Get to the Point Alumni spotlight
Returning to Hope Danielle was the Team Leader of Moose 4, Class XVII here at Perry Point, MD by Buffalo 3 When Buffalo 3 arrived at Camp Hope for Kids, we found out that Moose 4 had been there last year. So we hunted down former Team Leader Danielle Arroyo to find out more about the history of AmeriCorps at the site. Why did you decide to be a Team Leader? I went to school for horticulture, which is my real passion, but I really enjoy people and forming relationships with people and being a part of that developmental stage in people's life. I also love traveling, and I thought about joining the Navy for a while to help serve my country, meet people, and travel, but when I thought about it more it was a little more intense than what I wanted my experience to be. Then I thought of Peace Corps and I didn't know that AmeriCorps existed until I went onto the Peace Corps website and then I found AmeriCorps. I thought I would much rather help out my own country before I even thought about going to another one. There are definitely issues in the United States. So, that's originally why I signed up. I originally signed up to be in the Mississippi campus as a Unit Support Team Leader. The budget didn't pass at the beginning of the year, so they said, “Well, we'd still like to have you as far as NCCC, but we're going to redirect you to either the Iowa or Maryland campus.” I'm from Connecticut, so I was thinking, “Oh please, not Maryland, please not Maryland. I know everything about the Northeast already.” I ended up going to Maryland and I was a little bummed inside, but there's always going to be someplace you've never
Class 17 Team Leader Danielle with her Moose 4 Corps Member Jacob Miller at the Delaware Food Bank been before. Like, I had obviously never been to Schwenksville, Pennsylvania before. It was amazing. I got an experience as a Team Leader that I would never have gotten as a Unit Support Team Leader and I am so thankful for that.
they already know what kind of Team Leader they want to be and what they think is important because they had their experience last year.”
As I went along, I felt like I had a certain advantage that they didn't. I was starting with a clean, fresh plate. I had Did you find it hard to jump right no judgments on anything. There were into being a Team Leader without some Team Leaders who really loved being a Corps Member first? their Corps year and were all about their Corps year and that was how they Absolutely, you know, I got there and the decided what kind of Team Leader they year I did it, there was a solid number of wanted to be. For me, I just went into Team Leaders who had been at Perry it being my own person and with my Point the year before. They were throw- team, we all played in the woods a lot ing around all these acronyms and I was of the time and they would ask, “Oh so confused, I had no idea what a POL Danielle, what's this plant?” And I was. I thought, “Oh my gosh, they alwould go on and on about some plant ready have such a great head start on all nerd tangent and I was really able to the acronyms and all the meanings and add in my own flavor and not have any 1
Get to the Point preconceived notions about my team or anything to compare them to. What was your favorite aspect of working at Camp Hope? It's beautiful there. You have complete run of this chunk of land, with the water right there. We had canoes and we did the zip line and the rock wall and we had bonfires. I really enjoyed it from a nature perspective. There were definitely frustrations that my team had with it. It is a very isolated area. Our first round was in New Orleans and they are completely opposite. It was a bit of a culture shock for them going from New Orleans to Schwenksville. I loved it! Do you have a particular memory of the project that stands out? Some of my Corps Members and I working in a canoe. I'd gone canoeing before, so I explained how to step in the canoe and how you do this and that, and I was rolling around a little bit to show them. I was wearing regular clothes at the time. When I tried to get out [of the canoe,] I completely ate mud; totally face dove into the water while trying to get out. From that, I got the name Mudfoot for the rest of the year. We all laughed about it, but I wasn't that upset. It was just pretty funny. You were interrupted while working at Hope for Kids to go on disaster. What was your reaction when you got the news? I was stoked. I was really excited. I can remember being at Starbucks when I got the call with one of my Corps Members, Jenna. We got the call and I was on the phone with Jason, the Moose Unit Leader, and I immediately went inside and called to Jenna, “Jenna! We have to leave! We're going on disaster!� We were jumping up and down from excitement because it was the first disaster of the 2
Class 17 Moose 4 Team Leader Danielle paints a house in New Orleans, LA year, so it was a pretty big deal. It was to Mississippi where the flooding was happening, and it was on a Red Cross budget, so it was a pretty good deal. We were all very excited.
thing about my team or my Team Leader style, but I would have stayed more on top of my receipts. I was notorious for losing receipts all the time.
You got to come back to Camp How did your AmeriCorps expeHope for Kids and finish up some rience shape what you're doing of the work that had been internow? rupted? It's opened so many doors for me. AfYeah, we were in Mississippi for two ter AmeriCorps, I actually went back weeks and we went back to Camp to New Orleans for three months and I Hope for Kids after that. It was nice, was volunteering down there and it we got to finish painting and cleaning was amazing. I never would have gone the insides of the cabins. We also got there without AmeriCorps. I had nevto do the zip line and the rock wall at er even given New Orleans that much that point. thought in terms of visiting, but New Orleans is definitely a place that has If there was one thing that you changed who I am. AmeriCorps in could change about your Amer- general, the people you meet are all iCorps experience, what would there because they want to help. It's a that be? really great thing to bond over. I became very close with my team and esI would have stayed more on top of my pecially Green Team. Green Team receipts. I wouldn't have changed any- from my year, they're some of my best