This year I rose at 7:30 am and showered and met some volunteers of Friends of Acadia for a  pre-parade party.  My sister, Chris and I arrive on Sea Mist lane house number five at the end of a little one way gravel street.  The house is perched with a clear view of the ocean.  I have some instant coffee complimented by a mouthwatering scone stuffed with dried pineapples, mangos, and cranberries from a secretive favorite Bar Harbor baker.  I am surrounded by youthful and energetic volunteers who help construct, reclaim and maintain the trails of the Acadia National Park.  Every single person around me cares so much for nature and preservation of its beauty that they dedicate three days out of every week for four summer months to volunteering in the beautiful park.  These folks are truly dedicated to the mission of enjoying all things good, from the nature to socializing and relaxing.  Each person travels from their hometown each year for a unified group service.  These people are so you at heart they refuse to use their AARP card.  The hosts of this great even are Howard and Dee along with their peers who are all proudly over the age of 70!

It was nice to get to sit down on the street and watch the parade pass.  The parade had its usual attractions, clowns, floats and bagpipes.  The unusual things were grown mend driving miniature semi trucks and fast go-carts wearing funny hats.  One part of the parade had a large car with a ramp attached from the back to the front that allowed the carts to roll over with the car moving.  Not safe.

After the parade we picked up a wedge of brie from a local store along with a couple red and green apples for the post-parade potluck party back with our relatable elders along the ocean.  I have never enjoyed myself so thoroughly with such a spectrum of colors of personality.  I got to talk on so many different levels with such a informed class of people.  Even a leprous elephant could have felt comfortable with these folks.  There was ceremonious singing and cheering all afternoon as smiles filled the room.

I am so thankful for the great company and socializing that I accomplished with such a great group of caring people.  My cheeks were sore after we left from smiling constantly.

I got to be on  a beach on my birthday and rinse my feet in the chilly green and frothy waves as they washed up on the hard sand.  Every day is different and exciting in every way.  Things happen that are unexpected and beautiful.  After we finished soaking up the gloom of the ocean we had to find some dinner.  Most of our drives have taken us down long three lane one way roads, that insist you know exactly how to get there.  Cruising along at 50 mph we stumble across a little mom and pop pizzeria and do a drive by.  It only took us about 15 more minutes to get turned back around and in the right direction.  We finally made it and had a nice veggie pizza and calamari.  We then made our trip back to our little camp group in New Jersey.  I rested easy and had a birthday unlike any other.  I turned 23, and somehow that seems older than I was, possibly from making the decision to dedicating my life to Being And Doing.  I feel like heading in the right direction.  If someone told me when I was little that on this birthday I would be on an adventure of my life with two great friends creating some wonderful volunteer work that makes a difference, I wouldn’t have been able to wait.  Everything that I learned while growing up truly made me more prepared for this journey and makes it worth it.  My Mom always encouraged me to think big and make a difference.  I feel accomplished that I am at the beginning of something great.  I am not done with college yet but I feel that this trip is leading me in a great direction to achieve the most of the hands on learning before I finish school.  The time is now to be what you want to be, and I have made the decision to make something new.  I’m so happy that this has been part of journey through life while getting to see such a great insight to so many other’s lives and accomplishments.  I’m so enthused that I get to be sharing this experience with my best friends Katie and Chris.  It’s so crazy sometimes, waking up in a whole new city doing a variety of jobs and still knowing that your friends are waking up involved in the same thing.  We are truly taking responsibility for our actions and choosing to do something good.  It’s a new beginning that leads to a great future.  I have never been so involved in anything before in my life.

Every day my friends and I are a family, Being And Doing, Inc., and really executing being able to do “it”.  I can’t help but think about my Daddio and brother, Alex back in Lakewood, OH along with my hot-diggity-dog, Jackson.  They are back at home taking care of business.  My brother is a Junior at St. Ignatius High School and my Dad is doing fatherly things.  I wish they could get to see first hand how we are doing and see all the great faces around America.  Since my Mom’s passing I have tried to be more observant of how you remember people and how they make you feel.  I have been more perceptive of emotions and how fantastic other people effect me and I try to soak it all up into my memory.  Even though I have been more aware of people and their nuances, I still miss their presence.  That is something that can’t be duplicated.  I can talk to my father and brother but I miss giving Jackson some attention and him loving every minute of it.  I know that not having some things make those things more loved and appreciated in general.  I look forward to seeing everyone on the next occasion.

Till then I will be living it up with the people that matter as well and are involved with me wholly on this trip.  It’s an amazing thing to experience and will be paying attention to every aspect of me living it.  There is so much to do.

I just have to thank everyone that attended HOBY Ohio North Seminar for how welcomed I felt.  My friends and I had just rolled back into the city for the first time after spending several weeks out in rural Southern Ohio.  The change was abrupt, but was absolutely fantastic.  It was so different from showering out of a hose for weeks at a time.  I kind of did not like having to shower in a bathroom, but I got used to it again.  All of the enthusiasm that exudes from the young individual leaders of tomorrow really make it easy to feel great.  It’s two days after my encounter with HOBY and I still have all the cheers running through my head.  I think I am loosing my mind just a little bit, but it makes me happy.

I absolutely loved the way that everyone in attendance was able to connect on the same level for the same goal.  The energy that was constantly being passed around from the ambassadors to the volunteers and adults was truly infectious.  It really made me happy to see all of the potential in our youth.  Every single kid out of 174 really has the right mind set and you can see the ambition overflowing out of them.  They were all so interested in our cause and they really wanted to help.  We received some great ideas that we had overlooked that really can help spread our cause.  We have now put a download-able brochure that can be handed out to spread our great works with others.  You can find our documentation here.

The past weekend I was tagging along with the group called Operation.  Every group had it’s own game board theme, and went along with fitting all the puzzle pieces together.  Chris was the Junior Facilitator and ran the group wonderfully.  He truly could connect with the ambassadors and create a great learning environment.  I had a great time working with the youth and getting to know and see their side of it all.  Each person worked with everyone and learned how to become and enhance the leadership qualities that they posses.  HOBY is a great inspirational way for the future leaders of tomorrow to learn how to hone into the direction that they want to lead in life.  It was a great experience that I felt privileged to be a part of.  Somehow they even let us do a little presentation to help nudge the ambassadors to help out in their community.

Again, a great big thank you goes out to everyone that made this past weekend possible!  I love getting to see the inside look at hands on learning.  Keep up the great work HOBY leaders and keep on loving!

Today was hungry.  My body was constantly craving food, of which I had my fill.  My eyes are red with pollen and my arms covered in bumpy hives in result of the flying greenery that I chopped with the weed wacker today.  We were stopped by an enormous cloud carring hail and strong winds.  Even despite the torrents of weather I am peaceful.  I rest easy.

Days are great when you make the most of it.  Physica labor really makes me proud.  I have not shaved in a week and yet only the right side of my face is speckled with soft hairs.  I have been reminded of the fact that the right side of my body is the giving or masculine side and the left is the receiving or feminine side.  It’s great paying attention to the small things that I overlooked while at home.

9 pm: The sun has set and brought a light dew to cover our freshly laundered clothes hanging on the line outside.  A little dew can’t hurt.  I can see the mist roll over the hills, sneaking closer th the ground as it moves in slow motion.  I look forward to sleep daily and I anxiously dream of the morning wakening.  The fire flies dance and flicker more strongly that I’ve noticed before.  Ever night it feels like a grand light show made specifically to twinkle for me.  The combination of the heavy storm , the Benedryl and Triplets of Belleville made me drift off into a late evening nap in an old creaky rocking chair.  I’m ready to eat!

I sit at a metal table watching Chris in his baby blue bandanna and muted banana yellow Threadless Tee as he reads and chuckles at the analogies he discovers.  Katie sits across from me at the head of the table in front of her computer screen with her hands clay removed from the hard ground from Guy Rose’s farm.  Katie’s hands are dusty from the dried clay but keeps it damp enough with water in order to correctly create Guy’s caricatured face.  we all sit patiently for the freshly harvested brow-spotted chicken egg omelettes as Elisa Young cooks them.  Elisa has an enormous heart that overflows with love and kindness.  She struggles so hard to keep every intricate aspect of her life in order while wearing so many different hats.  Daily she looks deeper into ways of achieving a cleaner county for her neighbors and for all.  She walks in the right direction, but it is hard for people so stuck in old ways to adjust to new ideas.  The possibility is growing, but people need to follow.  The people in Meigs County have come to accept some of the horrifying facts that their loved ones may get “The Cancer” from the four coal plants in a twelve mile radius.  Elisa is vocally trying to open the cities eyes to the detrimental effects of the unique destruction that is consuming the community.

I wake my tired eyes and lift my head up to open the screen of our tent.  The zipper makes its usual way down the flap and opens our beds to the bright new day.  This is the first sunny day in two that I haven’t fallen asleep and woken to the percussion of trickling drum beats of rain.  While falling asleep I’ve taught my mind to think of hearing a variety of different sounds; bursting packaging bubble wrap, cracking eggs, firecrackers, popping corn to cow mud pies dropping.  What crazy dreams I’ve had!
These days I have accomplished more than I knew how to before this adventure.  The past few day have been filled with finishing numerous odds and ends on Guy Rose’s farm.  This man of 73, is always dressed in his predictable matching tan grey pans and shirt.  The few old holes in them are worn proudly beneath his suspenders.  Those elastic straps ride high on his shoulders, but not as high as his red flat brimmed mesh truckers cap that seem to rest atop his glasses.  Beneath the bridge of his nose is a youthful toothless grin that he constantly wears makes me smile even more and accent his personality proportionally.  Guy had Chris and me ride in a front end loader to the side of a muddy hill to remove four tires from a truck.  The day before I planted two young apple trees into some fresh manure atop the hard clay mountain ground.  Someday these trees will bud and keep shade over the crops and create some scrumptious red apples.  Guy is so gracious for the help he receives and thanks us with his great stories and insights into life.  His voice soothes even the most upset child and drifts me off into a peaceful slumber.

I am content in a tent, to use a term that my friends coined a year earlier. I am on my first stop on my volunteering project with my sister Katie and my best friend Chris. The farm that I have been staying on this past week is owned by Elisa Young, an activist, in Southern rural Racine, OH. Most of my belongings are tucked away safely in various backpacks and boxes stored in our B.A.D. Mobile. I am on the go, but stay in places quite frequently. Time doesn’t matter much, only getting the job done is what matters. So far I’ve helped build a chicken coop that will allow the chickens to roam free range. Next I helped my colleagues thoroughly cover a freshly plowed field with manure. This tainted land will eventually become green again with a lush wonderful landscape. it’s nice to know that I have created a place where Elisa will be satisfied by the great food grown here. Helping Elisa takes a big load off her back for the long summer ahead of fighting the pollution and harm done to this surrounding area due to major coal companies.

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I will write to remember…. I feel the best I’ve felt in ages.  No matter my arms being sore, my hands callused and my body tingly all over from sun burn.  Here begins another chapter in my life as I sit in the back bed of the 1985 VW Vanagon which is spectacularly hand painted by my sister.  It is adorned with brightly colored puzzle pieces that trickle into plump paint splats.  My head is clear.  I have my companions around me, and all I have to do is just be.  It may be the best ever not having a place to rush to;  just sit after a days of work and just recount and reflect on the day.  The air blows just cold enough to remind us of the cold winter’s past, yet warm enough to possibly rain and be refreshed.  The days are only going to be better than the best from here on.  My focus is absorbing and feeling.  I can’t help but stop and look at my three day old freshly scabbed tattoo and think of my Mom.  Not only because she never really loved tattoos but because I feel her all around me.  Her initials are scratched into the top corners of a peace sign and weighted perfectly above and below it is scratched Be at peace in legible cursive.  There is a lot of new around me, but it sure feels comfortably familiar.  My life has led me here, and I continue to pursue.   There is so much to do and so much time.  This day is great!

B.A.D. Crew

As soon as we are on the road we will be updating our own personal blogs to give our readers a better insight into the members of B.A.D., Inc.  Here you will get to read into our thoughts and ideas about our progress of our trip.  Come travel with us through our blog and keep us going…

We look forward to you getting to know us!

Here is a little look at our facebook gallery of some of the photos from our first stop!