In the next couple of days I will be uploading information about the different 2010 Live With Passion sites. This will be the place to get all the latest up to date information, pictures, etc.  Please visit frequently!

The Midwest Reunion in Atchison, KS is underway.  Even though spring officially starts tomorrow we are having a snowy, blustery, cold day.  Here are a couple of pictures…more to come.

Volunteers hard at work evaluating last summer’s program and planning for the upcoming summer:

I’m sure many of you have seen the news reports of flooding in West Virginia.  We had heavy rains Friday night into Saturday, coupled with snow melt from the warm weather during the week.  When we drove out to Baileysville early Saturday morning to say goodbye to the NIU students the rivers were quite high and beginning to get close to the road.  By the time we headed out on Saturday, around 11:00, the rivers were moving quite swiftly.  We decided to drive out through Mullens, but were turned away with water over the road just past New Richmond.  Wyoming County was spared from any major flooding, but Beckley and the surrounding area was hit pretty hard.  Keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers.

NIU Students on the final night:

The week has come to an end, and what a wonderful week it has been.  Despite predictions of rain and bad weather, we ended up with a beautiful, sunny week and and even more wonderful group of NIU students.

For the last day, the students broke into three groups and spread out across the county.  One group went to the Matheny Head Start to help fill in with a short staffed classroom and had a blast with the children.  Another group went back to the Food Bank to help finish the repairs from yesterday and helped unload a commodities truck. The Food Bank is looking more like it’s old self for distribution next week.  The last and largest group headed up to the town of Helen where they helped with the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association (UGWA) to remove Japanese Knot-weed from the river’s edge.  The removal of this invasive weed helped to clear the spot where the town will put their soon to be installed water treatment system.

It has truly been a pleasure to work with the sixteen young women and men from NIU this week.  They were willing to do any of the tasks that we put in front them, no matter how dirty or how unglamorous they were.  And even more impressive, even project they worked on did not have a chance of completion, they were just there to help the project along and to pass the next task on to the next group.  In a society such as ours where we want results, it has been refreshing to be with young people who are satisfied to do their part to better the world they live in.  They are truly an inspiration and it has been a gift to be with them this week.

PS:  We will be posting more pictures in the next week after everyone gets home safely an emails their favorite pictures.

The week has come to an end, and what a wonderful week it has been.  Despite predictions of rain and bad weather, we ended up with a beautiful, sunny week and and even more wonderful group of NIU students.

For the last day, the students broke into three groups and spread out across the county.  One group went to the Matheny Head Start to help fill in with a short staffed classroom and had a blast with the children.  Another group went back to the Food Bank to help finish the repairs from yesterday and helped unload a commodities truck. The Food Bank is looking more like it’s old self for distribution next week.  The last and largest group headed up to the town of Helen where they helped with the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association (UGWA) to remove Japanese Knot-weed from the river’s edge.  The removal of this invasive weed helped to clear the spot where the town will put their soon to be installed water treatment system.

It has truly been a pleasure to work with the sixteen young women and men from NIU this week.  They were willing to do any of the tasks that we put in front them, no matter how dirty or how unglamorous they were.  And even more impressive, even project they worked on did not have a chance of completion, they were just there to help the project along and to pass the next task on to the next group.  In a society such as ours where we want results, it has been refreshing to be with young people who are satisfied to do their part to better the world they live in.  They are truly an inspiration and it has been a gift to be with them this week.

PS:  We will be posting more pictures in the next week after everyone gets home safely an emails their favorite pictures.

The week has come to an end, and what a wonderful week it has been.  Despite predictions of rain and bad weather, we ended up with a beautiful, sunny week and and even more wonderful group of NIU students.

For the last day, the students broke into three groups and spread out across the county.  One group went to the Matheny Head Start to help fill in with a short staffed classroom and had a blast with the children.  Another group went back to the Food Bank to help finish the repairs from yesterday and helped unload a commodities truck. The Food Bank is looking more like it’s old self for distribution next week.  The last and largest group headed up to the town of Helen where they helped with the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association (UGWA) to remove Japanese Knot-weed from the river’s edge.  The removal of this invasive weed helped to clear the spot where the town will put their soon to be installed water treatment system.

It has truly been a pleasure to work with the sixteen young women and men from NIU this week.  They were willing to do any of the tasks that we put in front them, no matter how dirty or how unglamorous they were.  And even more impressive, even project they worked on did not have a chance of completion, they were just there to help the project along and to pass the next task on to the next group.  In a society such as ours where we want results, it has been refreshing to be with young people who are satisfied to do their part to better the world they live in.  They are truly an inspiration and it has been a gift to be with them this week.

PS:  We will be posting more pictures in the next week after everyone gets home safely an emails their favorite pictures.