Post-Appalachia

So I flew into Westchester on Saturday night and am already in Lake George with my family and best friend. It feels so surreal being here. It's great to see the family and friends for a bit, don't get me wrong, but it's just so odd that it's all already over. So many of the hours and days this summer crawled by, yet somehow in hindsight the weeks flew. It's a little hard adjusting back home because nobody really understands. I'm really blessed that my dad came to visit me last summer, so he knows the extent of the job and the day to day obstacles. At the same time, he is able to recognize that joy on my face and see the twinkle in my eyes when I'm talking about home-owners, and he understands just how important they all are to me. But because he was the only one to visit me down there and unfortunately couldn't come again this year, I'm really struggling with explaining all of my stories and accurately portraying the significance and beauty of my summer. I feel pretty useless, laying around in the sun and on the couch up here on the lake, but my body is thanking me. It needs some rest, and a break from shotgunning Monsters and surviving off the varieties of Hostess treats. I'm so thankful that I got to visit my church again this summer- they're all such amazing people and I'm so lucky to have such a great community to fall back on. It's funny, now that I'm on staff and see my church group through different eyes, I am now so much more thankful than ever to be part of such a unique and incredible group of people! I wouldn't have wanted to be raised by any other group of wack jobs :)

All in all, my summer was challenging. Humbling. Moving. Rare. All of these words can't even begin to encompass what it really was, but they'll have to be enough and you'll all have to trust me when I say that I have the best job in the world.

Last week!

The fact that I haven't written on here in a week or so is a good indicator of how busy we've been. Mannnn things are/have been nuts here! This weekend was our big Lowe's event, which didn't turn out to be as big as we had hoped/thought it would be. We were told that about 25 volunteers would be working with us on the site from 9-5 on Saturday and 8-noon on Sunday.. but only about 7 volunteers came the first day and two came the second day. It didn't end up being a huge deal, although it definitely set us back in terms of how much work we're going to be able to get done by the end of the summer, which is a big bummer! It was really neat though, being able to be on site all day and to direct the volunteers as they were working and show them how to do some projects. Being the volunteer and being able to do the physical work is definitely something I miss about coming on ASP rather than being on staff-- but that's something I'll get to look forward to as a Group Leader for sure!

This week's volunteers are great. I mean great. They came in here with their bright yellow and pink shirts on (we have two different churches this week) and were immediately ready to sing and have fun! They have lots of experience which is just what we need to get these projects done. We have a lot on our plates this week, probably more than we should at this point in the summer, but we're dealing with the hand we've got. We've also been blessed to have some "helping hands/liasons" come work with us for a few days, who essentially just are extra staffers to do whatever we ask them to. We try not to abuse this privilege... but they are super helpful and we love them!!

I reaaaally needed this energetic batch of volunteers too because I'm feeling the tidal waves of exhaustion hitting me. Now that it's week 8, I'm much less excited to wake up early and do hardware, much less excited to wake the volunteers up, much crabbier at the end of the staff meetings past midnight... and of course all of these things are inevitable. I am so excited though to get back into a normal sleep/eating schedule because my body currently thrives/hates me for drinking so much Monster and sleeping so little. (In the picture, you'll notice my staff and a few guests doing the ritualized shotgunning our Monsters on "Blue Monster Mondays". We quickly developed a passion for both shotgunning and Monsters.. so we pretty much do this before runs every day. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger...? Maybe?)



Overall though, this summer has been incredible and I just feel so blessed to have been a part of changing all of these families' lives... I can't wait to see the finished products at the end of this week!

Logan is our county, it's L-O-G-A-N!

Last week's volunteers were awesome, legitimately awesome. The group leaders were super understanding and absolutely loved us, which in return helped us to love them right back! It really helps when they cut us some slack because if anything, that makes the staff empathize with them more and really try to work things out in their favor. I'm super excited for this week, I have a really great feeling about these volunteers! They are all energetic and beaming for this week to get started and it really jazzes me up seeing how amped they are to get on sites and to start doing this work. We have 4 different churches here, one being the Lord Jesus Korean Church from Richmond, VA. I swear these people are the funniest volunteers yet. They don't really know what they're getting themselves into skill-wise, so we've assigned them to mostly painting and low-key projects.. which still seem to overwhelm them. It's hysterical and I love doing damage control.

This weekend was AWESOME! On Saturday we got to sleep in (The volunteers didn't wake us up to say goodbye! They're angels.) until around 11, and then we went to a community contact's home with two other center staffs to actually get OUR hands dirty. We studded a wall and a half, put up some outer sheathing and installed a door! It was really great working with everyone, because it's one thing managing a project vs. actually doing the work yourself. Not to mention Shannon, the CC, made us all a huge turkey feast mid-day! It was incredible to get a real home-cooked southern meal.. these cafeteria meals can get obnoxiously monotonous.

After the Saturday filled with work we all went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place (like CiCi's) and then went to the arcade! I haven't laughed so hard for so long in quite some time.. I am honestly surrounded by some of the most hysterical people on Earth.

Otherwise, we're starting to wrap up a few homes this week! After this week of volunteers we only have one more, and it's starting to set in that we're not going to be around these families forever. I went and visited my 3-month boyfriend tonight with two volunteers to show them the ropes for the week, and had to break the news that this was our last week there. His eyes welled up and he hugged me, telling me how I'm like family to him and that I had better not become a stranger. There is no chance I would ever let that happen, I mean really, he is one of the greatest people I've ever met. These Appalachian people have some of the greatest hearts and warmest intentions out of anyone I've ever met, it makes me want to live here forever. I can already tell I'm going to be a bawling mess when I leave :(

On another note........ WERE STARTING OUR LOWE'S PROJECT ON SATURDAY!! We're super duper excited about it. There are 10 Lowe's volunteers who are helping us demo this one home and re-do it from 9-5 on Saturday and 9-1 on Sunday. The reason why we're also excited is because we're taking a risk-- by that I mean we're spending over $3,500 for an electrician to re-wire this home's electrical work. (I was planning on shaving my head if we fundraised $5,000 from the volunteers, but turns out we only need $1,000 more! And let's be honest, my luscious locks are worth much more than a grand.) We're replacing flooring in three rooms, sheetrock and painting in a few others, and installing a girder and other misc things in the back room. I'm really excited to do the work again and be there for the entire duration so I can really direct the volunteers for the day.


Ahhh that felt good to write down and get caught up! Sorry that was so long but hey that's my life! Enjoy.

Day off shenanigans

So it's week 6 and that's super exciting! It's kindof surreal looking through my blog and thinking that I only have two more weeks of volunteers left after this... sheesh. I'm going home sooner than later! Speaking of going home, I have NO idea how that's happening. I should probably figure that nonsense out..


I took my day off yesterday/today! I picked up another staffer Torre last night and we went and got some chinese food&custard for dinner, then stayed at a cabin near the New River Gorge in Fayetteville. It was AWESOME! The cabin was essentially camping but indoors-- by that I mean there was a twin bed and a full sized bed, along with a mini fridge and a microwave. The bathrooms were a few hundred feet away, and in front of our cabin there was a picnic table and a little bonfire pit! It was really cute and homey inside, not to mention it was essentially a 10x10 room. It was a b-e-a-utiful night and I had a ton of fun! This afternoon we went to the Gorge and went over the epic bridge-- it's the biggest free-standing bridge in America! While going over it you don't really think twice about the bridge because you're so absorbed by the mountain views around you, but once I saw it from the side I was completely awe-struck. Huge structures like that really amaze me, thinking about how much planning and power went into creating it.


I'm showered, ready for a hardware run in the morning and our t-shirt auction tomorrow night! I'm super happy. Tired, but happy nonetheless.

Lorphan.

My staff last summer nicknamed me "Lorphan", a combination of Laura and orphan, which pretty accurately describes the alter ego Laura takes on when it's late at night. Now that it's the end of week 5, I think it's safe to say that Lorphan has officially emerged a few times in the last week. It's okay though! Monster runs through my veins (John taught me how to shotgun and I'm convinced I'll beat him by the end of the summer) and I try to squeeze in a nap here and there. Life is good.

This week's volunteers were AWESOME! They raised over $2,000 between our T-shirt auction on Wednesday night and tonight's dodgeball tournament! Both were sooo much fun, I mean these guys go hard. They fund-raise so much extra money and then just blow it down here on our supplies and donations, we couldn't be happier! Especially, ESPECIALLY because on Tuesday one of my projects took a huge turn. We realized that last week's crew (working on a roofing project) essentially built new rafters and laid them on top of the old ones in attempt to change the pitch and help the water flow off the roof, buuut it really only raised the issue up by about a foot so nothing changed. PLUS, a significant amount of water poured into the house for two nights straight during thunderstorms and ruined the homeowner's ceilings and some subfloor. I felt so awful walking into that home and seeing more damage being done on behalf of ASP, so we did a complete overhaul on the project. Thanks to my Construction Consultant DT who was out there with me, we designed a new truss system that would solve the problem! Not only did that crew solve the problem.. but they FRAMED AND DECKED THE NEW TRUSSES IN A DAY! ONE DAY! It was wild. Their progress was amazing and while we were super appreciative, we blew so much of our budget on them that we couldn't afford anything else besides rolled roofing (which really only lasts about 5 years.... =[ ) Long story short, this church donated $600 towards this project so we could get the shingles they needed to finish the new roof. It was awesome the way these guys put their hearts and souls into everything here this week and I felt like every time I walked onto their site I was just absorbing their great vibes and positive energy. I love how volunteers can just completely re-energize us and help us remember (even when we're in our Lorphan modes) why we're here even when we're exhausted.



I'm really sad to see these guys go (especially the Irish guy Jerry, he gave me all of his contact info though and I definitely plan on keeping in touch especially since he lives outside of Boston!) but I'm also reallllly excited to sleep and play this weekend. I think I'll be seeing Harry Potter tomorrow night.... cheeaaa boiiiii!

Wuddup week 5!

So, week 5 is here and boyyyy is it great. I love these volunteers already, mainly because they have a couple volunteers who are fresh off the boat from Ireland and therefore have AWESOME accents! I'm in charge of three roofing projects this week and one of the group leaders, Jerry, is one of the Irish volunteers. His accent is so thick I actually had to have one of the volunteers on his crew translate some of what he was saying to me! It was hysterical though and he's a really good sport about it. I love being in charge of three roofs though because a.) it keeps things consistent and b.) giving somebody a roof is one of the most gratifying things to give in my opinion. And I'm in charge of THREE!

These volunteers are reaaaally hard working too! Which is awesome, because even though it's week 5 and we still have time to finish these projects, it's also week 5 in that we only have a few weeks left and absolutely need to get them done. It was a big shocker and relief to hear that one of my crews, Oscar, had removed the existing 5 layers of shingles as well as the existing rotted decking on their roof by 11:00 THIS MORNING!! Okay, within TWO hours they did what last week's crew did in TWO DAYS. Tell me that's not amazing!



They very well may screw over our budget for the week but I'm excited because that means that we'll be able to get more work done on the home on the interior! AND remember that Lowe's scholarship I mentioned earlier? (about $2,400 donated from Lowe's) ALL of that is
going to this home! So, who cares how fast we move anyways?!

I had an office day today so I'm all energized and caught up on what I needed to get done.. I love office days. I miss my family and I need to call people so badly so I'm sorry if you're reading this and I haven't talked to you in a while, I plan on calling soon!! :) :)

Midsummer.. say what?

So I can't believe that it's already at the end of week 5. This is absurd! I'm currently sitting in my staff office with a few volunteers and some guest staffers, trying to get them to come back to be SITs later in the summer. John could really use some more testosterone so he can only hope...

This week was awesome! We made some serious progress on homes and I definitely made some deeper connections with homeowners. I also got to take my day off on Tuesday! I went with another staffer Torre to Beckley, which is about 2 hours from here. We went out to a Japanese restaurant and had Hibachi! It was awesome! Although while eating Torre and I couldn't help but laugh about the situation.. I mean think about it. We were dressed like dirty hippies in Appalachia at a Japanese restaurant. Score.

After dinner we had some custard from a local ice cream place, and then went over to Lake Stephens! We camped out (which was awesome because we didn't have to pay!) and the next morning we got some breakfast and laid on the beach for hours. It was awesome just getting to fully relax and not worry about doing anything ASP related, not to mention get some good quaaaality food and rest in our systems before heading back to work.

On Wednesday night we had a T-shirt auction! It was our first one yet-- we went and got some cheap and funny T's from the local thrift stores and then auctioned them off with the help of some donated T's from work crews. It went sooooo well and it was hysterical because we had some of the youth volunteers model the shirts during the auction-- by the end we raised $450!! That's pretty awesome for the first ever auction, they set the bar pretty high. Tonight we had another dodgeball tournament and raised over $200, so we did pretty well for this week on the fundraising homefront!

Today I had a wiiicked migrane. I've never gotten one before but it blindsided me while at Lowe's this afternoon, so Kelly dropped me off at the center and I literally laid in bed for 3 1/2 hours. Becca is soo clutch because while I was resting she did a bunch of finance stuff for me which really helped me out! I love my staff they're the best. Seriously though! They're all so great and wackjobs and I couldn't imagine what this summer would be like without them.


This last picture is of Jimmy, a homeowner, who calls me his "3 month girlfriend". He is absolutely hilarious and if I could I would move down to Appalachia just to listen to him tell stories every day. Super funny fact about him-- he used to own a nightclub with 7 go go dancers, and one of them was his now wife, Kitty! He has lived an interesting life. These Appalachian people rule.

Week 4

So, saying goodbye to week 3 volunteers was so sad! They were such an awesome bunch and by the end of the week I really got close to a couple of them. They were really responsive to all that we threw at them and maintained a positive attitude the entire week. One of my fave parts was the dodgeball tournament we had Friday night! It was a $5 per head with teams of 6 people, and everyone got REALLY into it. There were t-shirts made, faces painted, bandanas worn, and champions made. Sadly the "Staff Infection" was eliminated before the championship round, but it was a greaaat time and frankly, a really easy way to make some moolah!

Yesterday after doing some hardware and other errands, John Becca and I went to the Rec Center nearby that we have free access to and used their indoor pool. I was kinda bummed that we didn't have free access to the outdoor pool, but it was a.) amazing being submerged in water and b.) amazing doing laps and feeling the slightest bit athletic! It was, however, severely depressing out easily I am out of breath. This 5K I'm signed up for in September might be a little rougher than I thought....

After swimming we met up with another staff and went into downtown Logan for a 4th of July festival! There were tigers and a bear doing a circus-esque show, lots of food and music and trinkets being sold on the side of the road. It was awesome seeing the whole community together like that, and we even saw a few families that we're working for this summer! I won't lie, it was a little weird seeing them in that element, but nevertheless it was great to see them all out and about. After the fireworks we slept at the Logan-Man center with a few other staffs and had fun running around a new center and exploring some tunnel in the basement... with John's headlamp, how are you gonna turn down a sweet adventure?


Today we have a new group and Bound Brook church from NJ coming (I had them last year), and I'm SOOOO excited!! They were an amazing group and I'm really excited to already know names and catch up with everyone. I'm pumped because I know how fun these guys are and frankly, I need an outgoing group to re-energize me for this week cause I'm starting to feel a wee bit exhausted. Luckily I have a day off on Wednesday so I'm going to a nearby lake with a few other staffers and camping out! Should be fun!

It's hump day already?

It's funny how slowly the days go by but in retrospect, the weeks FLY! I start to recognize days not by their dates but by what evening gatherings we're doing... aka tonight is the prayer walk! I'm excited, I think I might be giving my "testimony" so we'll see how that goes.

This is such a great week of volunteers! We have a sign-up sheet to be our "Mom & Dads" for the day, so essentially the v's have been showering us in gifts like trash magazines, carrots & hummus, M&M's, and any other sweet you could want. It's delishhhh and I'm loving every second of it! Plus these guys are really flexible, which is awesome because we had a bit of a rough morning yesterday due to some miscommunication.. I'm glad that today we made a sweet comeback and got everybody what they needed on time and pretty much everything went swiftly on sites. Except for a break in a water main....... that phone call was hysterical! The volunteers were yelling in the background about how much water there was and weren't sure what to do, so calmly I said, have you turned off the water yet? Silence followed my question until I heard a volunteer yell "GO! GO! TURN IT OFF!!" Hahaha, needless to say I brought them the materials to fix it and the water was successfully hooked up again by the end of the day.

On Friday we're having a dodgeball tournament for a fundraiser! I'm super excited because when we played last year it was a ton of fun, and this way we'll make at least $400 bucks in donations since we're charging $5 a head. Eaaasy money right there.

What else...... OH! This weekend I went to the county that I staffed in last year -- Buchanan County Virginia! I stayed overnight in Russell Prater Elementary with Tayli and Becky (who were both on my staff) and Becky's younger brother Jay, and it was sooo much fun! We ended up hanging out until midnight with our old facility managers and catching up, I definitely had this overwhelming sense of deja vu a few times. Paul, the facility manager, told us earlier that they haven't seen a trace of a bat in months.. and of course when I walk in the gym with the girls we see one on the floor and one on the wall!! It must be a curse.

After visiting the county (we also went to the hardware store and visited a family, which was AWESOME to catch up with them!), we and about 70 other staffers went to the Breaks Interstate Park! We went to a rope swing in Kentucky (I went there last year with my dad for those of you who remember me writing about this last year), followed by dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Me Finca, and then we all camped out in our vans and tents in a huge spot at the park! It was soo0Oo fun to see everyone and hang around a bonfire and just relax for a night with everyone :-) On the way back John and I stopped by a local mine, I really hope I get a chance to take a tour of one this summer because it just blows my mind how intricate they are.

I had such a good day today. Runs went well, I bonded with the volunteers and families at worksites because I actually had time to spare (notice how cute the two kids are!!), I showered for the first time since Sunday... Ahhh life is good :)

Why yes, I would LOVE $2,400!

Soo this week has been going great! We have some awesome volunteers and some even awesome-er projects that require a ton of insight from our panel of construction guru's. We had Michael Clark come visit on Monday and Tuesday, and he's the ex-CEO of ASP! He's such a great guy and I loved having him come to hardware with me on Tuesday morning. Speaking of Tuesday morning, I was never so sure that everything happens for a reason. There were a few group leaders who were being very persistent that they needed some roofing tar to patch up a couple small holes, although we were a little weary because that wasn't a project we had signed and none of the staffers had looked at the roof prior to this request. I got the tar though, not without the help from the store manager. While she was getting my tar we got to talking and it turns out that she's only the manager at that Lowe's for the next few weeks but was looking for a project that she and some other volunteers from Lowe's could work on... Long story short, Lowe's is partnering with us and donating $1,200 (whole sale, aka double that in ASP money!), a crew of volunteers and media coverage!!!!! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! I'm so ecstatic because A.) we're already miserably overbudget (the budget is $550 per home per week, we're at about $780 currently), B.) the media coverage will spread awareness and hopefully generate more donors, and c.) nothing like this has ever happened before!!! Later I was talking to the group leaders at their sites and basically explaining the situation, and found out that this was both of their first years. So basically, if they hadn't decided to come on ASP, if they hadn't been so persistent about getting that roofing tar, if I hadn't chosen to walk up to the store manager for help, NONE of this would have happened! Crazy cool stuff.

Becca's been gone yesterday and she'll be flying back today, aka I've been the quasi CD! It's been pretty cool to put myself in her shoes,e ven though it's such a short period of time, because I've realized just how many decisions fall onto her shoulders. It definitely stressed me out yesterday for a little bit but everything worked out great and things are running smoothly! Successss

Today is my day off! It started at 4, and i went to our picnic, but talked about evverryyything else besides work-related stuff. Tomorrow I'm going to Buchanan County and meeting up with my staff from last year to go visit families! I'm suuuper excited!

A shleepy time she comesss