Another Service Trip!

Last week I participate in my 4th MOVE Extended Service Trip! I was asked to be the staff leader of the trip about a month ago because of a change in another staff member's schedule and after thinking it over for a few days, I excitedly accepted!

I was asked to lead a group of 10 young women on their trip to the Christian Appalachian Project's Workfest in Corbin, KY. You might remember that one of my previous service trips was to Kentucky, so I was excited to return, exactly 5 years later!

Here I am in Kentucky in 2008 with my (at that time) new friend Heather. Now Heather is my roommate and one of my closest friends!

We had a great week at Workfest - the SMC group was absolutely the best and we did a lot of meaningful service work.

Here we are!

(l-r) Bernadette, Katelyn, Lauren, Monica, Kirsten, Amanda, Hannah, Mary, Katie, Amanda, me.

We stayed at Laurel Lake Baptist Camp and each member of the group traveled to one of 8 different worksites everyday. I was a member of the Black Crew, and we worked on a tiny house up in the mountains for an elderly woman, her son and their 2 dogs.

Black Crew!

Back Row (l-r) Andrew from Notre Dame, Assistant Crew Leader Tom, me, Marshall from North Dakota State University, Diana from University of South Florida, Crew Leader Larry

Middle Row (l-r) Vicky, Eastern Illinois University, Thalita, UNC Chapel Hill, Ella, College of St. Mary

Front Row (l-r) Julie, College of Mount Saint Joseph, Assistant Crew Leader Dorothy, Amanda, SMC

You can see the house behind us - this was our second day. By the end of the week we had put in all new doors and windows, sided the front and almost the entire right side of the house and demolished the porch and built a new one. I put in floor joyces on the porch, measured and cut lots of siding, put up insulation board and pounded down lots of nails for safety. I had a great week and I think all the girls in my group did too!

We had a free day before heading to Workfest, so we made PB & J sandwiches at an Eastern Kentucky University baseball game. Their opponent, Tennessee Tech University, was staying in our hotel so we made friends with their bus driver and went to support them at their game!

Some intense floor joyce installation.

 Black Crew celebrating our last day of work on the scaffolding (I'm on the top row in the very back)