Big thanks to our summer interns

My name is Liliarose Forbang and I’m an End Time Harvest Ministry (ETHM) Wellness Ambassador in the Port Towns.  A Wellness Ambassador is a person that promotes healthy eating and active living in the Port Town Community. For the last 25 years, ETHM has positively affected the lives of hundreds of youth and families throughout Prince George’s County, Maryland.

For several years, Community Forklift has hosted Wellness Ambassadors for summer internships to gain workplace experience, build their resumes, and learn about environmental issues.  This has been a great partnership – in fact, Thai Jackson, a 2015 intern, is now a Reuse Associate at the checkout desk!

I’m 18 years old and graduated in June from Bladensburg High School with a 3.3 GPA. In the fall, I will be furthering my education at Frostburg State University.  I will be majoring in Biology/Pre-Med, and hope to become a cardiovascular heart surgeon. Two fun facts about me are that I love competition in anything I do, and I believe in service before self. I have loved be able to serve my community in Colmar Manor, Bladensburg, and at ECO City Farms for the past 4 years helping with community clean-up and garden projects.

This summer, I got the privilege to intern with Community Forklift’s Outreach & Education Department with Alex Winter and Ruthie Mundell. I got to do a variety of different things. One of my first projects was to compile a list of the press the Forklift has received for the past two years, and to pull out good quotes that might be used in grant applications.  I helped with the Community Giving program by entering and organizing records in the database. I also assisted with several volunteer groups from the DC Jewish Community Center summer camp.  We gave the middle-schoolers tours of our facility, explaining how Community Forklift works and why we all need to keep our earth clean and safe in order for us to live longer. Then, we led them in service projects to pick up trash from the watershed, clean the Forklift classroom, and organize donated materials.  My longest-running project was to create stock photographs for the outreach team. Throughout the summer, I staged displays and took pictures of materials and people in the warehouse for use in upcoming announcements, blog posts, and newsletter articles.

I loved my internship. From the first day I stepped into Community Forklift, the staff were warm and welcoming, showing me around the warehouse and answering questions. Ruthie and Alex are the sweetest people ever; they will help with anything you have questions with, and will check whatever projects you were given to make sure you know what you’re doing. Also, I like how they listened to my opinions and suggestions about different things that could be done to benefit the future of the business. The picture project was my favorite because taking pictures of different things is what I love doing as a hobby, and it was great being able to show the team my skills and to learn about visual marketing. In the future, I will definitely come back to help out in different activities – whether it’s volunteering my time or even for another internship, it will be a pleasure. I love every day spent during the past 6 weeks and will definitely do it again in the future.

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My name is Kendall Warren and I am part of the End Time Harvest Ministry Wellness Ambassador program in the Port Towns. I am 15 years old and attend Bladensburg High School. This summer, I had the opportunity to work at Community Forklift with the sales team.  It was my first job, and it was a great experience.

Community Forklift is a fun place to work because you get to see different items being donated like doors, art pieces, and kitchen sets – and then you see customers happy to find them at a great affordable price. I did a lot of cleaning and organizing, and helped at the sales desk.  I also liked helping Lilia with the photo project, trying to set up pictures that would capture the daily life of the organization.  However, the downside is that the warehouse is hot and dusty.  Even though there are large fans on the floor, it’s still hot!

At first, I thought it would be hard because there is no air conditioning and you have to stand on your feet all day, but I’ve actually gotten used to it, and hard work is the key to success.   The staff at Community Forklift are friendly and cool to work with, and always help with things that I don’t understand – and I love that we get two free snacks every day.

Overall, I would recommend this job to others if they are hardworking and willing to put the effort in everything they do. Being an intern here is a nice way to help the community be a better place.