Every CCC Graduate deserves an ALUMNI hat August 12 2020, 0 Comments

Honoring Your Center's Past - Los Padres April 15 2019, 0 Comments

In 2009, in the wake of the financial recession sweeping the US and California, the CCC made the decision to close several centers and satellites.  Los Padres was one of the Centers. When I received thwe call about the closing from the Deputy Director, it was one of the saddest days of my Career.

There are many wonderful stories to tell about the community's, both in and out of the CCC, efforts to keep the CCC's presence on the Central Coast. There are so many heroes in this story; politicians, storytellers from the Tribune, leaders from local environmental groups, corpsmembers and staff.

In the end, the Los Padres Center was spared from closing. Below is a letter of thanks to Central Coast community published in the Tribune on Sunday March 22, 2009.

My desire and hope, like all former staff and corpsmembers, is that current staff and corpsmembers learn about their history- the history of the CCC and the history of the center or satellite they are assigned.

Many came before you - they lift you up upon their shoulders - like you they bore the hard work and blisters of the CCC - some are gone - some are retired - some are the thousands honored Alumni of the CCC.

Honor them with your very best effort and work of the CCC.

CCC - Dates of Academy Sessions 1-40 March 05 2019, 0 Comments

I ran across this in my archives.  I notice in social media many early corpsmembers can't remember the dates when they started or session numbers.  Here are the dates of Session 1-40.  CCC HQ used to send an "intake schedule" out to camps (hard copy) before there were computers, email and such.

• recruits first reported to the Sacramento Convention Center for paperwork, then transported to the Academy via buses, vans and trucks.
• most of the sessions in this document took place at Bret Hart Academy in Murphys, CA.
• Notice how long the training was - almost a month.
• recruits worked half that time in camp learning appropriate technology and half the time on a very large grade crew.
• PT started at 6am and the day was finished at 8pm after classes.
• there were about 375-400 recruits each session divided equally into eight crews.  That’s 50 per crew!
• BT Collins or Jack Dugan and other HQ staff would come to give the graduation talk with the corpsmembers.
• recruits officially became a Corpsmember at the graduation ceremony when you received your blue hat.
• Center assignments were posted in several locations the day before graduation.
• center assignments were initially based on needs of the centers. Later, in an effort to reduce attrition, corpsmembers were asked to give three locations they would go.
• a class picture was always taken.

ceative ways to buy onthegrade gifts for corpsmembers December 10 2018, 0 Comments

Here are some ways staff can purchase onthegrade products for Corpsmembers.

• Work with a willing sponsor to purchase gifts. Often sponsors are more than willing to do this, especially around the December Holidays.

• If you have a Community Advisory Board ask the Board to fund promotion items for corpsmembers on a regular basis. If the Board is unable to do this, and individual board member or her organization may be willing.

• We have found that Volunteer sponsor organizations often ask if they can do anything for corpsmembers. Usually the Corps staff person in charge if volunteering is the person who hears this request. Work with your Center Director - remember they are asking you - not the other way around.

Finally, when any organizations or individuals donate their time and money to purchase onthegrade.com products for corpsmembers, invite them to the event to hand out the items to deserving corpsmembers. As you know the energy and excitement in the room is "next to none" when a corpsmember receives a promotion, high school diploma or graduates with scholarships.

recognizing staff buying OTG merch (merchandice) for Corpsmembers December 10 2018, 1 Comment

Over the years many staff have bought onthegrade.com products for their corpsmembers for special occasions like promotions, graduations and Christmas time.  Most notable was retired Tahoe Center Director John Martinez who, with OTG staff, customized the Tahoe Strong bracelet for his center. Los Padres Conservationist I Victor (Vito) Rocha, a good friend, has been buying OTG products for his corpsmembers up to his retirement in 2018. Julien Fannin from Redding has been buying the sequoia belt buckle for his crewleaders.  He told me he is "playing it forward" since his Chico CI gave him one when he became a crewleader (before becoming a CI).

John, Vito and Julien used their own money for the purchases.

onthegrade gives Staff 20% off the entire purchase when you buy merch for corpsmembers. Just work with us in advance here Contact us to start the conversation and obtain a discount code.

The story behind our Tahoe Strong bracelet December 02 2016, 0 Comments

I asked my good friend John Martinez to jot down the story of "Tahoe Strong".  His inspired words are the subject of our first blog post.  Enjoy.

Domenic