Today the whole group of NIU students spent the day with UGWA picking up trash along the the Guyandotte River between Mullens and Pineville. It was almost like a treasure hunt with the items they found discarded.  Rugs, sinks, stoves, table saws, not to mention the more typical trash of soda bottles, food wrappers, etc. The stretch of river that they worked on looks a whole lot better than before.

After they finished with the clean up, the group decided to explore the county a bit and headed to Oceana to walk around a bit and then stopped in Pineville and climbed up Castle Rock before heading back to the food bank.

The rain finally let up today, so we went back to the house in Hanover where last week, we had started to waterproof the new foundation.  Unfortunately even though there wasn’t any rain to speak of, it was a rather cold day.  With a large group of students armed with brushes we were able to second coat most of the foundation.  This is the house that this summer we replaced the floors in.  It is now 5 feet off the ground so it should remain safe and dry even with another flood.

The remaining students spent their day being entertained by the kids at the Maben Head Start. It is always fun to hear the stories from the day.  Kid’s say the darnedest things…

In preparation for tomorrows work with the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association, Val from UGWA came to speak with the students about the environmental issues that affect the area, what organizations such as UGWA do and prep them for tomorrow’s work.

Another great day with the NIU students. We finished up at the house in Hanover we have been working on for two weeks and Dusquene University the week before. We’ve included pictures so you can see the beautifully painted rooms.

Another group of students went to the St.Vincent DePaul warehouse to  help organize after the truck delivery from last week.  When we went in at the end of the day to drop off some doors, we where amazed at how great the warehouse looked.

The final group of students when to Head Start and had another great day. Besides the students enjoying themselves and the kids getting one on one attention, the Head Start will benefit from having a steady flow of volunteers, as they will get extra funding from the volunteer hours.

We are pleased to announce that we have 18 sponsors for this year’s Live with Passion! Thank you to those that are sponsoring and to those that solicited the sponsors.  Now that all the sponsors are set, final plans are in the works for the different events. 

It’s not too late to host an event!  Just let us know what your plans are and we will add it to our site list.  We will be posting more detailed information about the events for each site shortly.

Day one of NIU’s service week began just as Holy Cross’ did with rain and cool temperatures. Luckily we again had all indoor activities so that the day was able to go just as planned.

One group headed back out to Hanover to continue the work from last week.  The group today got the first coat of paint on all the newly drywalled rooms.  Tomorrow we are all set to finish it off.

Another group went to Head Start to work with the children. There seems to be a cold going through the Head Starts these days so attendance is low. All that means for the kids though is more one on one attention.

The last group stayed back at the food bank to help unload commodities and start to get the food bank ready for Friday’s distribution day.

The weather for tomorrow looks like more of the same, but the rest of the week is looking like spring, finally!

Day one of NIU’s service week began just as Holy Cross’ did with rain and cool temperatures. Luckily we again had all indoor activities so that the day was able to go just as planned.

One group headed back out to Hanover to continue the work from last week.  The group today got the first coat of paint on all the newly drywalled rooms.  Tomorrow we are all set to finish it off.

Another group went to Head Start to work with the children. There seems to be a cold going through the Head Starts these days so attendance is low. All that means for the kids though is more one on one attention.

The last group stayed back at the food bank to help unload commodities and start to get the food bank ready for Friday’s distribution day.

The weather for tomorrow looks like more of the same, but the rest of the week is looking like spring, finally!