End of the Project

                As the year comes to a close, we are happy to say that we have finished the stage for Bailey. We ended up with two platforms and a set of stairs, and got the kids involved in helping to paint them. Looking back on the beginning of the year, we realized that the budget didn’t cover quite as many platforms as we were hoping, but we have accomplished something that we can all be very proud of. I think all of us learned a lot about teamwork this semester, and especially communication. Learning to communicate with one another more effectively was a vital component of completing the project. We’ve also learned to be leaders in our community. This has been a memorable experience, and each of us learned quite a lot about ourselves and our group as we worked. 

March

     One of the most important elements of our project is the stairs. Because we have to construct the platforms at one and a half feet high, we must create a minimum of two stairs. The International Building Code requires the stairs for accessibility. We didn't have time to do the stairs last semester, so we are building it as well as adding embellishments to the stage now. The stairs will have to be built to code, and we need to fundraise to accomplish that goal. Grace has come up with a blueprint for the stages, and we all pitched in to make it the most mobile and affordable. Rachel has located a source of free lumber that we will be using to assist in the budget issues. Grace was especially helpful in communicating with our faculty advisor in order to ensure that our project would remain legal, and in taking the time to create the preliminary designs.
     We have also used our weekly group meeting time to develop a list of companies to ask for donations from, and a list of materials to ask for. This week will be spent calling and emailing the companies to try and acquire the materials for the stairs and for completing the platforms. We also plan to have one of our group meetings with the faculty advisor in order to finalize the stair design.

February

This semester has been eventful so far. Grace and Rachel attended the Martin Luther King Jr. Day service event through Drury, and we had a lot of fun sharing our Bailey experiences with other Drury students. Haley, Rachel, and Grace went to Bailey’s Trivia Night and met so many people that also wanted to support Bailey. They were using our stages for the silent auction, since they can’t be used in the full capacity yet. We are hoping to add stairs to our creation before spring break. 

Grace's December Post

Our group has accomplished far more than we planned to this semester by completing over half of the build for our Bailey Alternative High School Project. We have finished constructing two platforms both 8 feet by 4 feet. We still need to construct the stairs and finish off everything by painting and adding skirts to the platforms. I personally learned a lot about how to go about building platforms that are in check with the local code requirements, and about what it takes to actually put a project like this together. I also learned a lot from the students of the school on what they needed for their space. In the spring we plan to finish off the platforms as well as give the school stairs to access them. Overall we came in ahead of schedule giving us plenty of time to do the finishing details!

Sarah's December Post

As a group, our main accomplishment was completing the platforms and keeping our deadline regarding the truck. We have also set our goals for next semester as far as what we are going to do to finish up the stage and how we are going to better involve the students. As an individual, I provided easy access to a truck for transporting the platforms.

One of the major positive outcomes, besides completing the construction of the platforms, was that we have made progress on our cooperation skills as a group. We discovered that having task lists and chore rotations, for example, help a lot to prevent confusion and conflict.

Haley's December Post

The group accomplished a lot this semester. We built two stage platforms and successfully got them to the school. I was personally in charge of the budget, and I was able to keep track of all the receipts and we stayed under budget which is awesome. In the spring, we plan to paint the stage and add a skirt and whatnot and get the kids more involved with helping us.

Rachel's December Post

I think that our biggest accomplishment was staying ahead of schedule. We completed everything that we had to do this semester before Thanksgiving, and that was stressful at the time, but it is a lot less stressful now. I learned a lot about communication, and mediation. We all have our own ideas on how to do things, and I tried to be a neutral party to keep us all on task. In the spring, I think it will be easier if we set 3 days to get all of our hours done (the majority of our project is done in chunks anyway) at the beginning of the semester so that there isn’t as much stress trying to get everyone together. I really want to focus on meeting times in the spring, especially since it will be harder to get all 15 hours in one place next semester.