The Final Result

The work has been done for over a week, but tonight, we had the chance to see our creations in action. We braved the cold and questionable road conditions to venture over to Hinton and capture our lights in full display for the people of Hinton.

Here are some before and after pictures from our Christmas light adventure.

 

And finally...

Just kidding on that last one. But who knows, maybe next year.

We had a fun time putting up Christmas lights in the small town of Hinton about 15 miles from Sioux City and learned a lot not only about Christmas lights, but leadership. We experienced the art of assigning tasks, taking turns, making decisions, and other things crucial in learning about leadership. This leadership project has been one of helping a community get into the Christmas spirit while saving a non-profit organization money that could go to other use and we have enjoyed helping them.

This service project is now officially in the books, so be on the lookout for a video recapping our Hinton excursion in the next few days!

We Did It.

Today, we "got-r-done." We put the finishing touches on our service project for our Introduction to Leadership class at Morningside. Our project involved working with the "Beautification Babes" in Hinton to decorate various sections of the city with Christmas lights in time for Thanksgiving. Along with Danny, Kevin, and Gage, we all put in numerous hours over a two week period. One may think that putting up Christmas lights would be easy, but we learned the hard way that doing just that is no easy task. Dealing with different kinds of lights, trees taller than we can reach, and brisk weather conditions, we all gained much respect for those who do this on a yearly basis.

Gage, Kevin, and Danny stringing lights on a bush. In the words of Bob Ross, "what a nice little bush."

 The Beautification Babes contacted residents throughout the community looking for trees in high visibility areas to have decorated with Christmas lights. They had intended on paying someone $400 to do what we did, but our willingness to volunteer was more of an incentive than our lack of experience was a deterrent. We took on a task that we knew next to nothing about, dressed warmly, and set out to accomplish. Just over two weeks later, that is exactly what we have done.

In the past two weeks, we have learned a lot about what it takes to be a leader. We gained experience in communicating with others about their needs and what it takes to meet those needs. Also, we dealt with compromise. When we had ideas on how to go about setting up the lights, we discussed them as a group to see if that was the best choice or whether something could be changed slightly to ensure a better result.

In doing this project, we learned, led, and had fun. The one thing that would have made this project better would have been a little more help from Mother Nature. Other than our first day of putting up lights, we dealt with very undesirably cold weather. However, this weather is what made our project more impressive as we spent most of our time in 30-40 degree conditions rather than the comfort of being indoors. We went out on a limb (and decorated that limb with lights) and made a difference in a community. Thanks to our hard work, Hinton will have that Christmas feel this winter without having had to pay for it. The money saved by our volunteering will go to help out the community even more. In fact, Kelly from the Beautification Babes informed us that they were going to put an article in the Sioux City Journal about our efforts, which is pretty neat.

This short little video pretty much sums up our last day of putting up Christmas lights.

The "Beautification Boys" have finished their work, but pictures of the finished product will still be coming. Until next time, have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Days 2 and 3

It's been a several days since my last blog post, but a lot has happened, including my procrastinating about uploading a separate blog post for Sunday November 14. With that in mind, this entry will be what I like to call "Two-Blog-Posts-Rolled-Into-One." Trust me, it will work. With twice the work and twice the Christmas spirit involved, let's take a look at what the Beautification Boys accomplished in two days of work.

On Sunday, November 14, we all hit the road for Hinton for day number 2 of putting up Christmas lights. What we imagined as being a very productive day wound up being more of a "correction" day. Our idea of putting up Christmas lights and the idea of the people we are helping were slightly different so we spent this day reinstalling the lights. That didn't bother us though because it acted as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and how to better communicate with those we are helping.

When we redid our first Christmas lights, we were given a tool that made tall trees seem not so tall. The innovation of a long stick with a hook seemed like something we would see on an infomercial turned out to make our jobs a lot easier and certainly much safer, unless it was used as a weapon. That could have turned out badly.

The day was a chilly one, but compared to the rain and snow that places just to the south received, we weren't complaining.

We finished up our second day of Christmas lights in a few hours and headed back for the warmth of our dorm rooms and in my case, so I could watch NASCAR of course.


That brings us to day number 3 of putting up Christmas lights. With days one and two devoted to doing and redoing what was already done, we were ready to make some real progress. With more big trees and even colder temperatures, Wednesday's trip to Hinton would prove to be a challenge.

We piled into Danny's car and continued our beautifying of Hinton.

 We got to Hinton and created a gameplan as we picked up the Christmas lights from someone's front porch. To bystanders, it probably looked as if we were crooks (bundled up in heavy jackets, gloves, and stocking caps), but luckily no one confronted us. That wouldn't have been good.


We found the trees we were to decorate on this day and got right to work. With the horrible circulation in my hands, thick gloves were no match for the coldness in the air. As soon as we started putting up lights, my hands were already getting numb, which is probably something I have checked out.

Anyway, we put our heads together and decided what would be the best way to accomplish the day's task and get it on camera. We took turns taking pictures of the others putting up the lights on many large evergreen trees.

Rockin' around the Christmas tree...

A few hours later, we ran out of lights so we contacted the group we are helping and discussed with them what we thought we still needed to finish the task of getting all the trees covered in lights by Thanksgiving.

We will be working in Hinton either tomorrow, Sunday, or both, so we can finish our service project. Although we are doing it for a grade, it is still fun to be helping people save money by volunteering our time to
help the non-profit group in Hinton beautify the town. In collaboration with the "Beautification Babes," the Beautification Boys are well on their way to continue beautifying Hinton just in time for Christmas.

Before this project, the four of us had little to no experience putting up Christmas lights, so it has been a great learning opportunity. Maybe someday our yards will look like this yard thanks to the experience we've gained; there are no guarantees though.

Beginning to put up the Christmas lights

First off, let's take a moment and thank Mother Nature for giving us an absolutely gorgeous day. Putting up Christmas lights is much more enjoyable on a 60 degree and sunny day, as opposed to a normal November day. Now that that's out of the way, let's blog about some "putting up of Christmas lights," shall we?

Danny, Gage, Kevin, and I all made the trip over to Hinton where we are helping out the "Beautification Babes" decorate the town by putting up Christmas lights. The "Beautification Babes" is a non-profit organization that includes several women in town that are in charge of decorating the town throughout the year. They recently completely overhauled a local park, and with Christmas just around the corner, Christmas lights were the next thing on the agenda.

The "Beautification Babes" got permission from several homeowners in highly visible locations in town to have their trees lit up. That is where we come in.

Women ranging in age from 30 to 80 would probably feel more comfortable not having to do this.

Rather than spending hundreds of dollars to have someone come in and install these Christmas lights, we are doing these women and the town of Hinton a big favor. They may be sacrificing some quality, but how wrong can be when it comes to putting Christmas lights on a tree?

With a few trees and a few hours of service in the books, it's time to regroup and continue to the next section of town with our light installation. The "Beautification Boys" are back in town and ready to do some beautifying. Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates next time as well!

The Leadership Learning Project is Underway

For our Intro to Leadership class, we are taking part in various group service projects. My group is going to be volunteering at a park to decorate many trees with Christmas lights. With Christmas comes lots of fun and joyful things, but there is one drawback - Christmas music. Regardless, Christmas will be here before we know it and one northwest Iowa park will look pretty awesome thanks to my leadership group.