Americorps members bid farewell to Fort Bayard 070617

Americorps kids last day 070617 Americorps Water Team 5 members pose for a last group photo on the front porch of Officer's Quarters 23B. From left are Team Leader Brittany Donovan, Heather Thompson, Tony Le Calvez, Kendall Bailey, Emmanuel "Manny" Garcia-Neyers, Lucas "Luke" Anderson, Sarah Talmadge, Rebecca Smith and Eli Voights.

Article and photos by Mary Alice Murphy

After a barbecue lunch celebrating the work the Americorps Water 5 Team members provided at Fort Bayard National Landmark, the Beat asked them for the impressions about their experience at Fort Bayard. The team spent three full months working at Fort Bayard and doing other community work at other places, including The Volunteer Center and the High Desert Humane Society and at community events.

Eli Voights said: "Thank you for being so welcoming. I hope we can come back."

Sarah Talmadge: "I'm from a city, and I have gained insight into what makes a small town like Santa Clara work so well with the community, as well as the state. It's been great seeing relationships grow and be enhanced."

Rebecca Smith: "I would like to also give a shout out to The Volunteer Center, where I worked one day a week. It was a wonderful experience. This community is very generous and that generosity is very much appreciated."

Sarah chimed in again: "To feel so welcomed doesn't always happen. They asked us if we were comfortable, if we had enough pots and pans, just all the little details."

The team members were housed in the Santa Clara Armory, and had previously noted that the accommodations were the best they had had during their year of service.

Eli said she loved seeing everyone working to preserve Fort Bayard. "Mayor Bauch, (Clerk) Sheila (Hudman) and Rocky (Hildebrand) are so integrated into the community. It's amazing."

Rebecca said the specific relationships everyone formed, "especially among ourselves are special. Leaving is hard and we're being sad, especially, we will miss Rocky and at The Volunteer Center, I will miss Kristen and John. We have had a really good time here, and we'll miss each other."

Tony Le Calvez said he has liked seeing the direct impact the team was having on the community. "It's cool to have such a community impact."

Emmanuel "Manny" Garcia-Neyers said: "I see the progress, and our exceeding even our expectations."

Kendall Bailey said: "Being appreciated on a daily basis by Sheila and Rocky and the community was great. We saw it every day and we know why we worked so hard."

Brittany Donovan, the Water Team 5 leader, cited the accomplishments of the team members. "We put up six barricades to upper floors of the officers' quarters. We cut, painted and boarded up buildings with 224 doors and windows. We spent lots of hours on ladders."

Heather Thompson said: "I really enjoyed restoring and boarding up the buildings. My career goal is restoration, so this was a great start for me. And everything we've seen around here is amazing. The Cliff Dwellings were my favorite outside of work. I'm a sucker for history. We will miss the community and Rocky and Lori (Hildebrand) most. This feels like home."

Kendall agreed: "The small town has a homey feel."

Heather said the team has been taken care of from the welcome to the end.

Lucas "Luke" Anderson, who had gone for a solo walk around Fort Bayard, showed up at the end for the group photo. He echoed the welcoming feeling. He, also, at the urging of his team members said he had caught two live pigeons inside buildings with his hands and released them to the outside.

Brittany said when the team began cleaning out the Quonset Hut, she figured it would take a couple of days. "There were only four of us, but it took us only four hours. I knew then that I had a hard-working team. We also cleaned out the Nurses' Quarters and boarded it up."

In talking about cleaning out the houses, they said they found a Santa Claus-like stuffed "doll." They named him Norman and said he was spooky.

Brittany said the statistics for the work they had done included using about 55 gallons of paint on the 224 windows and doors. "We also moved 17,945 pounds of waste from the buildings."

Friday morning, the group left to drive to Denver for transition week at the end of their year of service. "We will be debriefed and will be tying up loose ends. We will have a formal graduation ceremony next Friday, July 14, and we will even get a yearbook," Brittany said.

In Denver, the 300 Americorps team members will be together for the debriefings and graduation ceremony. The Water Team Unit includes about 80 members, Brittany said.