As we sit here glued to the jubilation on the Watertown and Boston streets, we are all reminded of the spirit of community and the good that can happen when we all come together.  That has been incredibly evident the past three days as the YAWP students have taken on the devastation caused by Huuricane Sandy.  They have pulled up floors, tugged down ceilings, cleaned out crawl spaces, and left not a single mold spore in their path! And, the best part, they did all of this without a single complaint -- well, maybe just a couple of comments about how much they loved their Tyvek suits!

We have long thought that this group is special, but now we know they are beyond special -- they are compassionate, funny, hard-working, smart, a delight to be with, and, tonight, very tired!  The people at All Hands Volunteers  have all talked about what amazing workers these students are - no task was too little or too big.

Tomorrow, we head into Manhattan to experience a bit of the city and to follow the great scavenger hunt created by Cami.  After a few hours in the city we will head to Orono with a very tired, but outstanding group of young people.  YAWP has once again lived up to its name... Young Adults with Pizzaz!  We are all so very proud of them and all they have done this week. 

Connie, Ed, Cami, and Sam

Another great day with the YAWPers!

Today we had a couple new projects from All Hands Volunteers so we had to swap the groups around a little.  Reid, Rory, Kelsey, and I headed up to East Rockaway to spend the day in a basement working on, you guessed it, mold remediation.   I think we all were thinking it would be a nice change from ripping up floorboards and tearing down ceilings.  Although it wasn't quite as physically demanding, it certainly wasn't more glamorous.

Our house belonged to a woman named Diane, who quite excitedly told us of how the water came up to shoulder height in the basement and "it just poured in like Niagra FALLS, just like NIAGRA FALLS!!" (subsequently exposing Kelsey to her first Long Island accent... one of the MANY hysterical conversations we had today!) But she also how her husband didn't think the storm would be that bad.  That Hurricane Irene had the same warnings and nothing that bad happened.  That they should park their cars in the bank parking lot a few blocks away because it was at a higher elevation... only about three feet higher.  They ended up losing both cars and whatever was in the basement.  How the insurance adjusters, who were flown in from some midwest corporate headquarters, overlooked so many details as they rushed from claim to claim.  Thousands and thousands of them... Diane and her husband were just one.  This was why they needed help from All Hands Volunteers.  Understandably they were upset about their loss, but I couldn't help but think about the house we were working in yesterday, how there was nothing left to it really, and how we stripping it completely so they could rebuild.  Diane's house seemed, well, lovely... other than the mold issue in the basement.  There is such a range of nightmarish stories from Superstorm Sandy (and Hurricane Katrina, and Irene, and all the others).  They are all so personal and so real and so incredibly important to each person affected.  This was Diane's story and her home... and we were there to help her.

We spent the first half of the day prepping the basement for the treatment.  This consisted of removing every nail and staple from the exposed wall studs and beams, vacuuming everything up, and wrapping anything that needed protection with plastic and duct tape... electrical outlets, the fuse box, furnace, washer/dryer, etc...  After lunch we started the actual mold remediation which entailed spraying a foam soap to clean and somehow stops the mold and mildew, then physically scrubbing every square inch of floor, walls, beams, studs, joists to make sure it is all gone for good.  Follow this with a power wash, a commercial grade wet-vac, and five industrial sized fans and you are pretty much done.  It was all pretty wet and sloppy stuff... and the scrubbing got kind of messy, but all in all the day went by quickly and we could see our efforts paying off.  Diane was especially thrilled and appreciative.  I think the four of us were every bit as thrilled and appreciative when we got to take off our Tyvek suits!

Tonight, after we all regrouped and cleaned up at the hotel, we went to a restaurant about ten minutes away.  All of us were stretched around one long table sharing stories from the day as we ate... and laughed... and laughed some more.  When I looked down the table, I couldn't help be impressed with each one of these students.

We live in a pretty mixed-up world, but no matter how crazy it seems, even on a week that began with such tragedy and heartbreak in Boston, I can't get discouraged when I see these kids together working, playing, laughing, giving, making a difference... These kids are fantastic!!

Rest easy folks, we are in good hands!

Day 3

We had another delightful day of gutting and mold remediating.  We were split up again into three different sites, site 1 was Laura, Ben S., Ben L, Jameson, Adam, Connie and Cami; site 2 was Sam, Rory, Kelsey and Reid; and site 3 was Brooke, Carrissa and Ed. 

My group did some of the hardest work I've ever seen and even Laura, who is nursing a bum knee after surgery, put in and insane amount of work.  They tore up two floors, three ceilings, stood in disgusting crawl spaces under the house and pulled up old insulation and rotting boards, and of course bundled and dispersed of all of the trash and junk they created from all of their work, and they did all of this with smiles on their faces and just a few antics.  One of these antics took form in creatively redesigning the Tyvec suits after Ben L. ripped a hole in the backside of the suit...the boys decided to follow along (and help Ben not feel so isolated, alone in his suit) and so made some strategically planned rips in their suits and then, of course, willingly posed for a picture (or three or four).  

We had the chance to chat with the home owner a bit at this site and Doc, the home owner, explained that the water reached four feet throughout his house, destroying most of the first floor.  Doc was incredibly grateful and very, very sweet to us, and promised that if we return tomorrow, "pizza or whatever is on me!" 

After an 8:30a.m.-4p.m. day of hard labor we decided that we HAD to stop for some much deserved ice cream (shhhhhh, don't tell the other groups), so we found a cute little ice cream shack in Long Beach and each indulged in a lovely cone (if anyone asks, you know nothing).

We reunited with the two other groups back at the hotel and headed out for dinner at the Harvest Diner in Westbury.  The Harvest Diner was a HUGE hit with the YAWPers with over fifty options on the menu (we do have a few picky, ahem, specific eaters).  Tonight was also a red letter night of eating for some of the YAWP boys--I have never seen anyone eat as much as some of these YAWP boys, tonight I think the winning prize went to Jameson followed closely by Adam and Ben Lovejoy... goodness these boys must have bottomless pits for their stomachs and the fastest metabolisms in the East.  On our way out of the Harvest Diner the waitress asked us where we were from and why we were there, we explained and she was overcome with gratitude and kept remarking that she couldn't believe how many people still needed help.  It's funny, I think because it's not a warm weather climate the destruction just isn't as evident because people haven't moved half of their earthly belongings to their front yards, but the need is still here.  Every time we talk to someone here we are reminded of how devastating Sandy was and how much people here still continue to struggle. That's all for tonight, tomorrow is our last day " on the job".

See you oh so soon!

Cami

Day two... part deux.

Indeed it was a long day of hard, hard work... but we all kind of had a feeling it would be.   After we all finally found our way to the All Hands headquarters and we received our assignments, Kelsey, Laura, Ben and I headed to a house about 6 blocks away.  As one of the designated gutting/renovation teams, we knew it would entail doing some damage.  As we learned from past experience volunteering in New Orleans, the first step is always to strip the interior down to the studs, even making sure that every last nail has been pulled so they can then start the mold remediation process.  Once that happens, the site should be clean and ready for reconstruction.  What we were not prepared for was the joy of wearing Tyvek suits, breathing masks, and protective goggles that seemed predisposed to fog up at the most inconvenient moments.  

Our crack team had basically two jobs. (1) Pry up huge pieces of plywood flooring, exposing only support beams and remove every nail, and (2) pull down slats in the ceiling to reveal the studs and (one more time) remove every nail.  What we weren't really quite ready for was the shower of old, crumbly insulation that would come down on us every time we tugged down a slat in the ceiling.  Thus finally appreciating the fact that Tyvek suits come with lovely hoods.  Having donned the suit, pulled up the snug hood, and added the previously mentioned breathing mask and spectacular goggles, I was hermetically sealed into my suit of destruction.  However, the truth of the matter was that I looked like a giant dancing marshmallow wielding an enormous orange crowbar.  The other three looked much more professional and ready for work.

We actually got an enormous amount of work done... with both ceilings and floors cleared.  We still need to finish taking up the floor in the front room of the house, but that shouldn't take too much of tomorrow.  What DID get my attention was when our site supervisor (Dave) said that we will be spending a fair amount of tomorrow in the crawl spaces under the house.  I didn't have the heart to tell Laura, Kelsey and Ben about this.... maybe we will trade off with the mold remediation team.

At the end of the day, though, any unpleasantness of the jobs we are assigned really doesn't matter.  We are down here to help people get back into their homes.  On the drive in this morning, Reid was recording another segment of his video blog about the trip.  He asked me what we could expect today.  The answer was the same as it always is be it on a trip to Post-Superstorm Sandy Long Island or to Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.  We'll get some crappy jobs, but ultimately we are helping people who need it... and that's a really good thing.

It's late now and I am kind of rambling.  I am off to check on the kids one last time for the evening and then it is time for this happy camper to drift off to sleep too.  Another big day of more Tyvek suits tomorrow!!

Will post again soon.... and will add more pictures!!

~Sam

There is no more mold left on Long Island!! Jamison, Ben L, Adam, and I (Connie) took care of that today.  We sprayed, we scrubbed, we power washed, and we vacuumed! The house we worked on is in Oceanside and has been gutted on the first floor.  I can say that these guys are a well-oiled machine!  They don't have to wait to be told what to do, and they work HARD!  You would love having them as your neighbor. 

We had a great dinner at a Greek restaurant tonight -- complete with Rori's baklava and Jamison's truffle!  Everyone is pretty tired tonight -- off to bed!  And, yes, tomorrow is another day!! A good one!!!

Connie

Day 2- Rebuilding Begins

 We began our rebuilding today!  We started the day with a leisurely breakfast (ahem, make that, oh my goodness it's WHAT TIME??).  We left our hotel around 7:30 a.m. and drove for about a half an hour (we only got lost twice, er, three times) and finally reached the All Hands Volunteer headquarters in Long Beach housed inside a generous church that has given up their entire site to the All Hands Organization.  We had a brief orientation, signed some paper work, were given tshirts and then we headed out to our work sites.  We were divided into three groups, the mold remediation group--Adam, Ben L., Jameson and Connie; the first gutting and renovation group-Kelsey, Laura, Ben S. and Sam; and the second gutting and renovation group- Rory, Brooke, Carissa, Reid, Ed and myself.

I can only speak for my group, but it was a long day of hard, hard work (Sam will write about his day later).  The site we were on was a family's house that had about four feet of standing water on the first floor.  The house is a beautiful house and was gutted down to the studs by the previous group of volunteers.  Our site supervisor, Abigail, told us that today we would be removing all screws, nails and staples from the framing and then after that we would be ripping up all of the floor.  We spent the morning removing every darn staple, screw and nail in the whole house, it was a tedious task, but we got through it and then, after lunch we got to the ripping up of the floor!  Ed, poor, lovely Ed, spent his entire day in the bathroom hammering away at tile and removing fixtures.  I have to say these kids worked so hard.  Rory and Reid were demolition kings with their ability to rip up flooring. Brooke and Carissa gathered every piece of flooring into bundles of wood and hauled the bundles outside for the garbage truck to pick up.  It was an exhausting day, but at 4p.m. when the homeowner showed up to thank us and take a picture of us every tiring moment was more than worth it.

Day 1--lots and lots of van time

We departed from the Church of Universal Fellowship at 8:15 and despite Brooke's ENORMOUS duffle bag we managed to fit everything and everyone into two mini-vans!  Hooray!

We drove.

And drove.

And drove.

(Okay we stopped a few times--Kennebunk and at the I-90 rest stop.)

And finally, around 5:00 p.m., we arrived at our hotel in the middle of lovely suburban Long Island.  The kids unpacked, Jameson and Ben worked out (ambitious little buggers), and then at 6:30 p.m. we departed for a night of Italian food at Alfredos in Westbury, New York. 

Alfredos was quite the place, very local Long Island with pizza, calzones and garlic knots to die for!  We had a lovely leisurely meal and an order of two dozen garlic knots for the table.  (You can probably guess how we're all smelling right about now...riding in a van with us is just plain delightful!)

We finished our meal, roamed a bit around Westbury, and now we are back at the hotel --Jameson and Ben are working out again, they're impressive--and the rest of us are relaxing and about to engage in the rousing board game Quelf!  Tomorrow's an early morning--we're hitting the road by 7:30 a.m. to make sure we're on time for our site assignments!  It should be an exciting and powerful day!  We'll write more tomorrow, and have much more inspiring photos!

Cami

Welcome!

Hi All,

This is the new YAWP blog and will be updated daily with photos and postings during our trip.  T-minus 17 days until we leave on Tuesday, April 16!!  It's going to be a GREAT time!

Cami and Sam