A strange rumor has reached us down here in New Mexico.  We’ve heard whispers that Water Unit Leader Allan App and some other staff members have been thinking about retiring Water 7.  We have also been led to believe that a petition has been circulating around the Corps concerning that same issue.  Needless to say we are flattered, and felt that if this issue has created such a stir among or fellow Corpsmembers and even into the upper echelons of the Corps, that perhaps we should weigh in on the issue.  After all, as members of the final Water 7 team, we are probably more directly concerned than anyone.

            Now, when a jersey number is retired in sports, usually the reason is that the number has come to be associated with a player of some significance.  Someone who has left such a lasting impact on the game that they deserve their own place in the history of the sport, and should never be confused with anyone else.  We feel that this may be the case with Water 7, and we hope you will bear with us as we prove our case.

            First, as we all know, AmeriCorps*NCCC teams are famed for their work ethic and their abilities to get things done.  We feel that Water 7 has actually taken that one step further.  As a team, we have had three repeat projects, which means our sponsers were aware of the skill and motivation of A*NCCC teams.  Yet, the current Water 7 has managed to astonish even these seasoned veterans with what we managed to get done, and how well we did it.  In fact, on two different projects the sponsors ran into difficulties in finding us more work.

            Now I know a number of other teams this year have found themselves in a similar situation, and I wish to congratulate them and thank them for everything they’ve sacrificed.  However, I don’t know of any other team of such dedicated young adults that actually managed to argue about who was going to be the work-a-holic, or tried to steal from each other the chores and tasks that are typically considered the nastiest, the most monotonous and generally the worst.

            Of course, a good team is more than just hard workers.  They need a skilled and respected leader who manages the team with finesse and allows his Corps Members to grow into better people, teammates, and leaders in their own right.  Such a leader is Dan Dormaier.  After all, he’s the only TL to earn the title of Lieutenant.  Nobody else has even made Corporal.  Obviously he’s a notch above the rest.  I don’t mean to demean the other TL’s out there.  I’ve worked with a number of them and found them to be exquisite leaders in their own right, but there are times when the world discovers a true virtuoso in a field, and I believe that one such talent has been found in the soul of Dan Dormaier.

            Yet, even a leader as talented as Lieutenant Dan is could have trouble if the teammates themselves don’t mesh.  Luckily, this was not the case with Water 7.  We’ve become a true family and love being a team together.  This can be verified by our brow-beating Allan into letting one of our members Greyhound down to New Mexico to work with us for the remainder of Round Four, and the willingness of that member to pay her own way.  Additional evidence can be found in the fact that the first time a member left us for any length of time, we created a substitute out of whatever was available ( a stump) and took the substitute wherever we went.  We even introduced it to the sponsers.  Truly our love of each other is extraordinary.

            However, I sense that there may still be some doubts about whether Water 7 truly deserves the honor of a retirement.  To assuage these doubts, I’m going to provide some other nuggets of information regarding the specialness of Water 7.  First we return to the stump.  It has substituted for three of our team members and now is on Mr. App’s permanent staff.  I believe that means we created the first permanent staff for any Unit Leader.  Another first (as far as I a aware of) is having such an eccentric designated driver, that owners have cut him off from the beverages he wasn’t consuming anyway.  Another interesting fact is that there are ten members of Water 7, and hence a very simple and quick list of the top ten reasons why Water 7 should be retired.