Wayland to Waveland’s
‘Mission to Mississippi’
Day 7 -- Week 1 Wrap Up
MONDAY, OCT. 22, 2007 – WAVELAND, MA
From Cindy Lombardo, W2W Co-chair
Hi everyone,
It is late Monday night and the first week is coming to a close. In one week minus a day and a half of productivity due to heavy rains (5 inches today alone) we reached our goal! The 4 houses on Combel Street are framed, and all but one have the windows and sliders installed. The decking on the 2 houses on Maple St. and the 2 on Taranto St. is complete and ready for the next group of 23 framers who arrive tomorrow. The work completed this week was an enormous undertaking and all the planning that went into this project worked!!! We are on or a little ahead of schedule.
The rain here is the worst ever. The ground is red clay which sticks to your boots and everywhere. It is like walking in quicksand. We are trying to purchase sand or hay to help fill in the puddles in order to make it not so slippery. The team this first week worked more than 60 hours in hot, humid weather, warm sprinkles and drenching rains. All with smiles and everyone connected to the project should be commended.
We had fun at night as the Rebuilding Together group of 92 volunteers from all over New England arrived to work for one week in Waveland. Thanks to Tom Antonellis for introducing them to M2M, they are going to send volunteers to Ms. HAzel's house to finally install her flooring, help with the framing of our homes and do a little work at the Mayor's house. Last night all 130 of us crowded into the lobby bar to watch the Red Sox win! The energy and support for the team overwhelmed Mississippi. We know you all heard us cheering! Congratulations RS. (and Patriots). We got cell phone updates on Sunday afternoon as the Patriots trounced Miami.
This week the families who have been selected (7 so far) all showed up to help.
- Ken Cunningham and his 2 daughters worked cleaning out the trailers.
- John Harris shoveled mud and got the next 2 sites ready for the framers.
- Rose Luciano brought cold drinks and cried when she walked into the houses. The interior walls are up so you can really see how the houses will lay out.
- Michelle Paige visited and will work closely with us when our volunteer base is low.
- Eddie Peterson, a Waveland police officer is patrolling regularly our sites.
- The Blossoms came to say thank you and will continue to help out until they move.
- Destiny Tullos brought Gatorade. She is a bartender at a local bar and many of the guys went to visit!!
- Leslie Orange and her daughters delivered cold water and drinks to the guys as they worked.
- Kitty, Suzanne and Nancy delivered the freshest lunches daily and everyone was well fed.
So, thank you to everyone for your financial, emotional and overall support. We are gaining on our $1.6 million dollar goal, and we are confident we will reach it soon. This project could not become a reality without your help. Cathy, Lyn and Ann (click here to see Ann's photo album of her week in Waveland) were unbelieveable volunteers this week who set up the logistics operation in each trailer so we can transition from site to site smoothly. Thank youl
We are one week down with 13 more until we turn over the keys. Please spread the word about the project. Forward the Web site address to your family and friends. Having live video also helped the workers share their experience with their families.
Sincerely,
Cindy and Kathie
www.missiontomississippi.org
PS we are sharing a local press conference with the Rebulding team on Wednesday morning and hope we make national news. Watch the news.
Whole group shot... end of week 1 in front of one of the Combel St homes they framed.
Break time at Combel site, week 1.
Framing went very quickly until the weather turned foul.... very foul... huge rainstorm on Monday, Oct. 22 dumped 5-8 inches on the region.
Bright sun was the order of the day on day 3 or 4
Can't miss these three!
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