Our first day of work began with a hardy breakfast at Seashore Assembly café and then a quick trip to the HOPE Volunteer Center for a safety review and paperwork signoff. Then if it was off to the job site. With 16 crew members, it was just amazing to see how fast the whole team got to work. Picking up where the last team left off, we began with the task of readying the freshly hung wallboard by applying the second coat compound in all the rooms. Some of us spent pretty much the whole day at it. Other team members tackled priming and painting the front port columns of this beautiful Craftsman style home. The carpentry on the outside needed some repair so the rest of the team got moving on the tear down and rebuild of the damaged soffits. All in all, the day was moving along until lunch time at which point we decided to take a trip down the street to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. And were we glad we did. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was such a buzz in the crowd; you could just feel the excitement. And see it too. The marching bands were not only rocking the crowd but dancing up a storm. The pictures we took don’t even come close to describe the atmosphere. But work was calling, so back to the house we went for a full afternoon of mudding, painting, and roof repair. By the time we quit working, not a soul could be seen who wasn’t covered in sheetrock dust and clumps of compound. After showers and dinner, we finished the evening off with a group meeting that let everyone unwind and talk about their experiences of the day.
The highlight of the afternoon was finally meeting the homeowners. Jeff, Stacey and their 7 yr. old daughter Lexie were just so appreciative of our work. They had only owned the home a year when the wall of the water from the storm surge ruined everything. Since then, they have lived on the second floor or their parent’s house along with other family members. Luckily, their home was not completely destroyed and Jeff has been working on rebuilding it himself over the past three years. With the help of volunteers like us, his family is very close to moving back in. Jeff and Stacey told stories of a neighbor who climbed through his roof and held on to a tree throughout the storm surge and of an uncle who, as the water rose, cut a hole through to the attic and pushed his wife up to safety.
Mark Borenstein VIM (Jan. 09) AUMMC Member
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