Below is a collection of each Orange team member's experience from the week. Enjoy!
Alice: This experience as a whole has made a huge impact on me. Whether we were helping people in the community or helping the DDC, we were always making others smile, causing us to smile. Everyone we helped was so grateful and really showed us how grateful they were. Whether it was a smile or a simple thank you, the gratitude of all these people was huge. Even when we were tired and just wanted to go to bed, the smiles that we knew were coming helped motivate us to finish the job. When we didn’t win the overall competition, it made us realize that we weren’t really here to win, we were here to help this community and make an impact on them. I think all the other teams would agree that teamwork throughout the Orange Team was amazing. Everyone on our team was so considerate of the others and the people we were helping. When our last challenge was the same as our first, we came together as a team and realized our mistakes and decided to change them. I think the last challenge was our team’s strongest challenge even though we didn’t win.
Drew: I feel like coming to the community of southwest Virginia has benefited me in many ways. Even though the 20 kids and 4 counselor’s days consisted of working, I feel like everybody is leaving here feeling better about themselves. Every time that we would work, everybody had a smile on their faces and enjoyed some part of their work. Everything that we did helped people in some way. I feel that the strong point of the group was being grateful and how they never pointed out the conditions that people lived in a different way. The teamwork of the entire group in the workplace was amazing and I believe it is great that when different teams worked together they worked well while also being competitive when not working. All in all, I believe Dungannon was amazing in the way that it helped me physically and mentally.
Scotty: I can’t believe that this week is over. It has flown by! Today some of the boys woke up at 6:00 to find we weren’t going for another run! We had a good breakfast and went out to our house to continue painting from yesterday. Although we had a lot of work left to do, we did as much as we could and then went to lunch at the park. All the teams met at the park and Purple (since they had finished their job) came over to our house to help. We still had all the walls to paint primer on and not much time. We pushed through and finished with still time to go to the rope swing for a few jumps. When we came back from the river we finished up the corn hole tournament which we lost, and went on to the talent show. There was a lot of talent and also a lot of not so talent. Following the show we had one last challenge that would decide the winner of the week. It was very intense but Blue barely won. Blue went into a tie breaker with Purple which Purple went on to win. Even though Orange did not win, we had the most fun out of all the teams. This was a very awesome week and I will miss being here!
Maggie: I am sad that helping people is over with. I love helping people. I hope that what we did was very helpful to the residents who needed it. I hope that I can come back some time in the future. It was very cool to learn the differences about how us children live in Richmond and how children live here. I really got to know a family Thursday and Friday. I met the kids that were living in the house we painted the last two days and connected with them. Overall I think coming to Dungannon was a cool experience and I learned a lot. I learned how to help people with no reward, how competitive the chaperones and the children were and learning what teamwork can do to get a team going. Later in the afternoons our team would get tired and grumpy, but we had Ms. Goode, and other teams to help us get back on our feet. I am sad to leave but am very happy with the work we left behind. We had a good day today ending with Purple winning, but we (orange) put in a great effort for the last challenge and came in 2nd for the challenge. Overall, Orange came in last, but I know that is not what we came here for (to win.) We came here for helping other people and improving their lives! See you in Richmond Mom and Dad!!
Reid: I thought the week at Dungannon was great. It was awesome helping less fortunate people when we painted. The team really bonded well. Also it was fun being self-sufficient throughout the week. I will definitely miss this trip!
Alice: This experience as a whole has made a huge impact on me. Whether we were helping people in the community or helping the DDC, we were always making others smile, causing us to smile. Everyone we helped was so grateful and really showed us how grateful they were. Whether it was a smile or a simple thank you, the gratitude of all these people was huge. Even when we were tired and just wanted to go to bed, the smiles that we knew were coming helped motivate us to finish the job. When we didn’t win the overall competition, it made us realize that we weren’t really here to win, we were here to help this community and make an impact on them. I think all the other teams would agree that teamwork throughout the Orange Team was amazing. Everyone on our team was so considerate of the others and the people we were helping. When our last challenge was the same as our first, we came together as a team and realized our mistakes and decided to change them. I think the last challenge was our team’s strongest challenge even though we didn’t win.
Drew: I feel like coming to the community of southwest Virginia has benefited me in many ways. Even though the 20 kids and 4 counselor’s days consisted of working, I feel like everybody is leaving here feeling better about themselves. Every time that we would work, everybody had a smile on their faces and enjoyed some part of their work. Everything that we did helped people in some way. I feel that the strong point of the group was being grateful and how they never pointed out the conditions that people lived in a different way. The teamwork of the entire group in the workplace was amazing and I believe it is great that when different teams worked together they worked well while also being competitive when not working. All in all, I believe Dungannon was amazing in the way that it helped me physically and mentally.
Scotty: I can’t believe that this week is over. It has flown by! Today some of the boys woke up at 6:00 to find we weren’t going for another run! We had a good breakfast and went out to our house to continue painting from yesterday. Although we had a lot of work left to do, we did as much as we could and then went to lunch at the park. All the teams met at the park and Purple (since they had finished their job) came over to our house to help. We still had all the walls to paint primer on and not much time. We pushed through and finished with still time to go to the rope swing for a few jumps. When we came back from the river we finished up the corn hole tournament which we lost, and went on to the talent show. There was a lot of talent and also a lot of not so talent. Following the show we had one last challenge that would decide the winner of the week. It was very intense but Blue barely won. Blue went into a tie breaker with Purple which Purple went on to win. Even though Orange did not win, we had the most fun out of all the teams. This was a very awesome week and I will miss being here!
Maggie: I am sad that helping people is over with. I love helping people. I hope that what we did was very helpful to the residents who needed it. I hope that I can come back some time in the future. It was very cool to learn the differences about how us children live in Richmond and how children live here. I really got to know a family Thursday and Friday. I met the kids that were living in the house we painted the last two days and connected with them. Overall I think coming to Dungannon was a cool experience and I learned a lot. I learned how to help people with no reward, how competitive the chaperones and the children were and learning what teamwork can do to get a team going. Later in the afternoons our team would get tired and grumpy, but we had Ms. Goode, and other teams to help us get back on our feet. I am sad to leave but am very happy with the work we left behind. We had a good day today ending with Purple winning, but we (orange) put in a great effort for the last challenge and came in 2nd for the challenge. Overall, Orange came in last, but I know that is not what we came here for (to win.) We came here for helping other people and improving their lives! See you in Richmond Mom and Dad!!
Reid: I thought the week at Dungannon was great. It was awesome helping less fortunate people when we painted. The team really bonded well. Also it was fun being self-sufficient throughout the week. I will definitely miss this trip!