By Lorrie Beck/Wichita Habitat for Humanity Volunteer
It’s always sad to see the week come to a close, but it’s been another wonderful adventure. It’s heartwarming knowing there are so many folks in this world who care more about others than themselves and their own situation and are willing to come together to give complete strangers a hand up!
If you designate a day as “successful” by the amount of work completed, well … today on the Carter Work Project in Nashville probably wouldn’t be a “good” day.
However, the group of volunteers assigned to House #3 worked well together on our three main tasks: windows, siding and roof / deck / sheathing.
At breakfast, it was announced that house photos would be taken on Thursday instead of Friday, which is typically when the individual house photos are taken with President and Mrs. Carter. Rats … I didn’t wear one of the Carter Work Project 2019 shirts and I didn’t have one in my bag. In the group photo I’m wearing an Arkansas River Trash Roundup t-shirt and some paint-spattered shorts. And unless you zoom in on the photo a whole lot (I’m on the left side, standing on a pile of lumber, sort of all by myself), you can’t really tell how scuzzy I look!
Due to the Carters’ current health conditions, they met with homeowners under the food tent following lunch, where each homeowner received their Bibles autographed by the Carters.
Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks – along with Habitat for Humanity’s CEO, Jonathan Reckford – went house to house, posing for photos with each homeowner and volunteers. In the non-high resolution photo, my lower face is obscured by Garth Brooks’ hard hat!
Despite a shortened afternoon, we got a lot accomplished, especially when the roofing crew was pulled off to focus on installing siding. Apparently it would cost the Greater Nashville Habitat for Humanity affiliate more to have the siding installed versus the roof work. So, siding will get priority until finished.
I’m confident we’ll have all the windows trimmed out and siding installed by mid-morning Friday and the roofing crew may be able to resume their work!
On Friday, we’ll be released a bit early so we can return to the hotel and get cleaned up before making our way over to the Grand Ole Opry for the Closing Ceremony.
A shout out to the Carters and Trisha and Garth for spreading the “gospel” of Habitat for Humanity!
