Finishing Friday with Fantastic Fajitas

Day 7

Today we were split into two different groups for todays projects; one team went to the warehouse and the Restore while the other went to one of the Habitat houses again to finish up some work.

The first team included Amanda, Austin, Stephen, Claire, Grace, and Kaisa. At the beginning of the day, they went to an old warehouse that Habitat bought to load bags of concrete into a truck. Then they continued to clean up other various things around the lot and got to explore the inside. It was freaky. Afterwards, the group went to the Restore to finish up painting the walls there. Even though it was cold at the beginning of the day, the group continued to encourage each other and stayed positive.

The second team included David, Emily, Brynn, Tim, Marie, Julia, Alicia, and Tierney. Here, the group got several big projects completed that we started on Monday. This included finishing the cabinets and new vinyl flooring. These were huge tasks that everyone wanted to see finished and it was very rewarding to see it all completed. While other projects were being completed, Tim got to work with Marty on fixing up the siding and putting a new window in.

By the end of our last day, everyone was exhausted. We all headed back to the lodge to meet up with the Habitat for Humanity staff to go have a closing ceremony. Our group was really crunched for time, so after we finished, Austin, Brynn, Marie, Alicia, and Tierney ran upstairs to cook some delicious chicken and fish fajitas. The rest of the crew got to work cleaning up the lodge. It was in our trip's covenant to leave the places better than we found it. Austin said, "The last day was definitely the busiest but we have gotten so good at working together during this week! Making chicken and fish fajitas was no problem at all."

Following dinner we all went to volunteer at Surge's Night out with the First Responders! Amanda, Stephen, and Claire had been helping set up for most of the afternoon and so it was amazing to see these three step up and help teach our group. We were in charge of concessions as well as selling tickets to the community. This was an event that was raising awareness for Habitat for Humanity's First Responders Build. The event included opportunities for children get in firetrucks, police cars, and ambulances. In addition, they could print their own shirts as Surge is a local screen printing company. They closed out the event with a showing of Incredibles 2.

We ended the day with a closing reflection as well as last minute packing for our trip home tomorrow. Everyone has expressed sadness in these final days but joy for the experiences we have shared in.