Our first fire occurred midday in a forest in Laclede County. We drove through a cow pasture to the edge of a wall of grey smoke engulfing the edge of the nearby forest. Somehow, that first fire was in retrospect a bit unremarkable. There was a lot of noise from the blowers, a lot of heat from the fire perimeter, and one quick back-burn, and from where I was the work on the fire was over. We rehabbed our gear, picked up the other crew, and got back to work elsewhere.

The real remarkable and surreal moment on fire happened that evening. We were called into a fire in Dallas County near the end of the day. It was still light, and as we got there the sun was just beginning to slip through through the trees. We were quickly ushered toward a field of flaming grass, parked in the scorched black section, and geared up to attack the flames before they reached a nearby trailer.

As I reached the line and a water-tanker engine began to douse the fire, I was pulled off to attack the other front with a blower. My half of the crew marched down the scratch line put in place by the local rural fire department, widening it along the way, in order to meet up with the other half of us to encircle the fire.

For the first time the scenery was getting to be not only like nothing I had seen before but somehow made more of an impact on me than earlier in the day. I don’t know if it was the sensory deprivation of the ear-plugs along with the roaring of the blower motor, but it was like all of my other senses were on ‘slow-motion’ and ‘record’. I remember the feel of the tall flames behind me licking the seat of my Nomex pants as I turned to clear the leaves opposite of me. I remember the golden rays filtering through the trees and the monstrous look of the bulldozer’s white lights as it cut through the forest. I remember being able to see little through the dark trees but the shower of sparks that would rain off of the burning snags as the bulldozer took them out one-by-one.

It was one of the more surreal and beautiful moments of my life. I had just been thrust into this force of nature that I had never had experience with and come out safely on the other side, having done something good in the mean time. I felt lucky to have been where I was, doing what I was doing– which is also pretty nice.

Jesse Bright; ERT Year 17

This is what makes planting trees in Joplin so exciting. No one is sad when they come to get trees. Homeowners may have lost everything, but they will smile to think that they will see life again on their properties. They are excited to have shade again and a barrier against the wind. They can’t wait to have flowering dogwoods at Easter and evergreens at Christmas.

People will tell you stories of trees that got knocked down in the storm. One woman told me about a tree she and her husband planted right after they got married 65 years ago. Over the years that tree stood in the yard where their children, and then grandchildren, played. Nothing can replace that tree, or the memories that went along with it, but she was happy to think that more memories could be made. Replanting was one more step towards moving on.

To date we have planted over 400 trees in Joplin. More trees have been given out by churches, local conservation areas, and other nonprofits. Despite these efforts, many lots are still bare. It will take a long time to get Joplin back to pre-storm conditions, but I hope that the trees we plant will be signs of life and regrowth that will give people encouragement as the rebuilding of Joplin continues.

- Clare Holdinghaus; ERT Year 18

AmeriCorps St. Louis Education Member Lauren Monaco with her student Adhitya

ST LOUIS – I had the opportunity to tutor Adhitya during the course of her second grade year at Woodward Elementary. Her family, originally from Bhutan, lived in a Nepalese refugee camp for 18 years, along with many others who were forced to leave Bhutan in the early 1990s. I met her one year after she and her family resettled in St. Louis. Adjusting to American school life was a difficult challenge, as she not only had the fears of fitting in and making new friends, but also the difficult task of learning about a completely new culture and language. The urban SLPS classroom was very different from the bamboo huts which housed the school she was accustomed to in the Nepali refugee camps.
Adhitya was a quick learner, and over the course of the year she became more and more comfortable using her English. At first she was extremely shy, but after a while she became more at ease and would talk and talk and talk. I learned that she loved to draw and noticed that she always paid special attention to the way illustrations were depicted in the books we read together. I wanted our projects to incorporate her love of drawing. One of the things I focused on in our tutoring sessions was getting her to recognize basic sight words. Throughout the year I wrote little stories that incorporated the sight words that she needed to work on. All the stories followed the adventures of two best friends named Bobo and Ellie. After she read each story, Adhitya did the illustrations for each page. For her end of the year present, I bound the stories along with her illustrations into a hardcover book for her to keep.




Lauren Monaco served on the Education team during year 17 at Woodward Elementary. She earned a B.F.A. in Illustration from Washington University in St. Louis. Her work can be seen at laurenmonaco.com.

AmeriCorps St. Louis Education Member Arlene Fair

At the close of one of our final group tutoring session, I let each of my second graders choose a couple of books to take home. I asked my once-struggling readers to name their favorite thing about second grade – they answered, “READING.”

On the way back to class, I told my students that I would miss them very much. They assured me, “We will miss you too, but we can write to each other, and we can remember you when we read our books.” That made my heart melt. These kids did not know how to read or write when I first met them. Now they enjoy reading and are proud of it.

Arlene's Year 16 Students

Arlene Fair served with the AmeriCorps St. Louis Education Team at Woodward Elementary during Years 16 & 17. Both of her parents are teachers and she’s moving with her husband, another teacher, to California to pursue a Masters in Literacy.

The Champion’s Ceremony is a unique way for AmeriCorps St. Louis to honor and recognize our students for their academic accomplishments and character development over the year. This is of particular importance because we work with students who need a little bit more help to become grade level readers and might not otherwise be recognized for their accomplishments in school.

This year’s ceremony was held in our Urban Adventure Center (UAC) on Friday, May 22 and included a catered reception and the Champions Ceremony. Each student is able to bring their family along and this year was our largest turnout ever, with the UAC reaching standing room only status quickly, filled with cheering, proud families and bright eyed students. Students were recognized in the following categories:

• Achievement: This student has done remarkably well academically or has made significant improvement in his/her literacy skills.
• Extraordinary Effort: This student has made extraordinary effort towards academic excellence. This student tries no matter what.
• Leadership: This student is a model of positive behavior at school. He/She is the student who takes on extra projects, accepts responsibility, and exhibits the ability to do the right thing in tough situations.
• Service: This student demonstrates excellent citizenship. If ever there is an opportunity to do something for someone else or for the school, this student is on top of it.

We also take this opportunity to recognize the school liaisons that make the Education Team’s efforts fruitful, from principals to teachers who have particularly supportive.