Week 1 Reflection

Weekly Reflection 1:

We’ve made great strides this first week with the Kindness Bench. As mentioned in my daily posts, it was challenging to start without a member, but everything worked out great. Although this was just the first week, it will definitely be the week we learn from the most. I painted houses one summer so was familiar with painting, but this bench is unique in the sense that its architectural makeup has crevices are curves that are challenging to paint. I learned that a little paint goes a long way. In the beginning, we were using far too much paint and it was dripping all over the place and just looked extremely sloppy. Luckily we caught our mistakes and fixed so the paint looks nice and smooth. Before we were able to even begin painting, we had to actually buy the paint which in my opinion was the hardest part. We were working with a tight budget since we’re all broke teenagers, so we spent a solid half our researching online the type of paint we’d need. We learned that in order to have durable outdoor paint, a latex primer would be most beneficial. We drove to Lowes, and spent a solid hour looking for the paint and talking with employees. They explained to us that it would be cheapest if we got the $8 dollar white primer, borrowed acrylic paint from the school, and then put an outdoor top coat on it that was 5 dollars. We were ecstatic after hearing this because we thought we’d have to spend at least $20. After leaving Lowes I talked with Jill and the school didn’t have acrylic paint for us to barrow. Katelyn’s grandmother was our savior and let us borrow some of her paint.

So far I love this project. Besides working with my friends, the painting is really therapeutic. It also feels great to know that we’re donating tis bench to proctor and leaving a piece of us with the community. We were told to get the latex paint in order to ensure the durable of the bench and make sure our hard work doesn't go to waste. As for surprises, the trouble of erasing pencil off the paint definitely took us for a spin. Luckily we can just paint over it, but it definitely made me panic for a little bit. We will be benefit this week because we finished the foundation that we need in order to continue this project. Even though this week required  A LOT of planning and decision making, it was the most important aspect we had to finish to complete our goal. Now, with constant time and effort, I’m confident that we will make the community proud with our bench!