Monday, March 15th-Boys and Girls Club: Part 1!

So I'm pretty exhausted from my group's work at the NFL Youth Education Town (NFL YET) Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Louisiana. To give a little background, NFL YETs are education and recreation centers constructed in Super Bowl host cities. Together with the Boys and Girls Club of So. LA, the program provides children ranging in age from 6-18 years in the local area with a safe, engaging place to go after school. Unfortunately, although there are television/Wii, game, and computer rooms, the rooms themselves--and the facility as a whole from inside out--were poorly maintained and were in great need of restoration and revitalization.

Our UHa crew was assigned to this location on Monday, and we were divvied up to take care of different restoration tasks at the center. Tina, Amber, and I worked in what one of the center's staff members Mike referred to as the "multi-purpose-ish" room. It was a space that served as kitchen/classroom/homework center. The three of us sanitized and wiped down the space's sink, tables, chairs, counter tops, cabinets (with dead cockroaches!) and window ledges (with tiny dead insects galore!) with less than half a roll of Clorox antibacterial wipes. With the creative help of Megan, we re-arranged the tables and chairs to make the room more conducive for interaction and learning, and we took out items that were not fit to be in the room (old posters, charcoal and a grill, toilet bowl scrubber and cleaner, etc.)

The most arduous task that day in the "multi-purpose-ish" room was mopping the floor. The first time around, we were given a mop and with a bucket full of water that we learned after had been sitting around for two days. We hadn't known the water was foul and sour until the floor began to dry. Since the smell in the room was so unbearable and rank, we had to mop again. Although we washed out the mop head and rinsed out and filled the bucket with clean water and a good deal off scented floor cleaner, the overwhelming odor remained! Desperate for this room to once again be inhabitable, we went for a third round, repeating the procedure from the second round with the addition of two cap-fulls of bleach. The third time was indeed the charm; the smell had completely gone and room smelled and looked wonderful!! By the end of our day, our team felt felt very satisfied, yet pretty worn out. It was all for the children, and knowing that made our work very worthwhile!

Looking forward to what Day Two has to offer! Later postings!!