i've been in charlotte now for just over two weeks. i've been working with habitat again which is great. i'm working with charles, my former supervisor, and ap, my former americorps teamate/current roomate. it's good work and i believe in the mission, but i miss being on my bike all day.
as for habitat, several crews have been out. the best so far has been the habitat re-store. the re-store sells donated construction supplies, home furnishings, appliances, and just about anything else you could ever want for your house (they sold a double-wide trailor a few months ago). all procededs going directly into building habitat houses. they're expecting to build between 10 and 12 in charlotte this year and are giving a full tithe to our sister affiliate in el salvador. as if that wasn't enough, they treat all their employees with the upmost respect, paying a living wage to everyone. plus they're alot of fun to have on site. if you're around, check out the site at 442 center st. and check out the restore and their coffee shop at 3815 latrobe st.
as for bikes, i've been out for a few decent rides here. jonathon dragged me all around south charlotte last thursday. i'm planning on getting some mountian rides in with james cole and hopefully will ride cannonball with terry sometime next week. drew at lucky cycles is building me up a new wheelset which i'm very excited about. the guys at the shop are giving me a terrific deal on the rims and labor which is the norm for lucky. if you're in charlotte stop by and give them some business (in southend past phat burrito). you're be very happy with the results and you'll have fun while you're there.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
last day in dc
today was my last day working as a dc messenger. i've got mixed feelings about leaving the streets. messenger work is good work. as my friend kevin keefe-a 20 year vetern of the dc streets-told me, "it's good work. it's easy, it's fun, and you're on your bike all day. you'll be back." while it's not always easy work, he was right about the rest. it's a job that keeps you on your bike all day. i can't think of many things that could be more fun than that. you also become intimate with the city; you are part of the cityscape. if you pay attention in the city you will notice couriers everywhere but if you blink you'll miss them. i'm going to miss that. my dispactcher threw me a good final job-hunton williams (1900 k, nw) to the ferc (888 1st, ne) double deadline roundtrip. $42 job. good way to finish.
i'm looking forward to going back to charlotte and working with habitat.
i saw something great on my ride home from work. i was going downhill on the custis bike when a very young girl on a mountian bike jumped the curb and did a weak track stand in the middle of the trail. i almost hit her and had to yell to get her to move (she didn't see me and we both would have been hurt if we'd crashed) but i was very, very impressed with her skills. about 100 meters further down the trail was the one s-turn climb on custis. there was her friend/brother on a mountian bike, making it up the hill. what cool kids!
i'm looking forward to going back to charlotte and working with habitat.
i saw something great on my ride home from work. i was going downhill on the custis bike when a very young girl on a mountian bike jumped the curb and did a weak track stand in the middle of the trail. i almost hit her and had to yell to get her to move (she didn't see me and we both would have been hurt if we'd crashed) but i was very, very impressed with her skills. about 100 meters further down the trail was the one s-turn climb on custis. there was her friend/brother on a mountian bike, making it up the hill. what cool kids!
Monday, March 12, 2007
elegy
Chris Webber, bike and build program director and nus '05 leader, was hit by a car and killed last saturday, march third.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
from the bike and build website:
Christopher Howland Webber
Christopher Howland Webber, 25, program director for Bike & Build, a national non-profit organization, died early Saturday morning, March 3, 2007, of injuries sustained in a pedestrian accident in New York City where he lived. Webber, 25, combined his love of sport, his interest in people, and his passion for community service by organizing bicycle tours for college students across the United States to raise funds for affordable housing projects and to introduce the riders to the housing needs in American communities. Over the past four seasons Bike & Build has contributed over $750,000 to housing projects around the country. Webber had held the position since late 2005.
“Chris’s dedication to Bike & Build and his unwavering desire to strengthen the organization constantly impressed me,” said Bike & Build executive director, Amelia Hanley. “The passion he had for the organization came largely from his interactions with riders and alumni. He constantly told me that his favorite part of the job was being on the road, meeting riders and getting to know them.” Before joining the organization staff, Webber had himself ridden on two east coast to west coast fund-raising trips.
Webber was an adventurer who had traveled widely. In 1999, at the age of 17, he rode a 1200 km bike trip from Cairns to Cape York, Australia. He was the only American on the tour, and the youngest. During a college semester abroad at University College, London, he traveled extensively on the European continent. He spent time in western Canada. He later traveled across Australia a second time by train from Sydney to Perth.
Webber grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, where he attended the Pike School. When his family spent a year in Buffalo, NY, he attended eighth grade at the Nichols School in Buffalo. He graduated from Middlesex School in Concord, MA, in June of 2000. He deferred his college admission to Vassar College to work for a year in a condominium resort in Snowmass, CO, and to become an expert skier. He graduated from Vassar in May 2005, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and psychology. After graduation, he worked briefly for the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., before moving to New York and joining Bike & Build. . .
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
from the bike and build website:
Christopher Howland Webber
Christopher Howland Webber, 25, program director for Bike & Build, a national non-profit organization, died early Saturday morning, March 3, 2007, of injuries sustained in a pedestrian accident in New York City where he lived. Webber, 25, combined his love of sport, his interest in people, and his passion for community service by organizing bicycle tours for college students across the United States to raise funds for affordable housing projects and to introduce the riders to the housing needs in American communities. Over the past four seasons Bike & Build has contributed over $750,000 to housing projects around the country. Webber had held the position since late 2005.
“Chris’s dedication to Bike & Build and his unwavering desire to strengthen the organization constantly impressed me,” said Bike & Build executive director, Amelia Hanley. “The passion he had for the organization came largely from his interactions with riders and alumni. He constantly told me that his favorite part of the job was being on the road, meeting riders and getting to know them.” Before joining the organization staff, Webber had himself ridden on two east coast to west coast fund-raising trips.
Webber was an adventurer who had traveled widely. In 1999, at the age of 17, he rode a 1200 km bike trip from Cairns to Cape York, Australia. He was the only American on the tour, and the youngest. During a college semester abroad at University College, London, he traveled extensively on the European continent. He spent time in western Canada. He later traveled across Australia a second time by train from Sydney to Perth.
Webber grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, where he attended the Pike School. When his family spent a year in Buffalo, NY, he attended eighth grade at the Nichols School in Buffalo. He graduated from Middlesex School in Concord, MA, in June of 2000. He deferred his college admission to Vassar College to work for a year in a condominium resort in Snowmass, CO, and to become an expert skier. He graduated from Vassar in May 2005, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics and psychology. After graduation, he worked briefly for the Navy Department in Washington, D.C., before moving to New York and joining Bike & Build. . .
Friday, March 2, 2007
testimony #2
i met with the congressional service cacuss this afternoon and many promising things came up. it looks as though there is a very good possibility that americorps ed awards will cease to be taxed in the near future. just as important, and even more likely, the ed award will stop being counted as family income-this will help lower income students qualify for federal finicial aid. also exciting is the growing calls for a national service academy. this would be a public/federal venture where students would have their tuition completly paid for after five years of service. basicially a naval academy for service. we'll see.
many people have asked to see my testimony for the house sub-committee on healthy families and communities. i only had an evening to prepare, so i'm not exactly proud of the writing, but here it is (this is the spoken testimony, the written testimony has extra stuff but i like this one better). you can watch it if you click on the link here http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/hfc022707.shtml
good afternoon. my name is tommy daigle. i was an americorps member with habitat for humanity in charlotte, nc from august, 2004 to july, 2006. i served two one-year terms immediatley following my graduation from george mason university. it was a fantastic, life-changing, and hubling experience that developed my leadership skills through day to day physicial labor, confronting new and different life experiences, helping others, interacting with people of all ages from all over the world, seving in a leadership capacity for people my senior, and feeling that exhausted satisfaction at the end of every day that i had done something for someone else.
i want to tell you how i came to service, and what it has done to me.
my parents, both teachers, instilled in me principles of social justice. i learned from them that when something is wrong, you have the power to change it and you owe it to your community , and the world, to put your ideals in motion and provide for its betterment. they never told me that i had to serve but they raised me to be responsible and to know that i could make a difference.
mary kay turner taught my 11th grade world religions class and 12th grade ethics class. she taught us to look at things in this world, and to form an education opinion about them. she taught us not to sit and watch things happen but to use the knowledge and our opionions to get involved. we studied human rights leaders and activists throughtout history. we stuided movements of major non-violent social change. we also studied and mourned those who were killed because of hatred, notable mathew shepard and james byrd, both who were murdered in my senior year. mrs. turner taught us that a broken system could be fixed, but it would never be fixed with complacency. if there were going to be changes, we would have to make them ourselves.
the first time i ever heard about americorps was from a high school acquaintance who joined americorps nccc when he was 18. when i saw hiim again a few years later he had changed. while in high school he had gotten in trouble, almost dropped out, and more than experimented with drugs. after seving with americorps he was drug-free, attending college, and continuing to volunteer. it left me with a strong frist impression of americorps. while researching how i could work with habitat for humanity i found that hfh was an americorps grantee. it seemed like a great fit.
i decided to commit a year of service to habitat americorps in charlotte, north carolina. after the year, the plan went, i would return to virginia to teach in the public schools. needless to say, one year turned into two.
i had a great two years. we worked in 10 and 11 person teams based in charlotte. we served as crew leaders for groups of people made up of bankers, lawyers, world war II vets, carpenters, and homeowners. they came to us, asked us what to do and expected us to be their leaders. we became a very tight-knit group. over the two years we built close to 100 houses in charlotte, led and worked with over 5,000 volunteers, and grew into mature citizens. in addiotion to the work in charlotte, we worked on houses in ft. myers, fl, dallas, tx, and, after hurriciane katrina, jackson county, ms.
serving in americorps prompts a growth of maturity in almost all members. your job becomes a lifestyle that recognizes that you are working for things that are greater than yourself. there is a change in persona that occurs when you realize that you are making a concrete difference in another person's life. there is a sense of civic duty and civic pride when you realize the change in the community that you are a part of.
i want to tell a quick story that reinforced my belief in the importance of our job. in the early summer of 2006, all habitat americorps memebers met in dallas, tx to build several houses. my teammates worked on a house along side the homeowners and americorp teams from ft. collins (katie flatirons pointed out that i made a mistake here. they were from boulder. sorry) college station, co, and seattle, wa. the house we were building, and the one next door, was for former residents of the lower ninth ward of new orleans. we quickly became close friends with the other americorps memebers working on the house and got to know the family who, in a few weeks, would be moving in. the family was made up of a married couple in their late 50's and their young granddaughter. they had been separated in the storm and were reunited months later in dallas. over a work week of twelve hour days we laughed, became close, worked hard, and built a beautiful house. we were proud of the results.
at the dedication ceremony, we crowded together on the front porch and listened as the dallas habitat staff member presented a bible, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of grape juice. the family was given an opportunity to give their thoughts. as they started to explain how they had been happy in new orleans only to loose everything, were separated in the evacuation of the superdome, and had not known if the other had even survived, emotion overtook them. they held onto each other, ctying, unable to do anything other than thank us and thank god for the new beginning. we could only congratulate them on the new start and thank them for what they had give us.
we left dallas convinced of the importance of our service and of the impact that it had not only on the families and communities, but upon each of us. the big question that many of my teammatesand friends would later share with me was this: "whose life was changed more by our service; did the work do more for the family or for us?" it's a question that outsiders laugh at but those who have served understand.
i've met hundreds of americorps members through habitat. of the members i actually served with, more than half are currenlty serving with other nonprofits or in a public service capacity. every person i served with continues to volunteer. service sticks. my teammates are proof of that.
many people have asked to see my testimony for the house sub-committee on healthy families and communities. i only had an evening to prepare, so i'm not exactly proud of the writing, but here it is (this is the spoken testimony, the written testimony has extra stuff but i like this one better). you can watch it if you click on the link here http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/hfc022707.shtml
good afternoon. my name is tommy daigle. i was an americorps member with habitat for humanity in charlotte, nc from august, 2004 to july, 2006. i served two one-year terms immediatley following my graduation from george mason university. it was a fantastic, life-changing, and hubling experience that developed my leadership skills through day to day physicial labor, confronting new and different life experiences, helping others, interacting with people of all ages from all over the world, seving in a leadership capacity for people my senior, and feeling that exhausted satisfaction at the end of every day that i had done something for someone else.
i want to tell you how i came to service, and what it has done to me.
my parents, both teachers, instilled in me principles of social justice. i learned from them that when something is wrong, you have the power to change it and you owe it to your community , and the world, to put your ideals in motion and provide for its betterment. they never told me that i had to serve but they raised me to be responsible and to know that i could make a difference.
mary kay turner taught my 11th grade world religions class and 12th grade ethics class. she taught us to look at things in this world, and to form an education opinion about them. she taught us not to sit and watch things happen but to use the knowledge and our opionions to get involved. we studied human rights leaders and activists throughtout history. we stuided movements of major non-violent social change. we also studied and mourned those who were killed because of hatred, notable mathew shepard and james byrd, both who were murdered in my senior year. mrs. turner taught us that a broken system could be fixed, but it would never be fixed with complacency. if there were going to be changes, we would have to make them ourselves.
the first time i ever heard about americorps was from a high school acquaintance who joined americorps nccc when he was 18. when i saw hiim again a few years later he had changed. while in high school he had gotten in trouble, almost dropped out, and more than experimented with drugs. after seving with americorps he was drug-free, attending college, and continuing to volunteer. it left me with a strong frist impression of americorps. while researching how i could work with habitat for humanity i found that hfh was an americorps grantee. it seemed like a great fit.
i decided to commit a year of service to habitat americorps in charlotte, north carolina. after the year, the plan went, i would return to virginia to teach in the public schools. needless to say, one year turned into two.
i had a great two years. we worked in 10 and 11 person teams based in charlotte. we served as crew leaders for groups of people made up of bankers, lawyers, world war II vets, carpenters, and homeowners. they came to us, asked us what to do and expected us to be their leaders. we became a very tight-knit group. over the two years we built close to 100 houses in charlotte, led and worked with over 5,000 volunteers, and grew into mature citizens. in addiotion to the work in charlotte, we worked on houses in ft. myers, fl, dallas, tx, and, after hurriciane katrina, jackson county, ms.
serving in americorps prompts a growth of maturity in almost all members. your job becomes a lifestyle that recognizes that you are working for things that are greater than yourself. there is a change in persona that occurs when you realize that you are making a concrete difference in another person's life. there is a sense of civic duty and civic pride when you realize the change in the community that you are a part of.
i want to tell a quick story that reinforced my belief in the importance of our job. in the early summer of 2006, all habitat americorps memebers met in dallas, tx to build several houses. my teammates worked on a house along side the homeowners and americorp teams from ft. collins (katie flatirons pointed out that i made a mistake here. they were from boulder. sorry) college station, co, and seattle, wa. the house we were building, and the one next door, was for former residents of the lower ninth ward of new orleans. we quickly became close friends with the other americorps memebers working on the house and got to know the family who, in a few weeks, would be moving in. the family was made up of a married couple in their late 50's and their young granddaughter. they had been separated in the storm and were reunited months later in dallas. over a work week of twelve hour days we laughed, became close, worked hard, and built a beautiful house. we were proud of the results.
at the dedication ceremony, we crowded together on the front porch and listened as the dallas habitat staff member presented a bible, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of grape juice. the family was given an opportunity to give their thoughts. as they started to explain how they had been happy in new orleans only to loose everything, were separated in the evacuation of the superdome, and had not known if the other had even survived, emotion overtook them. they held onto each other, ctying, unable to do anything other than thank us and thank god for the new beginning. we could only congratulate them on the new start and thank them for what they had give us.
we left dallas convinced of the importance of our service and of the impact that it had not only on the families and communities, but upon each of us. the big question that many of my teammatesand friends would later share with me was this: "whose life was changed more by our service; did the work do more for the family or for us?" it's a question that outsiders laugh at but those who have served understand.
i've met hundreds of americorps members through habitat. of the members i actually served with, more than half are currenlty serving with other nonprofits or in a public service capacity. every person i served with continues to volunteer. service sticks. my teammates are proof of that.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
congressional testimony
This afternoon I testified about service and volunteerism in America for the senate sub-committee on healthy families and communities. To be honest the proceedings were uneventful. I was disappointed that Dennis Kucinich didn’t show. Also had to note that all but one of the Republicans (Rep. Plats [R-PA]) didn’t show. High point for me was Rep. Plats telling me that I’d been raised right (wording mine in case you couldn’t tell. You don’t win congressional elections in York talking like that).
Think I’d have more to say about a once in a life time event? Nope. I had more fun riding. The weather has been gorgeous for the past week with exception of the snow day last Sunday. I’ve been putting in a lot of miles and realized yesterday as I climbed the hill to my house that I’ve been putting too much pressure on my hands. I woke up this morning with that dull numbness in my hands that we all know all too well. Lesson relearned-keep weight off the hands!
Think I’d have more to say about a once in a life time event? Nope. I had more fun riding. The weather has been gorgeous for the past week with exception of the snow day last Sunday. I’ve been putting in a lot of miles and realized yesterday as I climbed the hill to my house that I’ve been putting too much pressure on my hands. I woke up this morning with that dull numbness in my hands that we all know all too well. Lesson relearned-keep weight off the hands!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
the weather has been amazing for the past two days. Springtime air was a welcome reprieve from the ice of the past week. it's made work pleasant and gives me something to look forward to (april.)
i saw a nasty crash on penn ave at 15th, on the treasury side of the white house. i stopped to make sure the guy was ok. he was on the ground tangled up in his bike and jumped up screaming at the secret service. as i rode off one agent was pointing his finger in his face yelling "i don't care if you're hurt or not. if you don't shut up and leave right now you're going to jail!" crash and then go to jail. not a good morning.
i'm working on my testamony. check it http://edworkforce.house.gov/committee/schedule.shtml
i saw a nasty crash on penn ave at 15th, on the treasury side of the white house. i stopped to make sure the guy was ok. he was on the ground tangled up in his bike and jumped up screaming at the secret service. as i rode off one agent was pointing his finger in his face yelling "i don't care if you're hurt or not. if you don't shut up and leave right now you're going to jail!" crash and then go to jail. not a good morning.
i'm working on my testamony. check it http://edworkforce.house.gov/committee/schedule.shtml
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Gilman and Peru Illinois
Instead of going to work today-where i get to make money riding my bike-i stayed home to work on securing hosts for the bike and build group. my plan was to secure seven hosts and then go to the bookstore, maybe sometime around 11. needless to say, this is alot harder than i'd anticipated. even still, i'm am happy to say that we are (tentively) staying at st. paul lutheran church on north thomas street in gilman, il and st. joseph's catholic church on 5th street in peru, il. there is also a very good chance that we have a place to stay in coeur d'alene, wa. no comfirmation yet because bob, the contact person, was on his bike when i called. a very good sign.
after a few hours at the computer and on the phone i took my fixie out for some fun.
after a few hours at the computer and on the phone i took my fixie out for some fun.
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