WorkFest is here! I’ve been hearing about WorkFest for about as long as I’ve known about CAP. I came as a perspective volunteer around this time last year, so of course everyone was talking about it, and I’ve been very eager to experience it for myself. So far, it has not disappointed. I really love the atmosphere up at camp – it’s so nice to have the camp so full and busy. I love the feelings of preparation and anticipation on Sundays before the students arrive. It’s been really exciting for me to be able to share my passion for service and CAP with others.

I also decided that I would spend three days last week working with a crew. (The students are divided into color crews and each crew works at a specific job site.) Although I’m really glad I took the opportunity to do some housing work, what I learned from last week is that I am definitely not cut out for construction. Monday, Day 1, was absolutely freezing. It was actually snowing on Monday morning so we weren’t able to leave as early as we were supposed to – but I made very good use of the delay by sledding/sliding down a hill at camp. When we finally made it out to the job site I quickly realized that I didn’t even know how to swing a hammer properly. I spent a great deal of Monday wondering what I could have been thinking when I asked to go out with a crew. I couldn’t feel my toes and I felt like I was hitting the same nail over and over again without any effect (not actually that far from the truth). I also learned that I don’t deal well with being physically unable to do something. I experienced the kind of desperate frustration while trying to hammer as I used to feel when doing an art project or trying to build something for physics class. Not a good feeling. There’s something especially terrible about knowing how something should work or look and not being able to accomplish it.

I’m not sure I would have made it through Monday if it weren’t for my crew leader (and housemate) Laura. She continually yelled encouraging things at me (and everyone else) and seemed to truly believe I was capable of attaching siding when I was pretty sure I wasn’t. At the end of Monday, I admitted to her that I really didn’t like housing – that I liked the idea of WorkFest and a group of people coming together and doing service, but that the reality of construction work was not my favorite. She was very encouraging and reminded me that this was what service was – doing something because it has to be done, not necessarily because it’s fun to do. It was an important reminder to me that I am incredibly lucky to have a job that I enjoy and that service isn’t always hanging out with 4th graders.

The weather was much warmer on Tuesday, which already meant that it was a better day. My hammering also improved, at least marginally, so I felt a little more useful. The best part of the day was that the home owner came over to see how we were doing. She is a lovely woman and seemed very happy with our work. She had been moving back and forth between her two daughters’ houses while her house was being built, so she is very excited to be able to move in. It was especially good to see her because I had somehow forgotten that we were building the house for someone. I was so wrapped up in my own frustrations that I had forgotten about the greater purpose. Her visit really put our work in perspective and allowed me to laugh off the fact that we had to redo the soffit I had spent several hours painstakingly nailing. By the end of the day, I could barely lift my hammering arm, but I was feeling much more at peace with the work I was doing.

Wednesday was even better. I felt useful and competent, and and was able to put up soffit across the front of the house almost entirely on my own. I wasn’t exactly sad that it was my last day working on a crew, but I had come to appreciate the experience. I have so much respect and admiration for my housemates – I have no idea how they do this week in and week out. I was absolutely exhausted at the end of each day and spent the entire week doing nothing but working, eating, and sleeping.

Last week I found a job for which I am much better suited: donut duty! It is WorkFest tradition that once a week someone delivers donuts to each work site as kind of a thank you and pick-me-up. This year, we also gave everyone Ale-8 (a Kentucky soft drink that is kind of like ginger ale). It’s a lot of driving to get to all the sites, but it’s also extremely rewarding. I got to see what everyone was working on and spend a little time with each crew. Naturally, I was also everyone’s favorite person because I came bearing gifts. Driving to all the sites gave me an opportunity to drive on a lot of roads that I had never driven down before. Since I usually go into schools, I tend to only drive on main roads – and it was great to see how people lived a little bit off the beaten path. A lot of the houses that the crews are fixing are in absolutely beautiful locations – one is right near a stream and another overlooks a farm – but there is still a lot of work to be done on all the houses.

It’s so exciting to see people come together and work toward a common goal. I really love the feeling of camaraderie that develops amongst the crews as the week progresses. On Friday mornings, students are given an opportunity to share what they’ve learned and experienced during their time at WorkFest, and it was beautiful to hear what they had to say. I’m so glad that I get to be a part of this event that changes lives – not just the lives of the people’s whose houses we’re fixing, but also the lives of the volunteers who fix them.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford

Erin C. is a long-term volunteer in Educational and Recreational Programming. She is a member of the Jackson Vounteer Community.