Housing Development Alliance

This week, the North Shore Presbyterian Church from Wisconsin came to help us with a few projects. They started off the week roofing with the Carpenters on a house up in the backwoods of Perry County, and they loved it! The scenery was amazing, and they all looked great. Of course, being the genius that I am, I completely forgot about taking pictures of the spectacle. So you're just going to have to use your imagination.

However, I do have some photos to show you.

The grouped worked a few days at our Moore St. Duplex here in Hazard. They helped to dig an irrigation ditch for the house, so that it wouldn't get flooded the next time we have a huge thunder storm. The boys never seemed to grow tired of swinging those maddocks, but the girls were smart enough to stay in the shade. After all the work had been done, everyone decided to chillax in the ditch that they had dug. Let me tell you, that work that North Shore did at Moore St. was pretty difficult and strenuous, but they pushed on and did it nonetheless. Hopefully, they feel accomplished. Unfortunately, some of the volunteers became ill on the last day and were unable to finish it off. We hope that everyone is ok, and look forward to having them again.

-John.

We here at Housing Development have quite an array of staff vehicles. Ranging from an ancient GM Van that smells like a barnyard, to stock-piled Carpenter trucks, to an abandoned Toyota, and finally to our brand new Ford pick-up. Since I started working here, I have contributed a few minor dents to the pick-up, as well as put the van in a coma for a while. As you can all imagine, my driving abilities earned quite the reputation. However, my luck changed yesterday morning, when we found our nearly-forgotten Honda heavily banged up in the parking lot. At first we thought someone might have tried to break in (which got us pretty excited for a little while). Turns out, our secretary, Tonya, moved the car and forgot to put the parking brake on. The car then slid off the pavement into the river below it, causing some pretty hefty damage to the front. When it was finally towed out, the back bumper was demolished too. And thanks to that mishap, my incidents are now old news. Phew.

We are currently working on building a new house for a man named Lonnie Maggard, and this is what the project currently looks like. Now, this might come as a surprise to both St. Joseph's and Pilgrim Fellowship who helped to establish the foundation, but were unable to witness its development.Central Presbyterian glady took up where the last groups left off, and helped raised the walls and hang the studs. Second Presbyterian (from Little Rock) were then able to get started on the roof. Now the house looks almost done, and I couldn't be more excited. This is the first house that I've seen constructed all the way through.

Central Christian and Second Presbyterian may cringe when they think back to those long hours spent raking rocks at the Airport community, but we promise that it was time well spent. Without that tedious task, a nice green lawn would not be possible. Although you might not see green right now, North Shore Presbyterian (from Wisconsin!) just finished covering the field with straw and grass seed. It just needs some time to grow. You got time, right?

Anyway, it's been a long day of paper work and typing, so I'm off to take a final group photo of North Shore. Blog you later!

-John.

This is the project that we started with Central Christian Church (Lexington, KY). Good news-- the toilet and bathroom floor is now are place. More good news-- her daughter comes home from the hospital today. I know the Wooten family appreciates all the support they received from Central Christian, both at home and in the hospital.

--Kelly

Around 40 tons of them. Remember the previous post about the CHALLENGE?

This was actually the second step to controlling the slip at the Combs site. Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock completed the first steps when they stapled curlex into the mountainside and made the french drain. Now the Combs site has a rock basket retaining wall that will keep the mountain from falling into Arnold's backyard.

We were fortunate enough to host St. Bart's last year, too. They have a way of making the best out of whatever they are dealt. Tell them they're raking rocks out of a yard at the airport, or loading rocks into baskets at the Combs site-- Suzanne just chuckles and says "Oh yeah, we're one with the rocks." They're just glad to be put to work, and willing to do whatever we need of them. And that rocks.

When we say we assign volunteer projects based on open projects at the time of your stay, we mean just that. And this past week it just so happened to include lots of moving rocks, and thankfully St. Bart's was up for the challenge.

Of course there were other things St. Bart's was "one" with... like bad weather. But despite that they still accomplished quite a bit during their short week with us. Some other notable worksites included the flood cleanup in Bulan and the framing site for the future Patrick home.

I talked to Dan from Faith Christian Reformed Church (Tinley Park, IL) yesterday-- they will be joining us next week-- and I guess the flash flooding in Bulan made the news up there. St. Bartholomew contributed 81 volunteer hours to cleaning up one person's home affected by the flood. They filled many wheelbarrows with flood sludge from the basement, and cleaned up the mud that had piled up outside the home. On top of that, they even went through everything that had been in the basement, cleaning items and throwing away those things that just couldn't be cleaned.

81 hours. What a huge burden lifted off the homeowner's back.

At the framing site, they framed up the floors and walls. This week's group from North Shore Presbyterian Church (Wisconsin) put half of the roof decking on the home yesterday. David started the day with classic David humor, "Always remember, no matter how high on a roof you are, you're only two feet off the ground."

This will be a great week.

--Kelly

Hi Everyone! My name is John Rasche and I'm working as Kelly's volunteer assistant for the summer. And I love my job. I love interacting with all the different volunteers, carpenters, and homeowners. I feel like I'm paying to socialize with nice people, and I can't think of a better way to spend the summer. Well, except touring with my favorite band. No such luck. Sai la vie.

Wow, I still can't believe that we have an HDA blog! I always thought that blogs were for angsty teenagers and unsuccessful journalists, but I never once considered it a medium for an organization. It's really kinda neat. Of course, I say that before the blog actually begins to take off. Let's see how I feel about it weeks from now, when I have more posting responsibilities. But in either case, I hope our efforts with this blog will be productive in catching the attention of past volunteers and newcomers alike.

I have truly enjoyed working with my first few volunteer groups: Central Presbyterian from LaFayette, Central Christian from Lexington, Second Presbyterian from Little Rock, and St. Bartholomew from Cincinnatti. I'm still learning the ropes of my job, but luckily, each group has been patient with me. Especially the groups from last week, who continually faced changes in their schedule due to the nasty weather. I remember, one day it was raining so heavily that I could barely see the lines in the road. It didn't help that my company vehicle is a shoddy GM van built in 1925. But enough about my car complaints.

For those of you who have previously worked with the Housing Development Alliance, I hope that this blog will help rejuvenate your interest in our cause. For those who have stumbled across our blog by fate (or internet searches), I hope that our entries will inspire you to help our friendly community. Hazard is a really nice place, but it needs a lot of help from noble volunteers like you! If you do decide to join us once again (or for the first time), I am sure you will enjoy it. In fact, to infringe on the Men's Wearhouse slogan, "I guarantee it".

-John "New Boy" Rasche.

1. Get a running start.
2. Try to keep your balance as you run up the hill with a roll of curlex about twice your size.
3. You will come to a crawl as the hillside steepens. Keep on going.
4. At the top of the hill, let the curlex unroll down the hill.
5. Scale back down the hill, nailing "staples" into the curlex as you go.
6. Repeat until 4p.m.

I think there are a few reasons why volunteers travel all the way to Hazard to work with us. They want to build relationships with one another and the people in this area, provide meaningful service to people in need, and "broaden their horizons" by being a part of another community for a week. But another benefit of spending a week on our worksites is learning how to work HARD. Our projects give volunteers the opportunity to push themselves to do things they never would have thought they could accomplish, learn to expect more from themselves, and value hard work. At the end of the day, this group was able to look at their workand think, "Wow. I accomplished ALL THAT."

--Kelly

Labels: AR, Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock

This was another project I was really glad to have Central Christian contribute to last week. They finished up one site early and came here to paint the porch and wash the exterior of the home. We often forget how difficult these "home maintenance" projects can be for homeowners that are elderly or have disabilities (the homeowner was both, in this case). This project was too much for the homeowner to accomplish, but with a little elbow grease and enthusiasm, this group was able to accomplish it easily.

--Kelly

This was the site waaay out in Leslie County. It was a favorite of mine-- not only did the volunteers get to learn how to use power tools (pictured here), they got to befriend the homeowner and see the drastic transformation of this home. This homeowner is the one I previously mentioned as having a daughter in a Lexington hospital, whom another Central Christian minister was able to visit throughout the week. They replaced rotting floors in the bathroom and kitchen and installed soffit & fascia outside the house.

--Kelly

Labels: Central Christian