EAST ST LOUIS ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

[ Update ]

Outreach Weekend Report

November 8-9, 2002

Contents:

Summary:

by Justin Placek, ESLARP Outreach Weekend Assistant

The East St. Louis Action Research Project headed back down to East. St. Louis for the final outreach weekend of the year 2002. The project team of about 30 people came together as a strong unit, which ultimately enabled the weekend's agenda to be carried out. The ESLARP team included: students, staff, volunteers, and residents; all of who worked extremely hard throughout the weekend. The projects that we worked on were: painting the inside of New Life Community Church, construction of a fountain, and deconstruction of the inside of a warehouse in St. Louis. With the dedication and consistent hardwork from the project team we were able to complete the weekends itinerary.

Reports:

Integration LLC Warehouse in St. Louis

by Justin Placek, ESLARP Outreach Weekend Assistant

On Friday about 11 volunteers worked at a warehouse in St. Louis. We tore half of the second floor out, and removed shelves and other garbage from the first floor. We had a team of 3 people ripping out the floor boards and another team that removed the nails from the boards that could be salvaged. Another team removed tables and other salvageable materials out of the warehouse. A couple of other people took apart wooden shelves on the first floor.

On Saturday we had a team of about 15 people to work on the warehouse. Mike Andrejasich took the liberty of disconnecting all of the wires(phone,electrical, smoke alarm) that were hanging in the warehouse. We ripped out the rest of the second floor, including all of the floor joists. We again split up into teams, similar to what we did on Friday. All of the wood that we could save was loaded into a ryder truck. The wood, duct work, lighting fixtures, pipes, pvc, and wall dividers were all donated to the Village Theatre in Centreville. While we had a team delivering all of these materials, the rest of the team continued to take apart shelving units, and Jassen Johnson did some massive destruction with the forklift. We were able to save 14 shelving units, all of which were donated to AIM in East St. Louis.

Also, tables and chairs were donated to the Church of Faith in East St. Louis. I believe about this time we were all pretty much out of energy, due to the hardwork that everyone put in. In less than two days the team was able to clear almost everything from the inside of the warehouse, it was pretty amazing.


Fountain of Youth Construction

by Donovan Finn, ESLARP Research Assistant

On Friday, my small team of Bisi, Matt, Willie and myself helped Larry from Help Make East St. Louis Beautiful as he worked to get the concrete for the Fountain of Youth poured before the winter. We dug out some high ground and framed up 2 walkways and 2 patios so they should be able to pour concrete whenever they are ready. We also helped move some large rocks and debris and tried to help level out the area by moving around the gravel that was already on the site.


Painting New Life Community Church

More photos from the weekend.

Document author(s) : listed above
Last modified: 19 November 2002, Deanna Koenigs
EAST ST LOUIS ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT