May Project at Forest Park

I fulfilled my entire commitment of 51 hours working at Forest Park for the last two weeks. It did not go without a few bumps in the road as it rained several days resulting in reduced days and even some cancellations. There are some key flaws in how the school and the park go about communicating with us workers about scheduling mishaps. However, the good times outweighed the bad as I got to work with my friends and learn a lot about how the park is run on a daily basis. Overall, it was an interesting experience and one that I believe most would be interested in.

After the week of AP tests and Biology classes, I was eager to begin my time working at the park. I had heard from my friends that the work was grueling due to the high temperatures. However, I believed I was in luck because the forecast appeared to be mild for the entire week. I arrived about ten minutes late as I had gotten lost in the many roundabouts and turns that needed to be mastered before getting to the proper location. Eventually, I reached the destination and my friends and I mulched trees for the next five hours. The work was rather monotonous: shovel dirt into wheelbarrow, take wheelbarrow to next tree, dump soil around tree, and rake until pretty. It was rinse and repeat until lunch. The lunch break was glorious, an on-the-clock hour free to spend in anyway. To my wallet’s dismay, we frequented several restaurants over the span of two weeks. The first day we went to Amigo Joe’s, a Mexican restaurant with very mixed reviews from the seasoned workers. I was a fan of the chicken tacos and had no stomach problems unlike a few of my unlucky friends. All and all, the first day was enjoyable and not too difficult as the mid-70s made being outside pleasant.

The second day did not go as smoothly as the first. Instead of Forest Park, we were assigned to a location about five minutes north, Project Brightside, an operation meant to provoke sustainability. After a little under an hour of sitting in the line of endless cars that lined Highway 64, I exited to go south on Kingshighway. Unknown to me, shortly after turning heading turning right, there was a massive pile of rubble blocking the way to Brightside. For the next 15 minutes, I scrambled through a complicated detour to reach this place. To make matters worse, the center that the building is located in features a huge Wells Fargo sign, overshadowing the other inhabitants. I was not the only one who had a problem, the other Chesterfieldian had so little hope that he decided to follow me in the journey to Brightside.

After this debacle, the day seemed to have taken a turn for the best. After an hour and a half of weeding in moderate rain, our supervisor called us in to get us out of the rain. In an attempt to wait out the storm, we all sat in the conference room snacking on treats the Brightside staff was kind enough to give to us. However, about an hour later, it was obvious the rain was not going to let up and we were sent home. At the time, our full hours for the day were promised as we would have worked the entire day if it wasn’t for the rain. The entire May Project crew rejoiced and went our separate ways. Little did we know, those hours were not as guaranteed as we thought.

The next day, through fault of our own, our situation took its first evident turn for the worse. Once again, we were mulching for the entirety of the day. As boredom took over for many of us, the chance to horse around became enticing. This was all in good fun until one of us tried to see if the pitchfork we used for shoveling dirt would stick in the mountain of soil if thrown properly. No one was in front of him and the projectile did not come close to harming anyone. I was away from the incident, but others at the scene did say the venture was a success as the pitchfork stuck into the pile. However, our boss saw the action and did not take it lightly. This was the first stupid action of the day.

After four hours of work, we all went out for lunch again. This time we went to Joey B’s, a pub-like restaurant. The food was really good but the kitchen staff proved that you cannot rush perfection. We got the checks an hour and a half after we had entered, more importantly, 30 minutes after we were supposed to have been at the park. We scrambled to get back but we were caught as we were exiting our cars. This led to a very harsh talking to as the pitchfork incident still weighted heavily in our boss’ mind. We apologized profusely as we knew we had done wrong. Matters would get messier as the day’s events were then reported to the school.

The weekend went by quickly to make way for another week of work. Monday went by without a bump in the road; we knew we were under close supervision and genuinely felt bad for our stupidity. As the baseball season ended over the weekend, I was now working until 3:00 instead of 1:00 as I no longer needed to go to practice. We all went home tired but proud of the amount of work we completed. At the end of the day, I did the math and concluded Friday would be my last day.

Tuesday we were back at Brightside. I am proud to report that I had no trouble getting there as I had remembered the ins and outs of the detour. However, it was pouring and we were sent home immediately. Once again, we were told that we would be receiving all of our hours as we had no choice but to leave. A few hours later, I receive an email saying the rainout hours will not be counted and we need to work them off. Additionally, we would be docked an hour and a half because of the lunch fiasco. I agreed with the latter decision but attempted to fight the first move as it was not fair to make some of us drive over an hour to work and then turn us away empty-handed. When you consider the time it takes to get back home, it takes some of us over two hours. However, I was not able to fight city hall. Instead of Friday being my last day, Tuesday was now the goal. I had to call my real job and drop the shifts I had previously signed up to work.

For the next seven days, we worked diligently. The rain stayed away along with the heat making conditions enjoyable. To my dismay, we visited Brightside once more and weeded for nearly the entire day. My knees and back were thankful that we only went back there once more. We got to see an arborist cut down a tree that was approximately ten feet around. I knew there was a technique to it, but had never seen it in action so it was interesting to see how all of the cuts came together to make the tree fall in a safe manner. The fallen tree was then cut into several pieces that must have weighed several hundred pounds each. The pieces were then hauled off and eventually there was no sign besides a lonely stump.

Fortunately, the rocky start gave way to a smooth finish. The last days went smoothly and I fulfilled my hour requirement. Although waking up at 6:30 was rather unpleasant, it felt good to know I was helping the park staff; I am more than confident that we earned back the reputation we had lost. It felt good to make a tangible difference, one that is so unlike what we do in school. It feels good to finish essays on Shakespeare but it is a different feeling all together to finish something requiring only strength and hard work. In total, we mulched every tree around the Jewel Box and around the Muny. The other day, our yard was mulched and I had a better understanding of how hard it is along with how they do it. As I do not frequent the area very often, I also saw how big of an operation Forest Park is. It takes tens of workers working hard day in and day out in order to keep the park looking good. Behind the forestry office featured a parking lot lined with several heavy duty trucks meant for highly specific tasks. It was incredible to see the amount of precision and ingenuity that went into the modeling construction of each vehicle. All and all, my May Project at Forest Park was a long experience, but one that was worth it.