The Big Stick

I took an unannounced, spontaneous vacation to Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico (pronounced wa-ha-ka, wa-ha-ka, may-he-ko).

Oaxaca is a lot like Biloxi, only the "Big Stick" is bigger.

How novel to post from off-base!

I'll be back tomorrow. Hopefully there'll be an airport IRA / love-run person. Where's old-man Steve whenya need'im?

The trip cost a total of $1300, resulting in a net income gain over the last five months of [negative] $ -1292.

I did save money by squatting in places not spatially safe from sporadic rifle fire and explosions somehow connected to an annual teachers' strike in August. Such squatting is not conducive to a restful vacation, however.

If I accidentally lose negative thirteen-hundred dollars in a locker room, do I gain money?

Don't plan on having an easy time with U.S. Customs Agents when traveling into the U.S. without baggage. Also, nobody accepts cash these days. I thought that was illegal.



Marco X (Utica, NY; utica@riseup.net; http://hamilton.facebook.com/photos.php?id=4501815&l=27880 )

Join the "Hands On Gulf Coast Biloxi" group on Facebook!

I'm tentatively planning on no longer posting on this blog in order to give more attention to the "Hands On Gulf Coast Biloxi" facebook group and my own future socio-psycho-political blog.

Cheers.

Haiku

Well Blue 6 left this morning. Warriors may not be on time and they may not be able to spell, but they sure can work! They also write haikus ... at least Tori did. In addition to leaving us blue milk, a huge wooden warrior W held upon the loft wall with a chain, and pictures of the team with their warrior names, Tori left us a collection of her haikus, read at various dinners.

1.
the drywall darlings
playing limbo at Craig's house
one grand sheet rock day

2.
to me your humphrey
sheet rockin at craig's house, yea
you are the mad note

3.
maeve mudding master
taking red 6 under your arms
put some soft rock on

4.
detail work today
playing dodgeball with great stuff
estrogen rematch

5.
hands on where i be
mudding and dry walling, too
i'll miss it no doubt

Thanks, Tori!!

:: Chris ::

Snake in a Bucket

We began developing the concept for a sequel to the much heralded film, Snakes on a Plane. We're calling it Snakes in a Bucket. Well, there was really only one snake in the bucket. Out and John Henry Beck, Karissa and company continue to prepare the community garden plots for an early October planting. Reinforced by a new NCCC team, the plots have been double dug much faster than with the skeleton crew of two or three park regulars.

While investigating where and how to handle an extension to the current irrigation system, there was some excitement by one of the trees on the north side of the park. Guillermo, Karissa, and Brandon found a garden snake. Wow! The rebuild of the park has brought back residents and wildlife!

It was a beautiful green and orange. Too bad I didn't have the camera to get a photo. The one day. Ah well. Brandon tried to play Crocodile Hunter and grab the snake by its tail. When it wrapped around his arm, he let go. Guillermo ran to get a bucket - hence the name for the sequel. When the snake was safely in the bucket, we brought it around to show all the other folks working at the park.

Ali wanted to start Hands On Snakes. I said, "No." Animal Rescue Ben (Waldman), who tirelessly traps cats at night to get them help, who has campaigned to have pets microchipped, who rescued 27 puppies from death in Jackson County, said, "I don't do snakes!" and ran away screaming ... actually, he didn't run away, he just walked away and said, "I do small animals."

So that was our fun at the park. A beautiful snake on a beautiful day.

:: Chris ::

The little stuff

Last night I was struggling for a blog post until the EDP happened. I just struggled to write some boring stuff about dealing with money here at Hands On - like how tedious it is to deal with receipts, etc. - but a random thought interrupted me.

We've had a bit of a shift in eating over the past two months. Rather than get all our food from Winn Dixie, which is super expensive, we've gone with a wholesaler. The quality of the food has not met the high standard of volunteers who lived under the wonderous cullinary concoctions of some very creative cooks, but we've made improvements and strides. Tonight's dinner, cooked by Monica, was awesome ... falafel, pita, grilled marinated chicken, yogurt sauce, feta-tomato-onion salad, and hummus ... mmmmmm ....

But even better is that Crystal, our kitchen overseer, found a produce vendor. We received our first shipment a couple days ago ... raspberries, strawberries, kiwis, grapefruit, mushrooms ... ahhhhhhh.

The greatest joy has been watching the volunteers devour the box of kiwis. Folks will just gobble up a couple at a sitting, for snack, for dinner, for dessert. It's amazing how something so simple as fresh, tasty fruit can have such a huge impact on morale ... just look at this happy volunteer!


:: Chris ::

Holey Schmoley

This camp ready to throw down on September 29th. Tonight's EMERGENCY DANCE PARTY was but a fortaste of the scope of our upcoming prom. Im gonna start stretching and trying out new dance moves in the bathroom mirror when nobody is looking. Im going to find ways to freak out like i've never freaked out before. I'll learn the worm. Im gonna not speak for 3 days before the prom so I can sing every last word of every radical tubular song that Dr. G pumps out at the top of my rested lungs and voice box. Im gonna get the biggest, poofiest dress there ever was and make my hair go in directions only the Super Mega Aqua Net can control. Has it ever happened before? Dunno. Is it going to rock? Si, senor. Claro. We are going to Degrassi Jr. High. We are Thriller. We are pre-crack Whitney. There may not be a Delorian in the lot but via transcendental medition we will spontaneously create a fleet of them. 88mph and 1.21 GWhz into the most stellar party that Biloxi has ever witnessed. Be there or be skwair.
Sincerely,
Everyone Here

I didn't know what to write (EDP)

I spent a few minutes writing some stuff about the great work that happened today. Blue 6 Warriors finished dry walling Craig's house, we looked at some new work, we removed a huge (600+ lbs) concrete block from one of the garden plots, and we got most of the green house finished. I wondered how I would make this interesting and fun ...

Then I went inside for the second round of the music tournament. See, at dinner, Dr. G started the third music tournament. That sentence gives Dr. G. so little credit for the amazingly creative idea of an 80's music tournament, with advancement and voting modeled after World Cup soccer groups, in which the winning song will become the 80's prom song.

The first round of the tournament was fine. Decent music, close results. The second round, mind blowing. It was like watching the Brazilian national team play soccer against the Biloxi High School junior varsity team. Though I (finally) chose a good song for the tournament - Talkin' in your sleep by the Romantics - I was summarily trounced by Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Total Eclipse is a Dan Sherman and Dr. G. song. They sing the duet. It was rousing beyond belief. So much so, that they both acknowledged it was blatant cheating - like Diego Maradona's Hand of God goal in one World Cup. Everyone in the main hall was dancing, singing, or writhing (on the clean floor ... thanks Monica!) with musical passion. Even I, stoic, bean counting de Veer who was once asked, "Do you ever laugh?" couldn't help but sing along.

The song also eclipsed the arrival of the new NCCC team. Imagine if you just walked into your second spike and you see a bunch of young volunteers singing 80's music and dancing around with unabashed enthusiasm and joy - we basically looked like party animals. What would you do? They just stood in the kitchen doorway dumbfounded. Astrid and I both saw stares of wonder ... wondering, "What the heck have I gotten myself into?"

By the end of the evening, though, they joined in the Emergency Dance Party that had been declared. After the tournament songs were played, Dr. G. continued to spin sweet tunes of 80s goodness. We just kept on rockin' on.

After the dance energy was spent, he tallied the scores. Landslide. Of a possible 99 maximum points (33 voters times 3 points max for voters top vote), Total Eclipse received 88. Of the total points available (198, 6 points per voter times 33 voters), Total Eclipse took 44%. That's ridiculous. How does the statistician explain such an anomaly? The performance. Dan and Dr. G. simple stole the votes.

Awesome night. Glad the new NCCC team is here and we're glad they got to see a genuine Hands On moment.

:: Chris ::

Hands On Gulf Coast

Due to a number of recent departures, and lots of rain the mood around Hands On has been a little low, but a spontaneous post dinner Monday night gathering has inspired just the cure. The time has finally come my friends, for Hands On Prom 2006. This 80s extravaganza, themed Love in the Eye of the Storm, will occur on Friday, September 29th in the base common room. Prom Committee will be co-chaired by Eddie and Monica. Sub-committees include Music & Entertainment (chairs- Guillermo and Dan Sherman), Decorations (chairs- Astrid and Karissa), Refreshments (chair-Suzanne), Prom Court (chairs- Araceli and Brannon), Photos (chairs- Carrie and Chris), Keepsakes (chair- Falcon), and Clean up (chair- Luc). The rest of us just need to get our best 80's dresses, suits, and hairstyles ready for a night never to be forgotten...

Weekend Work

Over the weekend, we had a crew of folks from Outback Steakhouse come through. Most of them had some sort of construction experience and helped out on a couple of our projects. Luc was hanging doors when the Outback guy (sorry I never got your name) showed up and said, "I've been a contractor since 1971." Hmm, I think we can use you ... so Luc got some help hanging the doors and he was pleased.

Brian also got a crew for Mr. George's house. Brian Deubert does our framing and rough carpentry work. He was ecstatic to have a couple burly men who had lots of framing experience work with him on the house. That house needs a lot of tender loving care. By tender, we mean really tender. Lots of jacking, installing headers, and getting the load from the roof to the floor without having the rafters sag like wet spaghetti noodles. Unfortunately, again, I didn't get to see the folks this weekend - I was too busy getting whooped on the soccer field - but I did see the results of their work this morning.

Brian was happy to have learned a lot from his crew and to have some pretty serious work done to Mr. George's house. The floor was leveled (the one in the photo) and lots of new wood was installed. The frame looks like its coming along. I'm excited. We've had Mr. George on our books as a client needing lots of help for a long time. It's great to get him to the point that electrical, plumbing, heating & AC, and mechanical can all come through to do their thing.

The next challenge for Mr. George isn't necessarily finding the skilled labor, it's finding the funding. He's pretty much run through his FEMA money and his insurance money. Sheli, our case manager, has been with Mr. George from the beginning. It's tough to only be able to help a little, but she's not going to let Mr. George slip through the cracks.

Thanks Outback for the help! Thanks Sheli and Brian for keeping with Mr. George.

:: Chris ::

Soccer Tournament

This Saturday (16 Sep 06), we played in a soccer tournament. Sally, the Pastor of Beauvoir Methodist, asked us if we would field a team. I asked folks at a dinner meeting if we wanted to play. Charley Burks jumped up for joy and said ... well, I can't write what he said, but I'll paraphrase it, "Yes, we would love to play a friendly game of soccer with the latino community".

Hands On volunteers - hard working, hard playing, cigarette smoking volunteers who have poured so much soul into rebuilding Biloxi that they have neglected their physical fitness - against teams fielded from the latino community, upon whose feet soccer balls are permanently attached between the ages of 2 months and 120 years?

Yes, your Hands On volunteers stepped up to the plate, I guess there's no plate in soccer, but I don't really know any soccer metaphors. We approached the soccer game with the same sort of enthusiasm and resolve that we approach all our problems with. Unfortunately, enthusiasm and determination do not make up for a decided lack of skill.

Perhaps against other Biloxi teams, we'd have done OK, but not against the 18 - 24 year olds Our Lady of Fatima fielded. They had a couple folks who should have been playing on some serious Division I NCAA teams. Anyway, we had fun.

The MVP of the game we played against Fatima was Eddie Sherman. He got off a plane a few hours earlier and agreed to be our goalie. Though 14 or so shots got past him, that's not his fault. They, the other team, were really good. Carrie said, "You arrived just in time." "What to get rockets launched at me all day?"

And launch rockets they did. Despite the score differential, one of the Fatima players (one of the best ones) came to Eddie after the game and asked if he would play keeper for them tomorrow (Sunday) in the final. "Why do you want me?" "That ball I kicked was going in, except you stopped it."

So, Hands On gets its props despite the loss. Better luck next year. Neal, Naomi, Brian Shingledecker, Meryll Davis, Nick Wilson, Krissy, Cassidy, and a few other folks whose names I can't remember, you all need to come back for next year's Festival Latino!!! We can win!

:: Chris ::

Projects, People, Parting

Another day, another mural, another group of skilled volunteers who came to Biloxi and made a difference in the life of a local.

I spent some of the day doing the admin work that I'm supposed to do. It can be really interesting at times, but it hardly compares to working with an artist. William is a fabulous artist and Dan has a way with kids. Together, the dynamic duo motivated Hands On volunteers and kids from the Boys and Girls Club to paint the side of Le Bakery. Talk about amazing. Each time I came to visit, I loved the mural more. The creative energy that exists in all of the folks who worked on the mural inspired me to have fun taking photos.


Moving from the mural, we stopped by another of my favorite projects ... JHB Park. Karissa was in the skid steer and Astrid was on the tractor. Talk about crazy. Astrid on a tractor. It wasn't the first day, but dang. Astrid on a tractor! I always think of the Pace Picante sauce commercial where the rough and tumble cowboys are sitting around a camp fire reading where the picante sauce was manufactured. One of them shouts "New York City?!" in alarm and surprise. You might wonder where the connection is, but Astrid's from ... "New York City?!"

The park is moving along. The drainage channels between the plots are almost all filled with gravel. The sod is turning a nice green in the places that get regular water. The trees and shrubs look beautiful. It makes me proud to be close to the volunteers who make this park an awesome place to be.

Moving from one great project to the next, there was the Thornton's House. You might ask, who are the Thorntons? Are they a new family. We know you've been working on the Thorton's house ... except some of us can't spell, namely me, and so I've been incorrectly spelling Pat and Sandy's name. Ah well. At least Luc can hang doors in the house. We're getting to the finishing stages, but it will be a while before the Thornton's have dishes in those beautiful oak cabinets!

The day ended on a bit of a downer because Paul Hammond, a super guy, is leaving tomorrow. He is an older gentle man who worked in artsy non-profits. He's got construction background from building stage sets. He's got management from running non-profits. He's got personality and caring from being a great human being.

I rarely say stuff in the meetings about folks, despite how I feel about them. I feel more comfortable with writing. Seeing Paul go is deeply saddening. He is dedicated, committed, compassionate, caring, and knowledgeable. The organization always loses when folks like Paul leave. Luckily, people with personalities like Paul become part of the woodwork and leave an indelible mark on the people they meet. So despite Paul's physical departure, his spirit and contributions to each of our lives remain vital parts of the culture at Hands On. He joins the ranks of the recently departed (no, not dead, just gone from Hands On), who include John Harlow and Niko Poore. We'll miss you ... promise to get a couple MOU's, an org chart that works, and the Thorton's house finished while you're away.

:: Chris ::

Murals by day, murals by night

Playing with paint is always fun. After July's mural project with the Boys and Girls Club, Dan Sherman was exhausted but happy. He set his sights on the next project, a wall of our favorite local business - Le Bakery.

Fast forward to 13 September and the latest mural project is underway with the Jackson (MS) artist William Goodman, VI. The metaphorically inauspicious clouds that hung over the 12th materialized into grey, water laden clouds that plagued the mural painters sporadically throughout the day.

Early in the day, William was able to spray paint the outline of the design. By early afternoon, most of it was complete and the small team of painters had begun filling in the squares. The threat of rain hung in the clouds all day, but struck with guerilla-like intensity and surprise in the late afternoon. With sun shining 500 feet away, the rain washed out the freshly painted colors that hadn't dried yet.

Not to be bested by a little runny paint, Hands On volunteers go the distance. So after dinner, a crew of ten or so people went back to the mural to make their best effort to have the wall prepared for the 13 or so kids from the Boys and Girls Club who were supposed to arrive at 9am to paint their pictures inside some of the bigger squares.

Sue, one of the owners of Le Bakery, was out watching her wall transform from drab white primer into an awesome array colors. She bought pizzas for the crew; her excited smile revealed the impact the progress was having on her.

I was excited, too. It was just one of those nights in East Biloxi where the air carried a cool breeze and a focused intensity of volunteers hell-bent on making a positive impact on Biloxi's visible spaces. I sighed a sigh of joy that despite the rain and the sadness of yesterday's departures, we've still got the drive and enthusiasm that helps residents and business bounce back from Katrina's devastation.

:: Chris ::

Inauspicious

Hmm, it's never fun to write about frustrating stuff, but yesterday (12 Sep) was one of those days where a couple projects had special joys to treasure. Take the roofing job on Division St. One of the volunteers was installing some flashing in a difficult to reach spot and floop ... deep cut to the middle finger. She needed to get to the emergency room for five stitches.

Over at the park (John Henry Beck Park), there was the gravel delivery. "Astrid, I don't think this is the right gravel." It was the grey limestone, fine-cut. It looked like the kind of gravel we had in the backyard that turned into something like concrete. Definitely not the kind of gravel you want to allow water to drain away from your community garden plot.

Astrid called to check on the order. She relayed that the concrete company somehow keyed the order incorrectly and the gravel we got was too fine. They would bring different stuff and ... yes, they would take back the 14 tons of unsuitable gravel. Luckily, the folks hadn't spread too much of the gravel into the channels between the garden plots. It only took a couple hours to dig it all out.

To top it all off, John Harlow and Russell Freeman left camp. John left for good, Russell for just a couple weeks. Everyone was sad to see the beautiful John-Boy go. He was a constant, hard-working, heckling, fun-loving presence at camp. He and Niko rebuilt John Henry Beck Park. The send off was sombre. A group of friends gathered around and just moped together in the misery of losing a best friend. Only Russell was able to suggest, "Anyone want to shot-gun a Bud Water?"

It made for a sad mood at camp. John, I'm proud of the work you've done, the commitment you made to Biloxi and your comrades at Hands On. I hope to hear you on NPR (or at least about you on NPR) sometime soon! Good luck and we're happy that "This Machine Still Lives".

:: Chris ::

Clockin' lots uh dollahs

Well, my day is never really exciting, but today was a bit of an exception. After waiting months, literally, for the permanent tags for our cars, they arrived today! I was the only one excited about the plates, but that's OK. It's my job to get excited about the little stuff.

I didn't even get a chance to check on the progress at the Thorton's house today. Tomorrow ... after the Mud Run that Erika plans to do. ...

Hmm, boring entry because I spent my day working on an org chart and then spent my evening sifting through financial data that tells us how we spent our money. It's kinda interesting to look at the numbers. Despite not really wanting to do this stuff, I know I have a knack for it and I actually enjoy playing with databases. I found using Access much easier for manipulating the data than Excel! Any computer geeks out there want to comment?

Bottom line is that it's not cheap to run a place like this. ... I wish people with interesting stories would blog ...

:: Chris ::

Thorton's House, moving along

You know when you get a thumbs up from the site supervisor, you're doing a good job. As you can see, Luc is happy with the progress the team is making on Pat and Sandy Thorton's house.

Since mudding the house a couple days ago, the team has textured the walls, painted it with primer, painted two coats of finish paint, installed crown molding, and layed down the flooring.

Outside, Erika - our esteemed director - bought lots of dirt, mulch, and plants to make the outside look as beautiful as the inside. I was lucky enough to get to dig a hole and plant the Texas Sage plant.

In addition to the Hands On and AmeriCorps NCCC (Blue 6) volunteers working on the
house, the electrical contractor was in the house installing ceiling fans, light fixtures, and electrical outlets. At this point, I don't see big changes - like no walls to walls, no color to color - instead, I take pleasure in the small details.

It's neat to see the sockets ready for a face plate. In one room I noticed the plywood board and black plastic had been replaced with a window. "Who installed the window?" No one seemed to know. It must have been the window fairies.

Soon, we'll be hanging interior doors and finishing the crown molding. By mid-September, we hope to be done with the house and have the Thortons moved in by the end of the month!

:: Chris ::

Hippie Tom

Wild Bill is another one of those charachters. You know, like Hippie Tom.

Hippie Tom was kind've a hippie. As he told everyone he met, he was somehow making money by going to graduate school for engineering. He was late twenties, shoulder-length hair, and from an affluentish Salt Lake City family. He absolutely despized liberal arts education. He really liked to work, he really liked to drink, and he really liked to complain. He also really liked tie-dye shirts, hitch-hiking, backpacking, wandering, and the Greatful Dead; that's where the "hippie" in "Hippie Tom" comes from. He really only got along with me. Nobody else cut him enough slack.

I can see how Mikenificent (aka Bearded Mike, aka Attorney Mike) might have had reason to not want to have anything to do with Hippie Tom; Mike related to me how he would not be able to fall asleep easily after Hippie Tom would crawl into his adjacent tent after telling Mike how much he (Tom) hated him. But Hippie Tom said that to everyone. Hippie Tom was never quite able to work out the delicate balance between working, "playing hard," and having to get up in the morning.

I've been told by Richie [f-word-ing] Wilson that I'm the second craziest person he ever met, second only to Estock, a crazy, Ayn-Rand-ish former-Soviet-Bloc civil-engineer who designed square buildings with no windows.

Wild Bill is just Wild Bill. He's wild. If he didn't drink a double-handful cocktail of solvents used to clean a floor of paint, I would really have no justification for why he's crazy. But he is crazy... in a likable way.

Wild Bill is friends with Fat Matt, which is a funny name.

Wild Bill looks forward to becoming certified to spray boric acid on the frames of gutted, sanded former/future homes. If there was one person I could choose to be in charge of spraying acid regularly, it'd be Wild Bill. After all, he was a KILZ paint-spraying master. He could weather a backfiring paint gun that left his face saturated with mold-killing primer like no one else. He said that it burns the eyes-- yeah, I'll bet it does.

Back to Hippie Tom... Animal Rescue Ben was in New Orleans recently, and he ran into Hippie Tom. I've long known that Hippie Tom was running his own one-man relief show by squatting at a former utilities plant. I've been wondering how he's doing. Apparently, as could be expected.

Animal Rescue called to Hippie Tom, who trotted up to Ben and greeted him. After a few niceities, Hippie Tom lifted up his shirt to reveal three fresh, inflamed wounds. "Look at this. I got stabbed three times the other day!" Hippie Tom then let his shirt fall back down and said "Yeah, that kinda thing happens 'round here. Well, I gotta go. Later."

I'm glad Hippie Tom's still kickin'. He guarantees a good weekend in New Orleans for $20. If you want his e-mail address, send me an e-mail.

The Mr. Thorton of "The Thorton House" used to play old-time-country music and bluegrass professionally. His "band's" played live for us a couple times. I used Animal Rescue's computer to record the last one. Everyting was just right about the recording with the exception that he may have set the sample rate to one fourth of the original quality. You can hear the recording at the link below. Cut and paste. The top one is a single mp3. The bottom one is a series of mp3s by track zipped together.

Oh yeah, Bicycle Ben got a new electric guitar. He got a super-sweet, brand new setup for $700. His guitar can be played acousticly for practicing (mic.ing?) and he has this awesome little vacuum tube amp. You know, the kind you're supposed to overdrive. Bicycle plays alotta Johnny Cash.

Gigagone.com seems to be super-sweet for one-click file hosting. There's more of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_one-click_hosters

I'm sorry I've ever used yousendit. Hopefully these are downloadable and much easier / faster to dowload.


http://www.gigagone.com/view/13840/country_blues_mx_2.mp3

http://www.gigagone.com/view/13858/zipped_country_bluegrass_mp3s.zip




Marco X (Utica, NY; utica@riseup.net; http://hamilton.facebook.com/photos.php?id=4501815&l=27880 )

Join the "Hands On Gulf Coast Biloxi" group on Facebook!

John Henry Beck Park

Well, 29 August came and went. We had a huge day, but no one wrote about it. I'm rectifying the situation with this post here.

Since early April, we've had two volunteers working on John Henry Beck Park in East Biloxi. They had a vision for a green space that the whole community could enjoy. From their initial interest in building a park, a plan developed in fits and spurts. By the time 29 August 2006 rolled around, Niko Poore and John Harlow waded through beauracracy heaped upon beauracracy, delays, lack of equipment, hot weather, and long days.

Despite the frustrations, on August 29th, it all came together. In honor of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the City of Biloxi, Hands On Gulf Coast, and KaBOOM all worked together to reopen the park. KaBOOM built a playground while lots of Hands On folks and community members layed sod to turn the brown park into a green oasis.

In recognition for their efforts, John and Niko received the President's Volunteer Service Award. For me, seeing the look of total surprise on their faces when they received their award put the icing on the cake. They deserve every bit of recognition they received and more. I'm proud of what John and Niko did for the park.

:: Chris ::

A good day to mud

This isn't really my project to comment on, but I'm going to do it anyway. It provides a little balance to Marco's commentary on interesting, yet not-project related activities.

For those of you new to the blog, this is an open forum for people at Hands On Gulf Coast to write their thoughts about any of the experiences they have down here.

That said, it's time to write about the Thorton house. The East Biloxi Coordination Center received a grant from an "anonymous" donor that everyone knows is [censored].

Pat Thorton and his wife live at 282 Graham Ave and are among the first families to receive money and labor to turn their house from a gutted shell into a fully functional home. Luc Lamarche (pictured above), son of the beloved Yvon Lamarche, is the site supervisor who has put his all into the project. Since the framing inspector gave the final OK on Wednesday last week, Luc has led the Warriors, NCCC team Blue 6 from Charleston, on a grueling journey of installing insulation, hanging dry wall, taping, and mudding.

I've simply been documenting the progress in the house. It's very, very exciting to see the bare studs turn into dry wall. Luc and his crew have put in long hours, but manage to maintain their excitement and enthusiasm for the project. What's exciting for me is that this will be the first of many houses we'll rehab in the course of the next year.

Chris (a.k.a., de Veer!)