Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy
The Americorps students whom you have met in these pages before are still on the job doing work out at Fort Bayard National Historic Landmark.
Americorps and YCC Santa Clara 062017
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Kendall Bailey and Heather Thompson (with back to camera) paint the back of one of the windows.
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Manny Garcia and Tony Le Calvez paint the backs of windows
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Rebecca Smith paints the front of a window destined for the old Administration Building at Fort Bayard
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Rebecca picks up the window she has just completed
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Sarah Talmadge and Rocky Hildebrand, their supervisor, inside the armory
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Eli Voights readies a box for distribution
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Talmadge helps Brittany Donovan, the team leader, with a box
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Is it a door or painted to look like one?
Americorps and YCC at Santa Clara 062017
Youth Conservation Corps students work on a painting of a dog for the animal shelter door. From left are Aimee Ryan, Desi Montoya, Abigail Egge Ogas, Jasmin Rivas, and Ysabel Alvarado.
Other articles can be found at http://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/36913-an-update-on-americorps-team-and-the-work-at-fort-bayard and http://www.grantcountybeat.com/news/news-articles/36342-americorps-volunteers-welcomed-to-fort-bayard-041917
One hundred sixty-eight windows and doors have been boarded up. With just a glance at the officer's quarters' buildings, a casual visitor might think nothing has changed. But a closer look shows a painted piece of plywood that looks like the real thing.
On Tuesday, June 20, 2017, a quick visit to the Santa Clara Armory saw Americorps members painting more "windows"—this time 39 of them for the former Administration Building. Other members helped out with filling boxes for commodity distribution later that afternoon.
One of the team members, Kendall Bailey, said to create the windows, they created templates and studied the boards on the Waterworks Building to give them ideas how to paint the windows, so they look like real windows.
"Our team leader, Brittany Donovan, helped us figure out to do the shading as we paint," Bailey said.
When asked she thought of her experience at Fort Bayard, Heather Thompson of Idaho said: "I have no clue what I was getting into, but I want to be a museum curator, so restoration like this is in my future."
Emmanuel "Manny" Garcia and Tony Le Calvez also painted windows, as did Rebecca Smith. She also had no trouble picking up one of the plywood pieces and taking it to a group of completed ones for further drying. They would be hanging today's painted boards on Wednesday morning.
Donovan, along with team members Eli Voights and Sarah Talmadge, were rapidly filling boxes with food items to hand out to the usual 150-180 people who arrive. The food truck had showed up late, so they were rushing to be ready for people, many of whom had waited for hours in their vehicles outside the Armory.
At the Santa Clara Senior Center, Youth Conservation Corps members were on break from building a trail around the property, so that seniors can walk and look at the plants that will be planted along the trail. Other YCC members were painting one of the front doors of the Santa Clara Animal Shelter, which was a repurposed old fire station.