ACEE members build a laboratory.
July 2002
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Service Project, Houston Elementary
Digging in the dirt isn't just for kids anymore. That is, of course, when members from the ACEE program are working with students to revamp Houston Elementary School's outdoor science laboratory. On January 21, 2001, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, this was indeed the case. On a day set aside for service to the community and to the schools, some ACEE members and students from Houston Elementary found themselves in south Austin prepared for a day of tedious labor using such foreign tools as shovels, hammers, and even elbow grease.
Pat Jones, Houston's science lab teacher, had two missions in mind for this motley crew: reclaim the school's butterfly garden and build a compost bin. The members and students set out for the butterfly garden had a long day ahead of them pulling out wild grass and excess branches in a process that seemed never-ending.
The group that elected to build the compost bin used only a picture in a magazine and the necessary tools. In five hours, they had engineered a bin in which the branches and scraps of grasses could be put to begin composting. Susan Loftus, a member from New York, said she loved "being outside and doing some manual labor—quite a change of routine from tutoring children." But perhaps the most rewarding thing was, as member Karin Kling from Maryland said, "It made me feel good to construct something for continuing education from what was once an empty spot." At the day's end, Houston Elementary's outdoor science laboratory was a new place as the ACEE members succeeded in Getting Things Done.
—Erin Greenawalt, full-time ACEE member