Nick Blocha
Three rows of tables filled the open, grey room of Mahan Hall with the silence of sweaters, books, toys and a number of other donations. The colored illustrations of native birds watched over everything, soaking up any eek of noise that might exist. We held the hours of 11am to 4pm, giving multiple people the ability to come and make the event. Over those five hours, eight people showed up, six with armfuls of donations which filled the hall where Zander and I sat.
Two QR codes and brochures laid on either side of a Green Iowa AmeriCorps banner on the table in front of us. With a few hours between the slow trickle of attendees, Zander and I chatted to pass the time, and eventually started watching Star Wars, coming to accept we’d probably hit the number of folks we were going to see for the day, but I’d done enough art markets before to know someone always appears right before the end.
In the fourth hour, with seven people having come and gone, all adding to the piles and boxes of donations, I decided to stretch my legs and take a walk. Walking helps me think. Breathe the fresh air, smell the rich smells, and get a little movement in. Change the scenery. It’s easy to walk when I’m surrounded by nature here on Lakeside’s campus. I’d wished for more, many more people to show. The day had been filled with silence where I had hoped to foster conversations with familiar and unfamiliar faces. As I was watching the hundreds of ducks run along the lake top, I thought about why I was doing this.
Previously, I’d been featured on a podcast called Second Nature. They’re run by the Commons App, which aids people in living sustainably. The coordinators emailed me some weeks prior, informing me they were looking to plan the Commons Earth Exchange, a nationwide alternative to Black Friday. Across the country swap and buy-nothing events were hosted by individuals and organizations, all keeping things in the circuit and keeping things local. For our part, our community needed donations of every kind. I saw a divot that needed to be filled.
I tend to do that; look for what needs to be done and then do it. So do the folks at the Upper Des Moines Distribution Center in Spencer, Iowa. They were dishing out frozen turkeys and full Thanksgiving meals when I’d arrived with the first load of donations that would fit into my sedan. Everyone was bundled up. My AmeriCorps cap was switched for a beanie to protect my ears from the bite of the wind, which brought the first flecks of snow for the season. I was seeing Spencer in a much different light than when I would drive down there regularly during my summer session at Lakeside. Back then I was mucking out basements ruined from the floods. The same urge that drove me then into remodeling pushed me to take on this project, plan it, and get it done.
Being the first time we’d hosted our Alt-Black Friday, as we’ve dubbed it, it wasn’t a bad turnout. Actually, it was a success, despite what I might have preferred or turned into knots in my head. We donated around 200 items to families in need: clothes, bedding, toys, hygiene products, and more. So many people lost everything in the summer floods, so everything we can do helps, but there will be lasting impacts that we need to acknowledge and plan for; thus, why the hope is to put this donation drive at the heart of something bigger, something that folks will look forward to for years to come. Something that will change with the years as they go by.
At the beginning of my eleven-month term this year, the AmeriCorps team at Lakeside was tasked with planning a Fall Festival, in lieu of Lakeside not hosting something for Halloween anymore. We’re going to set it up, plan the activities, coordinate with partners, collect volunteers, and in the fall of 2025 the crew will put it on, more donations will be made, and with the aid from Green Iowa AmeriCorps members, the community around Lakeside will continue to strengthen. Lasting effects require lasting efforts. A lot of folks are going to continue to face hardships like the flood we felt here. The strength and will of communities are imperative to their function and survival. Their function is for us, all of us, who live in these places, we are the community, and the community needs to take care of itself.
The Fall Festival will be good event planning experience for future GIA members, something that’s a little more structured to look forward to at the start of their terms here at Lakeside. I wonder what role they will continue to play in this community when it is their turn to get here, how involved they’ll be, what tasks they will gravitate towards. I am a small part in a grand and lasting space. In my life, I’ve been able to really look at this country and recognize it for what it is. This place is important. Cities like Spencer, Iowa are imperative to American living. Living locally. A lot of people across America live like the folks in Spencer do, where the community builds the town. That’s part of our mission in AmeriCorps; to make the places where we live as good as they can be, so we look for divots to fill and get things done.
About The Author
Nick Blocha is serving as a Land and Water Steward via Green Iowa AmeriCorps at the Iowa Lakeside Labs (ILL) in Milford, Iowa. Sister lab to the state hygienists in Iowa City, ILL analyzes water samples from around the state, hosts researchers and students, artists and writers, and aids in a number of environmental and community efforts with a multitude of partnering organizations and government agencies.
With a background in the arts and storytelling, and as a long-time environmental enthusiast, Nick grew up as a barefoot hippie in the woods of North Carolina and Atlanta, and values the service they can provide and assist with via the GIA program. Nick seeks to focus on the spaces where human society and nature intersect and coexist in harmony.