Your First Day

Information Overload, Getting Weird Quickly, and Sleeping on the Ground

All Crews:

Bring with you Day One:

Your original IDs (see green box for info)
All your personal camping gear
A lunch and snacks for the first day

What IDs Do I Need???

You will need to bring ORIGINAL IDs (not copies) with you on your first day. These should be the same IDs that you uploaded pictures of for your onboarding and can be one of two combinations of IDs.

Option 1:

Passport
Social Security Card

Option 2:

Driver's License
Birth Certificate
Social Security Card

We need to look at your IDs as part of the Federal I-9 employment verification process. Once we've seen your IDs in person, you can leave them in your car, send them home with someone who dropped you off, or ask us to lock them in the safe at our office until the end of your hitch.

Camping Crews

Day Crews

Your first day with ACC will begin with parking. You may drive your own vehicle or be dropped off.
Driving Yourself? Your first day with ACC will begin with parking. You'll park at our office and load your personal gear into your crew's vehicle or trailer. Please don't pack your personal keys; instead you will leave them in a bag with the rest of your crew's keys (in case you forget something in your car and we need to bring it to you). Parking instructions will go out in an email and can also be found below. You may want to consider getting a sunshade since your car will be sitting for several days at a time.
Getting Dropped Off? You may get dropped directly at the office. Follow the arrows around the parking lot to the loading dock area.

At the office, we will look at your IDs, wrap up any outstanding onboarding tasks, provide any loaner gear that you need, and get you introduced to your crew and crew leaders. We will introduce our staff and discuss some program details, rules, and support systems in a group, then you'll go with your crew to food shop for your first week. After food shopping, you will head to the project site, set up camp, and possibly meet with project partners and see some of the work for the coming week.

Your crew will cook and eat dinner and depending on time, your crew leaders may have some discussions for you in the evening. We try to keep the information overload to a minimum, but do expect a bit of a flood on your first day. Crew chats will continue each evening throughout your first week to discuss policies, introduce wellness strategies for camping, help you set goals for your season, introduce you to outdoor ethics like Leave No Trace, and build a crew contract to solidify your shared values.

Your first day with ACC will begin with parking. You may drive your own vehicle or be dropped off.
Either way, you'll head to a central location for your project and take a crew vehicle to your project site from there. Crew meeting locations will be sent out via email, but should remain constant throughout your season.

When you meet on the first day, an ACC staff member will be there along with your crew leaders. Staff will look at your IDs, wrap up any outstanding onboarding tasks, provide any loaner gear that you need, and get you introduced to your crew and crew leaders. We will also discuss some program details, rules, and support systems in a group, then you'll head to the worksite to get started for the day.

At the end of the day, you'll be returned to the central location where you arrived in the morning and you can head home or get picked up from there.

Parking Instructions

Our office is in the back section of a larger building (see the blue box in the picture below), and our parking area is the lot behind the building (red box in the picture below).

Navigate to "147 Dinkel Ave, Mt Crawford, VA, 22841" on Google Maps

We will have signs and folks staged around to show you where to go. When you arrive, please follow the arrows around the parking area and back into your spot when you park (our staff is happy to spot you if needed!).