Well the week may be winding down, but the students of NIU are still going strong.  What a busy day we had and how pleased we are with the work that was done.  Once again the students divided up, sending a group of eager workers to far reaching corners of Wyoming County.

One group of students went to the Early Head Start in Matheny.  This was their second day at this particular Head Start and we thought it would be the last.  But no…we have such a dedicated group that they have answered the call to return again tomorrow.  It is not easy saying no to adorable children and a wonderful teacher like Nancy. 

The Itmann Food Bank, a place we all know and love, is another place where our hardworking NIU students pitched in to provide some assistance.  As we noted yesterday, the food bank received a much needed shipment of housewares.  Today those housewares were unpacked and put up for next week’s distribution.  Having finished that assignment relatively quickly,we were asked finish up some minor repairs needed in the building, which by the way is looking fantastic!

In addition to the Itmann Food Bank and Head Start, a group of students continued with the project in Hanover.  And it must be said that NIU really went far beyond our expectations of what could be accomplished at this home this week.  The insulation is completed, about half of the underpinning is up and all the painting we had hoped to do is done!  Yes the weather helped, but it was not the weather who knelt in the mud day after day framing and hanging underpinning.  And because of the effort put forth by NIU, the homeowner is closer to the day when she can leave her FEMA trailer and come home.

The day came full circle when Val from UGWA joined us for dinner and an informational session on the Upper Guyandotte Watershed.  Val told us of some of the issues facing the watershed.  Tomorrow will be spent working to correct one issue,  the dreaded Japanese Knot-weed!  We will let you know how it goes.

Well the week may be winding down, but the students of NIU are still going strong.  What a busy day we had and how pleased we are with the work that was done.  Once again the students divided up, sending a group of eager workers to far reaching corners of Wyoming County.

One group of students went to the Early Head Start in Matheny.  This was their second day at this particular Head Start and we thought it would be the last.  But no…we have such a dedicated group that they have answered the call to return again tomorrow.  It is not easy saying no to adorable children and a wonderful teacher like Nancy. 

The Itmann Food Bank, a place we all know and love, is another place where our hardworking NIU students pitched in to provide some assistance.  As we noted yesterday, the food bank received a much needed shipment of housewares.  Today those housewares were unpacked and put up for next week’s distribution.  Having finished that assignment relatively quickly,we were asked finish up some minor repairs needed in the building, which by the way is looking fantastic!

In addition to the Itmann Food Bank and Head Start, a group of students continued with the project in Hanover.  And it must be said that NIU really went far beyond our expectations of what could be accomplished at this home this week.  The insulation is completed, about half of the underpinning is up and all the painting we had hoped to do is done!  Yes the weather helped, but it was not the weather who knelt in the mud day after day framing and hanging underpinning.  And because of the effort put forth by NIU, the homeowner is closer to the day when she can leave her FEMA trailer and come home.

The day came full circle when Val from UGWA joined us for dinner and an informational session on the Upper Guyandotte Watershed.  Val told us of some of the issues facing the watershed.  Tomorrow will be spent working to correct one issue,  the dreaded Japanese Knot-weed!  We will let you know how it goes.

Well the week may be winding down, but the students of NIU are still going strong.  What a busy day we had and how pleased we are with the work that was done.  Once again the students divided up, sending a group of eager workers to far reaching corners of Wyoming County.

One group of students went to the Early Head Start in Matheny.  This was their second day at this particular Head Start and we thought it would be the last.  But no…we have such a dedicated group that they have answered the call to return again tomorrow.  It is not easy saying no to adorable children and a wonderful teacher like Nancy. 

The Itmann Food Bank, a place we all know and love, is another place where our hardworking NIU students pitched in to provide some assistance.  As we noted yesterday, the food bank received a much needed shipment of housewares.  Today those housewares were unpacked and put up for next week’s distribution.  Having finished that assignment relatively quickly,we were asked finish up some minor repairs needed in the building, which by the way is looking fantastic!

In addition to the Itmann Food Bank and Head Start, a group of students continued with the project in Hanover.  And it must be said that NIU really went far beyond our expectations of what could be accomplished at this home this week.  The insulation is completed, about half of the underpinning is up and all the painting we had hoped to do is done!  Yes the weather helped, but it was not the weather who knelt in the mud day after day framing and hanging underpinning.  And because of the effort put forth by NIU, the homeowner is closer to the day when she can leave her FEMA trailer and come home.

The day came full circle when Val from UGWA joined us for dinner and an informational session on the Upper Guyandotte Watershed.  Val told us of some of the issues facing the watershed.  Tomorrow will be spent working to correct one issue,  the dreaded Japanese Knot-weed!  We will let you know how it goes.

We have it the official middle of the week… my has it flown by.  Although the day started a little dizzily the weather turned out to be ok, a little warm actually.  Today we had four crews out across the county.  We were able to send volunteers to two different Early Head Starts, the one in Baileysville and the one in Matheny.  Although we never have pictures, the volunteers are doing a wonderful job and the teachers are singing their praises.

We sent a group back to Hanover to continue to underpin the trailer.  With the rains from the night before it was even a little more muddy if you can believe it.  The progress being made on the trailer continues to amaze us! 

The fourth group today had a combo site, both in Mullens.  First they went to help a man knock down and haul a way an old building on his property. That sounds simple enough, but there is no way to pull our truck up to it to load the debris so it had to be hand carried down a steep flight of steps and across a highway to the truck (see picture)  We had just gotten into the swing of things when a truck arrived with housewares for the Food Bank that they needed help unloading. We all headed over to help unload the truck and take a quick lunch break.  After lunch we went back and continued to help knock down and haul.  Two trips to the dump were made and the building we wanted to get down, was completed, so a good day.

Another beautiful sunny day in the mountains of West Virginia…we are only saying this because the weather is suppose to change for the worse tomorrow.  Today three volunteers returned to the Early Head Start and the rest of the group went to the home repair site.  The home repair site looked like the hub of activity in the county.  One group was insulating under the trailer and putting up plastic to protect it, another group loaded the truck for the dump runs, another group worked framing the front of the trailer for underpinning, another worked framing the back and while a group attached underpinning.  It was quite an impressive site.  We were greeted with abundant sunshine in the afternoon, but unfortunately that did not help with the muddy conditions (see pictures.)

In the evening the students were treated to an informative talk from Debbie from St. Vincent DePaul.  She shared information about the floods, the recovery efforts as well as telling a bit about her own experiences growing up and living in the area.  Thank you Debbie!

Some pictures from the day….

Today was a beautiful day in the mountains of West Virginia, lots of sunshine and blue skies.  Although we all enjoyed the weather very much, I don’t think we could fully appreciate how much the local folks appreciated the day.  They, like many in the east, have had quite the winter with many snows.

We had three sites today.  A group went to Baileysville Early Head Start where they worked with six kids, ages 0-5.  A good time was had by the volunteers.  Another group headed to the Itmann Food Bank for some scraping, sanding and painting some of the new walls.  A wonderful lunch was prepared for them by the the Food Bank volunteers.  The rest of the group went to our home repair site out in Hanover, on the far west end of the county.  This area was severely affected by a flood in May and is still in desperate need of help.  We worked on trailer for a woman whose trailer was completely washed away in the flood and is now living in a FEMA trailer.  She a bought a used trailer that needs a great deal of work which we are happy to help her with.  Today a group of volunteers helped pull up old rugs inside, another group began underpinning the outside and a third group worked to insulate under the trailer.  But for those of you who are thinking “I thought we don’t work under trailers”, the trailer sits on cinder blocks 5 feet off the ground so you can easily walk under.  We will be working on this site throughout the week as well as this summer.  Enjoy a few pictures from the day….
We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow!

Happy International Womens Day!!!