Last Day of Work!

 For our last day of work, we split off into two groups to finish up tasks that we have started throughout the week. The first group consisted of Mia, Jessica, and Cata. They worked with Marty and Ed on the shed in Berea. They were able to finish putting the roof on the shed and they did the siding!

The second group consisted of Ellen, Aubree, Grace, Natalie, Megan, and Brandon. They completed the work that was done on the Habitat homeowner's house. They power washed the house and put a second coat on the porch, side stairs, and the shed!

Around 3pm, we all reconvened at Memorial Park to have dinner with board members and a Habitat family. It was nice to meet the family who would receive a Habitat house which was also the location where we built the shed. It was also great to talk to the board members about Habitat!

This is our last day of work, and we will be heading out tomorrow. While it is sad to go, this is an experience that we will all remember and continue to reflect on throughout our lives. We hope to bring back the sense of community and the willingness to help others to Erie with us!

With love,

Ellen

Day Three and Four Fun!

 On day three in Kentucky, we worked with a previous Habitat homeowner, Myron. He got his house through the Habitat for Humanity program in 2004 and was in need of renovations. Because of this, our group worked together to repair various parts of his house. 

Cata and Brandon worked to mow the lawn and cut weeds. Although there were a few hiccups re-wiring the weed-cutter, the lawn eventually looked pristine! Brandon also helped powerwash Myron's house and even showed a few of us how to use it too!

Meanwhile, Jessica, Natalie, and Ellen worked with habitat worker Marty to build Myron a back porch into his house. With a lot of work and love, we were able to finish the porch for him!

Finally, Aubree, Mia, Megan, and Grace worked together to stain Myron's front porch. Aubree, Grace, and Cata also repainted Myron's shed for him. Both the porch and the shed looked good as new!

On day four in Kentucky, our group split into three to tackle multiple projects around the Kentucky area. In Winchester, Kentucky: Aubree, Brandon, Grace, and Mia helped back at the Waterfront restaurant again to help with a soft opening. All of our work this past week definitely paid off and the soft opening was a success! The burgers were also very delicious!

Additionally, this group worked at the Habitat for Humanity Re-store, where donated goods are sold at a discount price for those in need (all proceeds go toward Habitat projects too!). We helped to prepare furniture for purchase. 

Meanwhile, in Berea, Kentucky: Ellen, Natalie, and Jess worked to build a shed for a Habitat for Humanity family that we will be meeting tomorrow for dinner. We are very excited to meet them!

Megan and Cata worked to build bookshelves for the Habitat Re-store to use and sell. We were so excited to be able to work more closely with the community in Kentucky and are excited to see where our adventures lead us!

We are looking forward to our last day tomorrow! 

With love, 

Grace, Aubree, and Ellen :) 

Second Day Adventures!

 

   On our second day of work in Kentucky, we split into small groups to continue our work from yesterday. In the morning Megan, Grace, Natalie, Mia, and Ellen went back to the Waterfront restaurant and worked with the kitchen manager, Jerome, to help prepare for the opening. The Waterfront was bought by its current owners in December and was about to open when the floods came and set them back for months. After a lot of hard work, however, the Waterfront is ready to open for an Outside cookout on Thursday. To prepare for it, we washed and cleaned chairs, tables, and the general deck area. We are so excited to be able to celebrate their re-opening on Thursday. Tune in to see more on our work with the Waterfront!

While our first group worked at the Waterfront, Brandon, Aubree, Cata, and Jess worked with homeowners in the area. We worked to remove the wooden siding of an old house that was no longer in use. That recycled siding was then used to refurbish another home in that area. While using a lot of hammers, crowbars, and a couple ladders, the group was able to remove the siding off of the entire right side of the house, as well as a portion of the front.

To conclude our day of service, we decided to take a Hike through the Red River Gorge. Being able to reflect on the beauty of the nature around us was both refreshing and re-energizing! We finished the night with some ice cream and Trivia at the Skybridge Station, a local restaurant in Kentucky. Although we didn’t get all the Kentucky-related trivia, we tried our best and had a good time!

Tune in tomorrow for more fun and service!

 

With love,

Grace and Aubree.

First Day!

For our first day, we started off bright and early and had an orientation to learn more about Habitat for Humanity and what we would be doing for the week.

After orientation, our group split into two. Mia, Ellen, and Natalie helped clean debris and restore the property of a recently flooded restaurant. Throughout the day, several community members stopped by, checked in, and offered a helping hand. The man working with them for most of the day explained how everyone knows everyone and that he has spent his life in this area. It was eye-opening to hear their stories and understand how the recent floods have affected the area from their perspectives.

The second group consisted of Aubree, Grace, Catalina, Jessica, Brandon, and Megan. To start the day, our group headed over to Bruce’s house. Bruce is a member of the community who was severely affected by flooding. We had some 4-legged company while we worked and took occasional puppy breaks! Once we cleared as much as we could, we headed back to the main hub for lunch. After lunch, our group went over to Deb’s house, the same woman who owned the restaurant we are also working at. Deb owns a second home that she uses for Air BnB that was also severely affected by the flood. Not only has the experience humbled me but has shown me that we can provide kindness and care to others even through such tragic times. The people we got to meet, including the owner of a restaurant that we helped, have shown us that disasters can bring people together. I hope to keep this lesson close to my heart as we continue our time in Kentucky.

Back in Erie!

We have safely arrived home. Thank you for reading our blog and hearing our stories throughout the week!

Love and goodbyes from,

The Kentucky Kids 

Our Last Full Day in Kentucky

Hello ABST family!

We are filled with mixed emotions as our time in Kentucky is coming to an end. We have all made many connections to the people and experiences here, and we feel that the week flew by. We grew so close as a group and made meaningful friendships to treasure for a life time. Even when working on difficult tasks throughout our service, we were always having fun and sharing so many laughs!

Today, the group continued to work on Angie King's house. The "drywall team" finished almost all of the ceiling and the walls of two bedrooms. The "outside team" finished all of the siding, besides 2 complicated pieces, and the entire front porch ceiling and siding, including the hooks for a future porch swing! Both teams were determined to finish what the HABITAT leaders had set up and really wanted to see our projects completed. They expressed how shocked they were with how much we got done in just a few days and loved our work ethic and positive attitude.

After working to the minute we had to stop, we said goodbye to our house and went for a Friday fish fry at the local church. We again were welcomed by the community members who sparked up conversations with us, gave us their extra dessert, and expressed their appreciation for our service. To continue a great last day, Mike (our HABITAT contractor) invited us to his home for a bonfire. Here, we shared stories and got to hear about some of Mike's life, all while we enjoyed trying to stay warm around the relaxing fire. We met Mike's adorable dogs and cats and explored his personal wood shop all found on his 106-acre farm. At the end of the night, Mike was so overly generous and kind to give us each a handmade wooden ornament to take home with us.

Overall, this ABST has taught us so much about ourselves, the Clark and Madison County community, building houses and using tools, and how to treat people and live for serving others. We are happy to come home, see our family and friends, and get back into our schedules, but we are sad to leave this experience and our new Kentucky-group family. This has truly been a wonderful experience that we will hold dear forever.

We plan to depart tomorrow morning around 10:00am, stopping in the middle to eat a late brunch at a Waffle House, and be back at Gannon by around 6:00pm. We will post an arrival update tomorrow for all those parents who want to ensure we arrived safely on time.

Thank you for reading and sharing in some of our experiences!

With love,
The Kentucky Kids

  
  
 

Hello friends and family,

Today was a beautiful sunny day here in Richmond to work on our Habitat home. Our whole group was able to arrive to the site completely together for the first time this week. We all had such a fun time working together, learning new things, and getting our jobs for the day done. We split up into three teams to work on the drywall in the house, finish the siding for the entire side of the house, and work on the porch.

Our drywall crew put up the ceiling throughout the whole house, finishing everything except for the bathrooms and one bedroom. They had a few drawbacks along the way, but were able to laugh through them and work together as the dream team they are. 

Our siding team worked on putting the siding up on the house and was able to finish an entire side. They got into a good system and were able to work through the tedious windows and doors along the house. Drivers passing on the road now see a beautiful stone-gray house instead of one covered in white construction plastic.

Our porch team was busy today splitting up into channeling, hanging plywood and the ceiling soffit, and bending metal for the wrap-around of the porch. The "battle for the benches" was a good time, juggling between the channels for the ceiling, plywood and soffit installation, and hanging the metal. We were able to make it work and got a lot of work done.

Our busy team came together for a home-cooked chili and bread made by a local couple, Sandy and Steve, who have been a part of the community for almost forty years. We were able to share the meal with them and hear a bit of their story. After lunch we headed back to the site and worked hard until the workday had ended.

At the end of the day, Angie came by to see everyone as well as the house. She was so excited by all of the progress we have made. It was really neat to see the community of the Habitat workers with Angie, and to be a piece in that community. We were also treated to some delicious blueberry and apple pies from a couple we met at church who are involved in Habitat, after dinner, along with a cinnamon bundt cake and coffee cake for tomorrow morning. The hospitality we have been given here is absolutely incredible and we are all so grateful for it.

We finished our reflections for the day, and our family is relaxing playing some Catan, speed solitaire, and UNO. In a little while, we're going to make a quick stop at Insomnia Cookies for a late night snack. We can't wait for tomorrow to get back to the site and work together to get as much as we can done for our last day with Habitat.

With love,
The Kentucky Kids