mr. Clayton stressed early on that he wanted this experience to be educational and flexible to my interests. I learned from him to seek the value in each project and relate even a simple archiving task back to its signif-icance in the recovery process.

As my first project, I set everyone in the recovery division up with Microsoft Of-fice Communicator, an instant messaging pro-gram that facilitates communication between their large teleworking and oft-deployed workforce. This project allowed me to intro-duce myself to the recovery staff early on and become comfortable with everyone. With teammates in two buildings and four differ-ent floors, I also made sure that my team set - up their OC so that we could easily communi-cate during the day (you can only BBM so of-ten before it buzzes your hip clean off!).

I collaborated with Charles Craig, the Region IX Voluntary Agency Liai-son (VAL), on a project to collect information for all the National Voluntary Organizations Active in a Disaster (NVOADs) and Region IX VOADS. This data will eventually be amassed in a database to increase the accessibility and func-tionality of the information in the chaotic disaster response and recovery envi-ronment. I learned a lot about a VAL's responsibilities when there is no active disaster in the region (this is called "steady state"). I look forward to seeing Mr. Craig in the field and perhaps working closely with a VAL on my next disas-ter deployment.

When I needed a break from VOAD data collection I turned to the Pub-lic Assistance department. There, I waded my way through a chaotic filing sys-

W H A T W A S Y O U R R O L E A T R E G I O N I X ?

ME

ET

A L L I S O N W O O D W O R T H

I AM 24 FROM SAN DIEGO, CALI-

FORNIA. FEMA CORPS HAS CHAL-LENGED ME AND EXPANDED MY KNOWLEDGE IN

EMERGENCY MAN-AGEMENT. AFTER THIS PROGRAM I AM LOOKING IN-TO RETURNING TO COLLEGE OR POSSIBLY SERV-

ING A THIRD YEAR WITH

AMERICORPS. I WOULD LIKE TO COMBINE MY IN-TEREST IN COM-PUTER SCIENCE, CREATIVE WRIT-ING, AND NON-PROFITS INTO A CAREER ONE DAY.

NICKNAMES: ALI, ALLIE, ALY, ALLEY, AL, KLEPTO, & NERD

23

24

BROWN BAGS

Throughout our deployment to the Region IX Headquarters, Blue 1 had the opportunity to learn about various FEMA pro-jects, trainings, and divisions through "brown bag" lunches.

Brown Bags expanded and diversified the team's knowledge of FEMA from the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF)

to the responsibilities of the External Affairs division.

Region IX Headquarters

EHP ensures FEMA's actions and policies are in accordance with federal environmental and historic preservation laws. It balances FEMA's respon-sibility to disaster response, recovery, mitigation, and preparedness with

its responsibility to protect the environment and natural resources.

In this brown bag Blue 1 learned how the program enables prop-erty owners in participating communities to purchase insurance

protection from the government against losses from flooding. We also learned about grants FEMA provides for various mitigation

projects such as a grant to help someone raise their house or even just their boiler.

During this particular brown bag the team took a crash course on how FEMA uses ICS to manage the resources. Not only is ICS used in FEMA, but also in many other businesses and companies. We found this brown

bag extremely knowledgeable and helpful for us to use in the future.

National Disaster Recovery Frame-work (NDRF)

Community Relations (CR) in Sandy

PeaceCorps

Disaster Acquisi-tions Response Team (DART)

All Hazards Plan

Planning “P”

Surge Capacity Force

Incident Manage-ment Handbook

Telecommunica-tions/APO/Facilities

External Affairs

ENVIRONMENTAL & HISTORIC PRESERVATION (EHP)

NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PLAN (NFIP)

INCIDENT COMMAND SYSTEM (ICS)

Blue 1’s Favorite Brown Bags:

25

26

27

28

T E A M S P E C I F I C P O S I T I O N S

Each Corps Member is responsible for specific team position duties in addition

to the regularly scheduled workweek. These team positions are: Vehicle Safety Tool officer (VST), Media Representative,

Corps Ambassador Program (CAPper), Service Learning Initiator (SLI), Public

Outreach Liaison (POL), Physical Training (PT) coordinator, Life After AmeriCorps

(LAA) mentors, Peer Helper, and Environ-mental Liaison (EL).

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

National Civilian Community Corps teams are re-quired to complete 80 hours of independent service project (ISP) hours outside of their normal work week. Due to the unpredictability of working in a disaster zone, FEMA Corps teams are only required to com-plete a minimum of ten disaster ISP hours. FEMA Blue One is determined to reach 100 ISP hours over our ten months of service, enough to get the Presidential Service Award bronze

level recognition. ISPs are a great way to diversify our service, team build, and try new things. Throughout Round One, FEMA Blue One completed over an outstand-ing 450 hours combined!

What are Independent Service Projects?

INDEPENDENT SERVICE PROJECTS

36

37

38

39

40

Bladium fitness 800 AVENUE F ALAMEDA, CA 94501 (510) 814-4999

“Bring my fellas up here!” Nicole, the Zumba instructor hollers. Chris and Eloy, the only two men in the room, obligingly climb onto the stage. By now, the know the routine, swaying their hips good naturedly to the beats as the class follows. Lorna, Nikki, Rae, and Allison struggle to follow Nicole’s instructions and end up flinging limbs this way and that. Eb-ony and Taylor twirl and toe tap confidently in the front row and of-ten become the defacto instructor when Nicole is obstructed from view. It is Zumba Thursday, one physical training that FEMA Blue 1 hates to miss. The team has the privilege of frequenting Bladium Gym on donated guest passes for its entire first round. When Laura, one of Blue One’s Physical Trainer Coordinators, contacted Bladium about reduced prices for nine people she did not expect the manager to respond by waiving all fees for the entire team. It seemed surreal as the manager, Tee, signed everyone up and offered a guided tour. The massive gym, converted from an old airplane hangar, boasts a rock climbing wall, basketball courts, and soccer fields. However, Blue One quickly fell in love with the free clas-

ses. Aside from Zumba, they enjoy Body Combat: a fierce convalescence of karate, Mauy Tai, and boxing. The instructor, Amelia, who seems to teach non-stop back-to-back classes every night, is a beast. The team invariably leaves class every Monday to drench their van in sweat on the ride home. Though smelly and exhausted, the team always leaves Bladium in a good mood. Bladi-um offered a great place for the team to de-stress after a few days in the office. There is something about watch-ing each other do Zumba that naturally brings a smile to one’s face. The team’s sixe alone bring a new energy to each class. Nicole exclaimed, “So that’s why this class suddenly filled up!” after Blue One introduced them-selves to their favorite Zumba instructor.

41

Alameda haven 1260 SOUTH LOOP ROAD ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA 94502

We did not live in tents. We did not live in yurts. We did not bathe in streams. We did not have to catch our own food or cook over fire pits. We did not camp in any way shape or form. Life was wonderful. With the exception of living in the middle of no man's land on an island - we had it made.

Blue 1 spent Round One at the Extended Stay of America in Alameda, CA. One of the biggest challenges to our housing came early on Day One as we dragged our red bags and all of our worldly possessions up to the third floor and were instantly assaulted by lung cancer. The third floor is the smoking floor. Two of the three rooms were later moved to the second floor, which was sad for the third floor people because majority rules where all the food is stored. You would be surprised how much of a deterrent stairs are to eating.

The Extended Stay's breakfast room was stocked from 0630 to 0930 every morning with

coffee, hot chocolate, fruit, granola bars, and FEMA Blue 1 corps members. By 1900 hours Blue 1 would straggle home, usually sweaty from PT, and muster back in the breakfast room for any myriad of SLI, POL, Peer Help-er, or just plain old team meetings.

The Extended Stay staff are a big part of why our housing was so comfortable. Koi, Stephanie, Moses, and the maintenance guy were always there to greet us when we trudged to the front desk asking for them to reprogram our cards for the eighth time that week. The staff were always prompt and - with the excep-tion of that one time Moses called our room at some god awful hour like 0700 - super nice.

We did not live in tents. We did not live in yurts. We did not bathe in streams. We did not have to catch our own food or cook over fire pits. We did not camp in any way shape or form. Life was wonderful. We had it made.

42

Not much, but in between work and our independent service projects, Blue One found time to explore the Bay Area. We found some cheap - always important on an AmeriBudget - and fun entertainment to keep

our stress levels to a minimum.

Wait, Blue One had free time?

COMMUNITY MAPPING

The Oakland Public Library

Allison forced most of the team to get library cards. As much as they complained about the long walk and asked what one really

needs a library card for everyone walked out of the library with a least one book. From guides to American Sign Language and

cookbooks to movies and poetry, the library kept Blue One occu-pied on those lonely weekends

on Alameda island. The OPL is free. It is located at 125 14th

Street, Oakland, CA and (bonus!) I is open on weekends.

43

44

45

AmeriCorps By Laura Rodriguez

Have you ever had a feeling so inspirational

Something so unbelievable

A chance to grab onto life

And not let the moment just pass by

To lend a helping hand

To help people mend

To work as a team

To have something to believe

This is your life got to make it

And not let anyone else create it

AmeriCorps is the place to be

Now lets make a reality out of your dreams

46

The

Are you sick of your teammates hearing

everything you say?

Order by August 2nd

and get a free neck brace!

A must-have accessory for the 15P, the Backseat Bubble is paramount for keeping those 10 hour van rides backbreaking and exciting!

Tel: 1-(800) BLUEONE AmeriCorps *Product may cause deep rooted, chronic, and/or exacerbated anger issues

Backseat

Bubble!*

Do you enjoy whiplash and getting jostled

around like an egg in an egg beater?

Have you always wanted to know what it is like to

be invisible?

GOOD NEWS! The Backseat Bubble fits all those needs and more!

47

Media postings Conger answers call to

service in FEMA Corps

The Daily Iowegian

---- — SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Rachel Conger, of Centerville, is one of 154 Sacramento-based young people serving in the nation’s first class of FEMA Corps, a new unit of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps solely devoted to disaster preparedness and response.

Prior to joining FEMA Corps, Con-ger graduated from Centerville High School in 2009 and studied at Indian Hills Community College.

Conger said, “I decided to do a sec-ond year of [national] service be-cause my passion in life is to make a difference. I hope to learn many things from this experience that I can carry with me through out my life.”

Rachel is the daughter of Patricia Conger.

During her 10-month term of ser-vice, Conger, 22, is providing im-portant support to disaster survivors and gaining significant training and professional experience in emergen-cy management. Serving on teams of 10 to 12 people, FEMA Corps members both travel to disaster-affected communities and support longer-term recovery operations across the country. Projects range from working directly with disaster survivors to administrative disaster management tasks to sharing disas-ter preparedness and mitigation in-formation with the public.

Conger arrived at the AmeriCorps NCCC Pacific Region campus in Sacramento, Calif. on Feb. 12 and completed six weeks of specialized training in the area of community relations. Conger is nearing the end of her first project round, spanning

from March 24 to June 10, during which she traveled to Oakland, Ca-lif. to assist with ongoing media calls, inquiries from local officials, outreach efforts, and other required External Affairs duties before being deployed to Oklahoma for immedi-ate disaster response. Conger will serve on several more projects be-fore graduating from FEMA Corps on Nov. 19.

FEMA Corps, a new unit within AmeriCorps NCCC that launched in Fall 2012, is an innovative partner-ship between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cor-poration for National and Communi-ty Service. People ages 18 to 24 from around the nation provide 10 months of full-time service on emer-gency management projects.

For more information about FEMA Corps or AmeriCorps NCCC, or to apply online, visit www.nationalservice.gov.

4848

4949

50

51

Next One By Laura Rodriguez

The West is the Best It has been confessed

We cover nine different territories Each with their own stories

Four actually rate

Among the largest states We cover eight different time zones

All disaster prone

Hurricanes and their crazy winds We come and clean up after them

From Hurricane Ike, Sandy and Katrina You can call when you need us

Earthquakes that make the ground shake

From our beds, we will wake Run over the RRCC

And make disaster history

If a Tsunami was to cause a wave And make all the buildings concave

We’ll stand there like soldiers brave and strong Knowing that’s our place and where we belong

If you have water coming in at your feet

Our watch center gets the tweet We wait for the state to give us call Then it’s all for one and one for all

We work as a team

That’s how we help those in need

I got your back, you got mine Yea that’s Region IX

So I’ll say

As we walk away After our job here is done See you on the next one.

52