Our First Work Day

Today was the first day of work serving the communities damaged by Super Storm Sandy.  We divided into two groups with a significant contingent of the mission campers going to help provide environmental restoration at a county park right across the Barnegat Bay from Mantoloking Bridge, scene of a dramatic breach in the barrier islands of New Jersey.  It was a great opportunity for the campers to help restore the environment and parks for the residence of the area that are still reminded of the disaster a year and a half ago.

Fiona Asbury provides some early entertainment before our work at the park with story time for the campers at the relief center.

The campers worked hard providing construction of an educational wetlands area at the community park.

Work teams 2, 3 and 4 all worked at a local park. The park was not severely damaged during Super Storm Sandy, so the group worked to build a wetland to help drain out future storms. First the more muscular members broke up the hard soil.

Because there were too many workers in the hole being built for wetland, the two female members of work team 4 helped weed out some gardens in the park. 

After lunch the wetland needed some marsh to absorb water, so 3 members from team 4 (Haley, Maddie Nathan) and 2 members from team 3 (Tommy and Mac) A.K.A "the mud family" or "team 7" went to another county that held a large amount of marsh. There, they cut out marsh and transported it to the work site. The job was messy, but team Mud Family was up for the job, as you can see below.

On the other work site group #1 was working on finishing touches of a home that's grand opening that is this Friday. They used Spackle to fill any and all wholes or dents in the walls. While they were waiting for that to dry, they had to take all the hinges off all the doors and clean the paint off with Goof Off. That took a very long time. Two of the members set up a humidifier in the basement connecting it to the sub pump. Some cleaned off mold that had grown from the humidity of the basement. They repainted the master bedroom closet doors and all of the exterior doors. They then had to vacuum the whole upstairs to prepare for the carpet people to come tomorrow.

 Team one after a long day of work