Blitz Build Completed!

The blitz build ended on Saturday and it was an overwhelming success. What I mean by that was it was a) overwhelming and b) a success. For the week, we had a group of truly dedicated volunteers from all over our country. Volunteers from Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, North and South Carolina, Ohio and Louisiana (and probably one or two states that I missed) showed up to build four of the Operation Home Delivery Houses for victims of hurricane Katrina.

The conditions were not the most favorable: we received four houses, but some were a different floor plan than what we anticipated (most likely a shipping error, although the FedEx homes arrived just fine - go figure...) and we had a great deal of rain, which led to a greater amount of mud on the first few days of the build.

Despite this, we were able to provide Traemel Day with the keys to her house at a dedication ceremony on Saturday. Hopefully one day, she'll have a few neighbors.

During the build, one of the volunteers offered me some server space so I could publish more of my photos. If there seems to be interest in this, I'll probably do it.

On Friday night, I was invited to visit the out-of-town volunteers who were staying at the FEMA tents. It was impressive to see the facilities and rumors of the meals are legendary.

Thank you everyone who participated. You are all an inspiration to me. It was wonderful to meet the AmeriCorps from the other states (oh yeah, have I mentioned I'm an AmeriCorps?) as well as the volunteers who just felt the need to be here and help. I've learned a lot this week about how to build but I also learned that there are others committed to the same principles I've dedicated this year to, and that helps me a lot. Thank you.

Just a few candids of the volunteers for the week.There were many more, and I'll try to share those soon. I guess since it's my blog, you have to suffer a few photos of me - my mom likes to see them.