The entire class came out for the first official work weekend at the YMCA. It was a great start to the project. The first half of the day was mostly instruction, as noted by some of the photos below. Aaron, Layne and Don were the construction team leaders... thank goodness for their expertise!! I can't say enough about how lucky we are to have them on the team. We'd be a bunch of lost brokers, lawyers and bankers without them. Layne (below in the bandana) is teaching the ladies how to prep doors and frames. The instruction started off with a brief demo of tools -- basically Tools 101. The ladies had fun and stuck together for the easier prep-work tasks. We got to visit about life while taping every single frame and window in the basement. We ended up learning a lot more about each other. I got to share funny family stories from relatives in Michigan, and I heard fun accounts from New Iberia, Louisiana. The 
men were doing all sorts of things including hauling furniture and various items out of the basement, taking down ceiling tile, patching plaster and drywall and prepping diffusers and windows. The ceiling tile crew was covered in dust by the end of the day, and Zach was working on his biceps by hacking off tile and base from both sets of stairs. We enjoyed taking a Pot Belly's lunch break (thank you Building Solutions!), and some team members even snuck in an additional mini break to watch the rec basketball game(s) taking place upstairs. (Sidenote, don't ever join that league -- those guys would cream you on the court! They were really good and very fun to watch). All in all, we had a great first day. Everyone was exhausted by 5 pm. As I drove home, I was grateful that we didn't select The Belay House project. Seriously though, I was proud of our class. Being a part of one of the back-end small teams (the PR team), I really didn't have a good feel for the actual work we were going to be doing at Champion City. We really are making a positive impact on the Park South YMCA community... it's a great feeling! Next up, second work weekend...
The pictures don't do the day justice, but we basically painted non-stop for five hours yesterday! We primed with grey, we primed with tan, we painted with white, we painted the accent walls light blue and we painted each other. Let's just say my painting hand is sore today typing this blog. A special thanks to Cris Jordan (the lady in the last picture) for sticking with us all day long! She is our fearless leader and very much a team player. I think we all got a good night sleep last night after the long painting day. We still have some work to do in the painting department, so on to the 4th work weekend!!
Our ALC class went out to attend the YMCA's healthy kids day. It is important to us to understand who exactly is in this community we are helping... and get to know them on a personal level. We assisted with face paint, soccer games, summer camp registration, raffle tickets, line dancing sessions and kitchen instruction on "how to make healthy snacks". It was a fun day, and I think watching the little kids play soccer was a highlight for all. Please see some of the photos below! Thanks, Bret, for taking these great shots.
