More Blue Deloitte Shirts

Last summer, my sisters were in town, and one of them asked my why I wore the same blue Deloitte shirt out on the lake as we swimming/boating.  I responded with "what do you mean? I wear a different shirt each day.  I just have 4 of them."  I wear them to the lake because I have been thrown into the water more times than I would like, and they are free tee-shirts that I just don't care about.  

Each year, Deloitte sponsors a day where nationwide (may even be worldwide), we shut down our computers, stop sitting at our desks, and make an impact on our local communities.  The Seattle office hosts a variety of events each year to chose from.  Some of the standards each year include Earthcorps (environmental restoration), Junior Achievement (teaching students for a day), YWCA (Painting housing units/teaching basic skills), Seattle Children's Museum (cleaning/painting).  They have also hosted other activities throughout the years, including cleaning up Seattle Public Schools, helping out with Northwest Harvest (Food Bank), and Habitat for Humanity.  

We sign up for activities, put on a blue Deloitte Tee-Shirt and do service.  For me is a really fun day each year that I look forward too.  This year, I signed up for Earthcorps as I thought it would be fun to get outside.  We all started at Safeco field for registration and a kickoff, then we split up into the different groups and go out to serve.  The day was a little rainy, but it all turned out okay as we were protected by the tree canopy in the park where we were working.

Here we are at Safeco Field.  I thought it was cool to see our name on the big reader board. 

The first part of the day, I was part of a bucket brigade to move mulch up a very large hill to be spread around newly planted trees and shrubs that are native to the area.  I was near the top of the brigade, and it was a beautiful view to see.  Below are a couple pictures I took while we were on a break. passing me buckets.  

Here is the group in front of me on the bucket brigade.  Sorry I don't have pictures of us actually passing buckets.  It was hard to take pictures and pass buckets at the same time. 

Here is the view from where I was standing in the bucket brigade.  That is the Puget sound on the other side of the trees.  This was truly a beautiful park.

The second part of the day, we helped with slope stabilization on a hill where another group pulled out Ivy the first part of the day.  Basically, we found big logs in the forest where we were working and dug them into the side of the slope to slow the erosion of the hill side as all the plants were removed.  They said that it should help the slope remain intact until the roots of plants can take over to stabilize the slope.  

Here is the finished product for the slope stabilization.  You can see the logs that we set in the hillside horizontally to help the slope from eroding.

We completed the slope stabilization too quickly, so afterward, they told us to continue to pullout the ivy growing on the left of that large tree.  We actually removed it by using hedge trimmers around a particular section of ivy and then just rolled it down the hill.  It worked pretty well and we were all surprised.

All in all, it was a very fun day, and nice to get away from the computer.  Also, the shirt I got this year was light blue rather than royal blue and organic cotton, which makes really is softer than regular cotton.  It may become my favorite Deloitte Impact day shirt yet!  Perhaps you will see it if you come to the lake this summer. :)