SUYL Friday!

Hey! I'm Megan, originally from Wyckoff, NJ and moved a few years ago to Florida to finish my masters degree and work for FDEM and love it. Although now my address is Tallahasse, Florida, I will always be a Jersey Girl (not in the MTV way, but with morals and a brain.) I completed my undergrad at UNC Asheville in Atmospheric Science but wanted to get my masters at FSU in public administration. I am 25 years old and love photography, working on DIY projects and Jesus. I've had the oppourtunity to travel and volunteer with my job and wouldn't take back those experiences for anything.
I would love to be another SUYS relationship!
Talk to you soon!

Remembering the Roots

Well, it has been an extremely long time since I have posted but I am in a totally different place right now.

I can now call Tallahassee Florida home.  It is a hammer and some nails and whole lotta love that has brought me to this place.  I just completed one of the most challenging years of my life but looking back on it as i have in the past few days, every step has been worth it.

I have now been to every borough in New York, except for Staten Island (but that doesn't count).  I have managed to train individuals from 15 years old to 80 years old.  I have learned a lot about myself, including how to become a better public spea

ker, how to muster the courage to go out on my own and how to deal with difficult people.  All of my experiences have brought me to my new home.

After loading up my belongings into the relocubes they were loaded on a flatbed truck and endured the journey to florida.

With only a few casualties including 2 wine glasses and 2 martini glasses ( I sound like an alchi..i am really not) everything made it safely, including the two volvos and there three passengers.  After working rapidly, we got my apartment set up and mom and dad were headed back to NJ.  

Tomorrow is the first day of orientation and I am so excited.  Not only am I going to be studying something that I love, I am going into it with some experience.  This experience could be very different from my classmates.  Not only did I get to work in one of the largest cities in the country...i got to work some awesome people and serve on various organizations and experience some disasters.  I have done a lot of research over the past months and I am really interested to further understand how the State of Florida and academic world views Spontaneous Unaffiliated Community Volunteers.   I am going to be taking three night classes this semester and one is about Public Organizations.  I am most intrigued by that one for some reason.  I forget in which one, but one of them, i get to read about cops, counselors and dogs.  How cool does that sound?  I am currently working on my application for an internship at the Leon County Sheriffs Office.  I have to get my Florida Drivers License before I can apply.  I'm waiting for my birth certificate to arrive so that I can do that.  Then I will officially be a Florida Resident!

Anyways, as a side note...for those of you who watch the weather channel....they lie.  For the past two days you thought Tallahassee was going to die as a result of Tropical Storm Claudette...we barely got any rain....maybe 5 minutes worth.  Crazy.  

Anyways, as I start my newest adventure at FSU tomorrow, I will not forget how it all started.  We have the fifth anniversary coming up of the storm that changed my life.  I will have to find a special way to commemorate it....any ideas?

Liz

This is the fine lady that started St. Bernards Project. She has been nominated for the CNN Heroes award which if she wins, will entitle her to a $100,000 grant for the project. Do you know how many homes that can build? Please take some time to visit the page and vote for her. You can vote as many times as you want!! Go Liz!

Season of Giving

So its been a while but i have had a lot of things on my mind lately.   The plans are underway for the next trip to New Orleans through the New Orleans Ministry at the Church of the Presentation.  I am now a member of the Core team which is very exciting, challenging and rewarding.  While I am the youngest member and one of the few females, I am very blessed to help with the planning.   With the plans underway and the thought of not being able to go due a full time job (the real world really sucks sometimes) and no money to do it. I think I am going to sit this one out and save my money for my spring break trip to Florida.  

Anyways, as the holidays rapidly approach and the threat of a struggling economy makes the headlines daily, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what types of things I am going to be doing for christmas.  I would really like to make most of my presents and have already started as the ideas come.  I have one complete. I had decided also that making something, might include making a donation.  Most people love it when you don't buy them a item to show your love but instead show you love by giving something to someone who has less then you.  I have sat in meetings the past couple of weeks with representatives of food banks who talk about their struggles.  The fact that so many times before the money didn't come in at the holidays, but this is the first year in their history where they don't have the food or the financial needs.   I have sat in meetings with organizations that talk about the devastation that is still so wide spread in Texas and yet no one talks about it.  This breaks my heart.  Daily I think about how little money I am making in my job and yet everyday I still have a house to go home to and there is food on the table.  Yet, these people have no jobs, no homes and very little food.  So I have decided to divide my means, even though it feels like so little, and I will donate to organizations that I hold dear to my heart.  Where I know, that the money will get to the people who need it most.  I am thinking that my two target organizations will be Heart with Hands  and Habitat for Humanity.  My other idea was to buy thanksgiving dinners for people who live near me.  I have to give it some more thought and maybe I could do all three. We will see.

I think that you should consider doing this, this holiday season.  It will be here before we know it and while most of us have so much there are so many who have nothing.  

Are you ready?

As the peak of hurricane season arrives on Sept 10th and we have three storms in the gulf, National Preparedness Month kicks off.  Whether you are on the florida coast right in the line of the storm, or in the Northeast where we will get soaked, are you prepared for any type of disaster?  Want to learn how you can be prepared? Ask me! Its my job!

Gustav

There is something so powerful about mother nature.  For two years I have worked to restore a city that was so devastated and yet in a matter of hours mother nature can come in once again and reverse the hard work.   If you really think about it deeply, we are absolutely powerless when it comes to the acts of mother nature.  I may now be in the field of disaster management but I feel hopeless.  I can't possibly imagine how my friends in St. Bernard's parish feel.  Many of them have probably once again left their homes with no idea what they will return too.  They hear the news media state that this is not nearly like Katrina, but it was 12 to 18 hours after the landfall of Katrina that we saw the worst destruction.  While there have been so many improvements to the levees and the cities operations, the only way to see if they are successful is to wait till the days following the landfall to see if the measures were successful.  I think that everyone is holding onto hope that we never will see anything like Katrina again, and yet for the past day or so it looked like Gustav could be a repeat.  The evacuation procedures may be different and more people may have left the city, but what if the people come back to a city with so little damage that they don't heed the warnings next time a hurricane heads for them.  I think that the next day or so are going to be very telling and that we really need to tune it to see what is going to happen.  Keep an eye on Hanna and Ike, there might be a need to help rebuild the carolinas or georgia.  

Some words to ponder...

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

-buddha