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Ahh Spring . . . grass greening up, redbuds in bloom, and time for the 27th annual GPC Mission Trip!
Faithful volunteers started arriving at First Presbyterian Church in Cumberland late afternoon/early evening on Easter Sunday. Those who arrived by 6:30 p.m. joined together for a festive kick-off meal at the Applebee’s in LaVale. Guess where everyone in LaVale who wants to eat out on Easter evening goes? Although the service may have taken a little longer, that just meant more quality reunion time for us.
Anticipation was high when the sun shone brightly on Monday morning. Our group was divided into two work teams: one assigned to a house on Race Street where we had worked last fall, and the other tackling a new assignment at a house on Eastern Avenue.
The “Race Street Rascals” spent the day getting down and dusty while mudding and sanding drywall in the dining room and stairway hallway and replacing the kitchen’s suspended tile ceiling. With all faces appropriately masked, we became one with the drywall dust and spray paint fumes from painting the metal grid of the suspended ceiling. We thoroughly enjoyed unmasking during an al fresco lunch in a nearby park gazebo. The team of Carol Anderson, Alexandra Parker, Lucille Baur, Elisa McClelland, Maxine & Bob Aldridge, and David Mecklenberg all agreed that it was a very productive first day.
And there were the antics of the “Eastern Avenue Engineering Experts.” They started by removing the old, slightly rusty roof supports on the front and back porches, through a combination of unscrewing and Sawzall use, using jacks to support the roof in the interim. They then started replacing the supports with wooden uprights, 4x4s. They also got a start on the horizontal railings around the porch. Steve Ward, Bob Aldrich, Fletcher Tukes, Bruce Andrews, Abby Lindstrom, and Stuart Morrison had a very good first day and look forward to continuing the second day.
As exciting as our first day was, we really missed our Mission Trip buddies Maxine and Jerry Brown, Fred Hebron, and Charlotte Spencer. They are in our hearts as they continue to mend and tend to family health challenges.
