On June 16, 2007, twenty strangers met at Mobile Regional Airport in Alabama to begin a two month journey of volunteer service. With few expectations, we settled into life at the Pearlington Recovery Center, the twenty of us staying together in a tiny bunk house. As volunteers, we received directions from the Gulf Coast Recovery Corps, which assigned us numerous house-building projects. We did everything from framing, siding, hanging drywall, mudding, taping, siding, removing invasive species, moving garbage, and many other odd jobs. While we weren't working, we enjoyed swimming in the Pearl River, hunting alligators, hitting up New Orleans, rocking out to the Ace of Spades, playing Ultimate Frisbee and Capture the Flag, watching fireworks, and playing homemade chess. We kept ourselves busy.
Our time together was too short; on July 13, we split into two crews of ten, one going to Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, and one going to Acadia National Park in Maine. Over the next month, we grew closer with our smaller crews, but kept in almost daily contact with our companions across the country. At the National Parks, our focus shifted to trails, where we worked with the National Park Service to brush trails, build bog-walks, open washed-out trails, construct finely tuned wheelchair-accessible trails, and clean up beaches. In total, we completed more than 300 hours of volunteer service.
This website was built to preserve the lifelong memories of our time together. We will never forget the beautiful months of hard work and friendship. Why the name, "Pedialyte, Soap, and Water?" That was the prescription to any and all maladies given by our fearless crewleader Rebecca.