ESL

Welcome to
Eddy's Secret Link!!!

Congratulations on finding Eddy's secret link. Your reward is this. The year after the initial puppet show, our AmeriCorps Chapter tried once again to come up with an extreemly creative way to let other AmeriChapters know what we were doing. We desided to write a book in the style of Dr. Suess. The illistrations never got finished, but what you have before you is the text. Parental Guidance is suggested.

EBF AmeriCorps
Episode III

By Dr. Tavis

For
Michelle, Brian, and Lisa
Martyrs to the Cause

IN AmeriCorps we work hard and have lots of fun,
But whatever we are doing, we are getting things done.

We work at a National Wildlife Refuge, you see,
And much of what we do centers around biology,
At times we go out to listen for frogs chirping at night,
Then when morning comes we observe peregrines in flight.

We go to the beaches during the day,
But we got there for work and don’t go to play,
We may be walking miles looking for plovers,
Or perhaps protecting their nests with plover exclosures.

Some days we’ll drive down to Cape May,
And help out doing a shore bird survey,
We have to be quiet hiding in the vegetation,
Waiting for the rocket net to go off, with anticipation.

After the detonation there is so much to do,
For we have just caught dozens of shorebirds and maybe a Seagull of two,
They all to be measured, and have bands put on their legs,
Then they are freed to go feed on some horseshoe crab eggs.

Speaking of horseshoe crabs, we survey them also,
Timing’s important, and high tide’s when we go,
Most of the time it is late in the night,
So what we wind up doing is counting crabs by moonlight.

Once we were called out to a fish hatchery,
We needed to fertilize some fish eggs, you see,
The fish were all caught, and we had to squeeze ‘em,
Then we finished by mixing the eggs with the semen.

However biological work is not all that we do,
We help to maintain the refuge, too,
This may be as simple as mowing the grass,
Or perhaps filling the refuge vehicles with gas.

We helped with control burns when we could,
We also cut down plenty of Russian olive wood,
Marking the refuge boundary is another chore,
Pounding post after post, ‘till we can’t pound anymore.

This year we were also used for demolition,
We tore down a billboard and destroyed a cabin,
They were both hard work, and difficult too,
After several months we were so happy to be through.

It is also important to do community outreach,
Be it serving seniors lunch or going out to teach,
We have done programs such as interpretive walks,
We’ve also gone to schools and given environmental talks.

A puppet show is another program we run,
While the kids watch it, they have lots of fun,
But along with the fun they are learning, too,
About many a different environmental issue.

Yes, AmeriCorps is hard work but we also have fun,
Whatever we are doing, we are getting things done.