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

Thanks for being so flexible...

SO, it's Monday of week 2! We have 80 volunteers/11 crews here from two different churches in Maryland, and right off the bat I had a great feeling about these guys. They came prepared with copious mounts of snackage and water, and even gave us all our own boxes of our favorite candy!(they called and checked what it was beforehand, now that's some initiative right there) While some people are definitely new, we have a lot of GL's who you can tell that this ain't their first rodeo. For instance, I'm in charge of a pretty big roofing project and was a little nervous about the skill level of the volunteers being put on it for the week. My prayers must have been answered because as it turns out, John, one of the GL's on the site (it's double-crewed), has been working on roofs on ASP for over ten years! It's really great to be able to come back to the center in the afternoon and feel confident that the crew did their job well and correctly. He's also been chipping in a lot of great ideas because this roof isn't exactly typical (it has two separate gables with a valley in the middle where it essentially allows the water to pool, and has a shed roof in the back on an addition), so I've really loved working with that crew so far. All of the crews for that matter have been great!

It's especially convenient that we've been dealt this group of great volunteers because today a bulk order from our hardware store was supposed to arrive at 10am with most of their materials for the day.... Needless to say it didn't show up until 12:30, and with the extensive thunderstorming and other complications, none of the materials got out to the sites today. Luckily all of these guys are great and understand for the most part, but we really are super thankful that they're all flexible and understanding that sometimes things just happen.

I've been talking to my dad and I think he's coming to visit me week 6 with a few men from my church... YEEEAAA BUDDY!

Week 1: Check!

I have no idea how this week is already over. It's funny, each individual day is packed with errands and activities and stress and seems to crawl by, but here we are on Saturday and it's already over. Craaazy! I'm so happy that we just had that group of volunteers, they set a really great tone for the rest of the summer. They were great to us and each other, which is always great because it's always a possibility that groups won't get along at the center. One of the groups was from Washington D.C., and consisted of 14 kids from an all-boys Catholic high school. I guess they have monks teaching their classes, which I think is hysterically awesome, and they gave us shirts last night that say "Got Monks?" on the front! Haha, that was a sweet gift.

Yesterday we finished up working on 2 out of the 5 homes we signed for this week! Pretty exciting, almost all of the rest of our projects though will last us until the end of the summer. I guess we're a pretty ambitious staff because we have some seriously huge projects and I can't wait to get started on them! We're signing a house today to start on Monday for a guy who is living in a siding-less house and doesn't have ANY plumbing (doesn't even have a bathroom) or water. He goes nextdoor to his brother-in-law to use their bathroom and water. I cannot even wrap my brain around what that must be like, and this guy thinks nothing of it because that's just the hand of cards he's been dealt. Since we can't give him his own septic tank or well because his property is waaay too small, we're looking into fundraising a TON to give him a $5,000 composting toilet. I don't know much about them, but I know that the toilet itself is essentially a septic system which turns all of the waste into compost. If we get to do this project I am going to be so so so excited, I'm keeping my fingers crossed and praying every day!

After we get some more work done today I think we're going to meet up with a few other staffs and go for a hike/swim at the state park nearby! That could provide some much needed downtime, not to mention some much needed time playing outside :)

Here are some pictures from this week! The man in the wheelchair is Robert (the one I gushed about a few posts earlier, not to be confused with the guy getting the $5,000 toilet), and the little boy's name is Thomas with his dad Marshall kneeling behind him. We're essentially rebuilding all of the floors in their trailer, aka we get to be there for the rest of the summer, aka I get unlimited playtime with Thomas and his ADORABLE sister Kelsey. My life for the win!

"You guys are one of the best staffs I've ever had."

The title pretty much sets the tone for the week so far.... :)

So, Monday morning was a little rough with our three vans worth of hardware running a wee bit late, but after that it's been smooth sailing! We only have the five crews like I said so it's not exactly a daunting task getting out to every site every day. These volunteers are really getting the message behind what ASP's about, yeah, we of course focus on emergency home repair, but the main objective here is to establish those deep and longlasting relationsihps with families. So far I've seen nothing but great things, and I'm just really excited because this is an amazing first impression of volunteers on the families we'll be working for for most of the summer. Ahhh I'm so happy right now!

Not to mention that we've had Dennis, DT, our program manager Nicole, a liaison William, and a dump truck driver all staying with us in the past few days so we're just buzzing with extra people and extra energy! I'm lovin the vibesss

Tonight was culture night! We had Joe and Harold play with their grandson, and they did an awesome job of combining storytelling with their folk and country music! They seem like a couple of dudes with great stories, I'm super pumped to get to know them. The happiest part of my day was watching Harold play his guitar and sing at the same time-- I was doubling over with laughter on the inside watching him play at super high pitches because he would squeeze his eyes shut, cock his head up, raise his cheecks and open his mouth super wide so all you could see was the copious amounts of gums where teeth used to be. He was so completely absorbed in playing his song at that moment, it was one of the most genuine things I've ever seen and I wish I could just capture that so you could all believe me. Sweeeet, there's my goal for next week!
Anyways... we've been busy setting up for our evening gathering for tomorrow night, a Prayer Walk, which I'm really excited for!! We'll have a bunch of different stations that the volunteers will walk through, and the last one will be a bonfire where they can throw in their slips of paper (where they write down what types of things are holding them back from living the Christian life they aspire to lead) into the fire, representing giving their burdens up to God. I really hope that we get some good feedback!


Speaking of good feedback, there are a few volunteers who are here that belong to one of the first churches to EVER do ASP. Thus, they knew Tex Evans, the founder of ASP, as well as other legends like Norma Dean. They've told us about how evening gatherings literally used to be them just sitting around listening to Tex's stories, and all of his dreams of transforming the homes and lives of the Appalachians. I can't even put into words how jealous I am that they actually KNEW Tex! That's some serious history right there. Plus, imagine the collection of ASP shirts they have! What I was going to say though, was that one of the women who has been on ASP for 38 years, told us today that we're one of the best staffs she's ever had. EVER. In 38 years! Considering it's only Tuesday night and they don't leave until Saturday morning, that's a huge compliment. I'm super pumped! This week rules.


I'm in a really good spot right now. I'm right where I need to be, with the people I need to be with, doing what I'm meant to be doing. Ahhh God I love it here.

Week 1 here we come

I cannot believe that volunteers are currently in direct pursuit of our center. I feel like this set-up week FLEW by! There are only 5 work crews/35 people the first week, which I never got the leisure of having last summer, but I think this will be a great way to ease ourselves into the summer and to get into the swing of things. It's funny, I've never volunteered week 1 nor would I ever want to because in all honesty, they're completely our guinea pigs. We're test driving out a lot of new things and are just going to grade our success by their responses, then adjust accordingly for week 2! The church coming is completely new to the ASP experience though, so I'm banking on the fact that they'll never notice the difference if we mess up horribly (haha, though I doubt any mess-up would be THAT horrible).

I'm so excited for week 1 also because we have so many visitors!! For the past two nights our Chaplain Scott Looney (great last name, eh?) has been staying with us, and he's been offering a helping hand and just some company while we get our act together. I feel bad because he must have been pretty bored during our meetings and center set-up... he's a trooper though. On Monday we have Dennis, the HEAD Construction guru of ASP, as well as our Construction Consultant for our county, DT, coming to visit us!!! This will be awesome because not only are they some pretty sweet guys to talk to, they both can provide a tonnn of insight on the projects that we don't even know how to begin. For example, we want to put a room addition on a home, but things are complicated because the owner of the home tore down two load-bearing exterior walls (bearing the load of the roof), so that section of the roof could collapse into the house at any time. It's these types of things that are pretty over our heads and it's nice to have Dennis and DT as resources. On Monday also our Program Manager Nicole is coming for the day, which will be interesting considering she's already going to be taking notes on our performance and effectiveness when it's only going to be the first and second day of runs! Anyways, Wednesday through Friday we have a few other visitors either staying to visit or just lend a helping hand-- hopefully all of this extra company will help this week run smoothly!

I hope that this week's volunteers are really open to the experience and aren't expecting too much. The best thing a volunteer can do down here is just to come into this with an open mind and heart, that way they can completely absorb everything going on around them. We have some amazing projects and families for them to meet and I just really hope that we can make their first ASP experience a great one!

Now, time to shotgun a monster and finish set-up. ETA time of volunteers is 2:00... WISH US LUCK!!!

Almost forgot.. my staff!!

Aren't we dashing? To my right is Becca (Center director), John (Volunteer Coordinator) and Kelly (Operations Coordinator)! Sarcasm runs through all of our veins and I forsee a GREAT summer ahead :)

Internet at last

Ahhh how good it feels to be on the internet again! It was just set up today, so I have loooots of catching up to do!

I'm staying at Chapmanville Middle School for the summer, which is in a greeaat location in terms of convenience-- about a quarter mile down the road I can get gas, groceries, my car fixed, shop at thrift stores (yeaaa buddy), get Subway and Dairy Delight, etc etc. It's a little depressing how many funeral homes are around here but I'm trying to overlook that.. haha.. But out center is SO great! There's a huge gym and auditorium which will be great for Evening Gatherings, and the cafeteria is right across the way in a perfect set-up. The funny thing about this center is that it has a large focus on remaining community-oriented, so there will be different clubs and camps and organizations using the school pretty much every day with us for the entire summer. Funny story actually, last summer the staff who was here told us that in the auditorium there was a "Vampire Camp" gathering, while across the hall in the gym there was a Red Cross blood drive. Ohhhh the irony.

This summer I'm the Finance Coordinator, which I'm really excited about because I've never really had to be in charge of anything like this before. I'm basically in charge of our accounts and tracking the money we spend and take in, and running this by Becca the CD weekly to make sure that we stay on track. Basically I just have to keep track of all the receipts, which can get tricky if certain staffers don't forget to give them to me...... haha don't worry, I've been devising punishments for those who forget. John actually volunteered to eat a copy of a receipt if he forgot to hand it in, and frankly, that is a great idea.

This week so far we've been staying in a 12'x12' room in the middle of the second floor, and it has no windows. Luckily there's a bathroom inside, but the kick is that we've been using this as both our office AND sleeping quarters. To say that it's been crowded is an understatement. I was starting to go mildly insane yesterday but am so thankful to be moved out of there today and into our staff quarters! We have two separate, large rooms to serve as an office and bedroom so I'm verrrry happy to have some more living space. Plus, all of the chalkboards around here are super convenient to jot notes and numbers down on, me gusta.

Tomorrow we're going to start signing homes! I'm REAAALLLLYYYYY excited!!!!! We only have five crews coming the first week so that will be a nice way to ease into the summer for both the first-years and myself! I'm especially excited to sign a home tomorrow for Robert Conley, a 51-year old single man who has become recently paralyzed and is therefore in a wheelchair. Luckily he has a ramp outside his home, his BEAUTIFULLY constructed home in which he constructed entirely on his own prior to his car accident. He said that he drilled every screw and held every board without help from anybody, which I found to be amazing because not only is it a two story house, but it's pretty much flawless! He was so nervous to ask for help and I could just tell he was aching to finish the work himself, his appreciation and gratefulness was seeping from his pores. I have only had one lengthy conversation with him and I can already tell that saying goodbye to him at the end of the summer (it's going to be a long project, I'm really excited that we'll be there for a majority of the 8 weeks) is going to be really difficult. But this is the BEST part! Finding these families that just pull on your heart and transform you by the end of the summer.. I can't even put it into words. It's down here that I feel the most blessed.

p.s. my mailing address is:

Appalachia Service Project
Logan County Chapmanville Center
General Delivery
Chapmanville, WV 25508

I love mail :)