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.