After I landed in Houston, I found out that I was worrying for no reason. My co-workers were very understanding and had all left in one of the vans and left the other one for me. I made the two and a half hour drive from Houston to Lake Charles, LA alone and arrived at the SWLA Volunteer Housing Center at around 9:00 PM local time.
The housing center is a former school, approximately 40 years old. There are separate dorms for boys and girls with bunk beds spaced about 3 feet apart. We had a brief orientation and each had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and say a little about why we decided to come for the rebuilding. There is a very diverse group. Some have volunteered with Rebuilding Together, Christmas in October, Habitat for Humanity, or other similar causes for as many as 20 years. While there many like myself who have never participated in an event like this before. The person in charge of this week’s effort is John Bruhn, a former employee of the company I work for. He has been retired for several years and has been involved with Christmas in October for 20 years. John arrived earlier last week to scope out the projects we will be working on this week. John has a tremendous enthusiasm for this project, and I’m certain we are lucky to have someone with his experience, enthusiasm, and compassion to lead the effort this week.
After the orientation and introductions, everyone turned in feeling anxious and excited to begin the week. There are two homes on the schedule this week. One will involve primarily a demolition of a very large shed or storage building. The other one will involve a much more comprehensive rebuilding effort with everything from a complete electrical rewiring, plumbing repair, flooring, and sheetrock, to siding repair and painting.
Tags: Volunteer
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