thejaxn5: Make a Difference Day

Brady (along with other Student Council members ((which are also my students)) from HMS) and I participated in this past Saturday's Make a Difference Day. Ironically, the mission assigned to us from Delaware County was to help out with history and land preservation at Camp Lazarus, a Boy Scout of America camp ground. Brady has camped there many, many times so we were excited to work "behind the scenes" at the camp.

Receiving our assignments:

One group was sent to make some sort of wooden holders to be used for collecting maple syrup from the maple trees. Another group was asked to clear vegetation from paths throughout the camp.

And our group was asked to clean out the Sugar Shack, where the maple syrup buckets are kept, to split wood and then to stack the wood.

Our group reporting for duty!! Brady wanted to hang with the big 8th graders. Plus, splitting and stacking wood sounded like the best job offered!

Cleaning out the shack and stacking the maple syrup buckets.

You're not done yet Brady...keep on cleaning!

Time to start splitting and stacking wood! Here we are receiving specific directions on how to stack wood and how to help with the splitter.

After about an hour of stacking and splitting, the men needed a break. So the rest of us posed for some pictures.

They have built their muscles splitting and stacking wood!

Back to work for about another hour.

The tractor couldn't have come at a perfect time to relieve us from our duties. We were tired and hungry. We took a little hay ride around the camp site towards the amphitheater for a quick group picture of the kids.

There wasn't enough room for all of us to have our own seat, so my only option was to sit on Brady's lap. The kid next to me is literally saying, "I can't believe my teacher is sitting on my lap." Get over it kid, I'm not that heavy and I'm not your teacher today, I'm just some other kid's mom!!

Great work today kids! I'm proud to be a mom of one of these kids as well as their teacher.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE fall this year? These are some pictures I took while enjoying the woods, the great trees and views at Camp Lazarus....while the kids worked :)