Nicole Dunnaville's take on the building of Trudy and Friend:

Hey, everyone, this is Nicole Dunnaville reporting. I am an intern here at Solar Youth and I came to tell everybody about the recent Intern-Planned C-SAP (Community Service Action Project). Tragedy came upon the Solar Youth Family when we found out that our dearly beloved turtle, Trudy, that was constructed out of recycled goods by the SYI participants at the 2006 Youth Summit, had been found vandalized.

This shocking event spun our intern’s minds into thinking on how to repair our truly-loved turtle to be what we call “vandal-proof”. This means that we wanted to be able to build a strong and also move-able Trudy. After the tears, came the planning of the new and improved Trudy, but this plan was looking a little dry. We decided to make a friend so Trudy wouldn’t be alone. We made a fish to keep this turtle company.

Since this was an intern-based C-SAP, the interns were in charge of the whole process. Yeah, that means that we where the people doing everything. First we planed out the main things. We all decided to rebuild the recycled art at the original place, Edgewood Park in New Haven. The interns also thought that they should also set aside some goal that we would later use to measure our progress of our C-SAP. Next, we planned out the whole schedule and made sure that we had something to do with the kids at all times of the day so they wouldn’t be just sitting around doing nothing. Once we got the times and events we were going to do, one of the other interns (Tatiana) made plans with the bus company for the different pick ups to get all of our young artists to that day’s canvas. The Game Master was Jody-Ann and her job included leading the games.

For the most part we were working, but once in a while I would sneak away with some kids and go to the basketball court. Yes I confess, but they thought that they could school me in basketball. So we played a game, the interns and staff against all the youth that wanted to play. Of course, we (the interns) won. That was a fun game, except the part when I broke a nail (LOL).

But other than that we go a lot done that day and we came out with Trudy the Turtle and Rudy the Fish. It was an amazing day where everybody had fun!

Excerpts from Youth Feedback Forms

Some things youth learned and liked about the trip:
Art is important.
Use the bathroom before you go to the trip or you'll have to walk a long way.
A fish has a hole in the back to poop and pee.
[I learned] how to work as a team.
Do not paint your hands
Art is a good way to show you care about something.
Recycle!
I can make things out of trash.
My favorite part was making the eyes [of the fish because] it was fun and...it was cool getting to see how it came out.