On May 3, 2008, the Southbury Interfaith Social Concerns Committee sponsored the annual AmeriCares HomeFront Project. AmeriCares is an international relief organization that used local volunteers to restore an area home to a safe, warm and dry condition. Volunteers from the area spent the day working on the project in Ansonia. Working from early morn until dusk, the volunteers were able to bring a little help, and a lot of love to the homeowner. Click here for more information on the AmeriCares HomeFront projects.
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Volunteers Meeting
And just before the big day, all volunteers are invited to a meeting to review the project, explain what is needed, and just get to know each other.
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The volunteers have an opportunity to meet before the work day to get an idea of what will be expected. And Lauren gave a break down of the work to be done, the work already done, and where the project is located. All questions answered, everyone eager to get to work.
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Always a good idea to take a few notes, just to be sure.
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AmeriCares HomeFront
Saturday, May 3, 2008. All AmeriCares projects take place on the first Saturday in May. Just one day. Not a big committment of time, but a lot of work go into the planning and execution of this day. What follows is just the tip of the iceburg, showing some highlights of the activity that day. Many thanks to all those who volunteered their time and talent to help a neighbor.
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AmeriCares HomeFront Project # 1603, sponsored by the Southbury Interfaith Social Concerns Committee. If you were looking for the work site, here it is.
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Registration. Always paperwork to keep everything official, parent approvals for the younger set, and the location of the food table.
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Lauren gives the opening remarks, thanks to everyone for coming, hope you all have a great day, please don't get hurt. Enjoy!
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Pastor Scott Nessel from St. James Lutheran Church started the day off with a prayer of thanks for everyone's efforts, the beautiful day, and the hope for the grace of God to support everyone throughout the day.
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Pastor Nessel, in addition to his spiritual duties on the day, also spent a lot of time doing outside work to beautify the yard, raking leaves, doing what's needed.
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No project is complete without a Task List. How else would we ever know where we were in the day's activities? Nothing to it. Just find a task that you enjoy doing, and get to it. If you can't find something to do, Lauren or Mike will be happy to direct you to some task in need of help.
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One of the largest tasks of the day involved taking off the old roof, and replacing it with a new one. Fortunately, there were many professional roofers who volunteered their time and talent to make that work possible. Here we see some of them starting to remove the old roof.
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While the roof work continued in the background, Meg and Sally enjoy a break in their raking and general landscape work.
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The start of preparation work to make a flower garden in the front yard. Note the large pile of leaves in the back. The reason...no dumpster to put them in. So everything had to be stacked until it arrived.
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Replacing doors was a big part of the day. Most or all of the interior doors were replaced.
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But, of course, not all the doors fit exactly as planned. In fact, probably none of the doors fit exactly as planned. But that's part of what makes these projects so interesting. Lots of on-the-fly corrections.
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Work getting started on refreshing the play area in the back yard. A wonderful talent to be able to see how all this will look after a few plants are added, some rocks to outline the space, and a little mulch.
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Lots to do at the rear of the property. Clear out the area around the fence, and restore the storage shed to better condition. Amazing how much can be done if enough people are ready to help.
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Just in time! The long awaited arrival of the dumpster. And it was a tight squeeze to get in the drive, avoid the mail box, and drop it where needed. Now to get everyone busy and load it up with the trash and leaves piled up around the yard.
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Meanwhile, inside, the patching and painting is starting in earnest. A little tight for space, but you learn to work around all the other work being done at the same time.
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Got room for another load? Let's see...leaves, roof shingles, general stuff. Good thing they got the large size dumpster. But even a dumpster has to have some order to it. Any volunteers?
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Thank goodness for Sarah, or as she was known for the rest of the day, The Dumpster Czarina. What a job she did, in very trying conditions.
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Ahh. Lunch Time. And just in time, the Southbury Knights of Columbus arrived and prepared their world famous hot dogs, veggi platter, and other goodies for the hungry crew.
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Help yourself. Plenty to go around. Please eat it all, because we don't want to carry any back. Seconds, anyone? Thirds? Amazing how good something as simple as hot dogs can taste.
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Dining alfresco, enjoying the company of friends new and old.
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In one of the more interesting developments of the day, some of the folks working in the yard came across a couple of large stones. Imagine, large stones in Connecticut. So rather than just get rid of them, they built a bench in a corner of the front yard. The series of photos above shows the stones being brought to the corner, bench assembled, and homeowner enjoying the bench with those who brought it into being.
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As the day winds down, the roof is completed, and many thanks go to those professional roofers who gave of their time to help a neighbor. Without their help, there would be no new roof.
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And not only a new roof, but new gutters as well, freshly extruded. Quite an interesting operation to see.
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And other finishing touches as well, like painting around the windows. Mike and Gail are hard at it right up to the end.
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As are the folks assembling the new garage door.
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And here, taking a quick break for a photo op, is the whole gang, with the very happy home owner, who feels very blessed by all the days activities.
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How can we ever thank all those wonderful people who heard the cry of a neighbor in need, and responded with all their heart. All the young folk who came, donations of food and drink. Thank you all so much. We hope to see you all again next year.
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A special tip o' the hat to Lauren, who, with her co-captain and husband Mike brought all this together. How can we ever thank Lauren and Mike enough?
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