Week 2: The Seaport and a Beach Bash!

 I thought last week had set a pretty high bar, but this week might have been even better! My team, Team Jason, was based in the North End and Seaport Districts this week, and our focus was on Boston's response to rising sea levels and climate change. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at several different spots along the harborwalk and Boston's greenway, a series of parks along the waterfront. While we were there, we researched some of factors leading to sea level rise, and what steps the municipal government is taking to address them. As a bonus, since we were in the Seaport, where there's a lot of development going on, we discussed what we thought gentrification might mean for the district, and how it could be problematic. For our deliverable, our group split up into a few teams to work on some informational TikToks, each of which broke down one of topics we had covered in our research. Because the topics  were all so extensive and complicated, one of the biggest challenges we faced was trying to simplify the subject material enough to make it appeal to children and fit the time limit for a TikTok, while also keeping trying to keep it nuanced and informative. 

The highlight of my week by far, though, was the Beach Bash we held at Constitution Beach in East Boston. It was a super hot day, I got up really early in the morning, and I had no idea what to expect going into the event, since this was my first time helping with something like this. Things quickly got super chaotic, since a bunch of boys and girls clubs came from all over Boston with probably a few hundred very young kids. We had set up a bunch of different activity stations across the beach, including sports, fishing, face painting, kayaking, and even a portable dance floor. The only way to keep things running smoothly was quite literally, by running around all over the place to help out wherever we were needed. I started over at the sports area, but I ended up "dancing" for the TV broadcast (I have very limited coordination), helping kids at the fishing station (I have never caught a fish before), and paddling one of the kayaks back across the water to its station. To my surprise, though, the organized chaos of the Beach Bash was a lot of fun than I expected. One of the best parts of the experience was that I got to meet and hang out with a bunch more of my STH coworkers, which we normally wouldn't get the chance to since the groups mostly operate separately. I also made friends with some of the kids at the event, and talked to parents, who were all really nice. I really hope I get the chance to do something like that again this summer!

- Alex 

Team Jason (looking super dope)