PDA Mission Trip #33 (New Bern, NC) DAY 1

Written by Lucille Baur

Work begins! We always start off with a group meeting to learn a little about our homeowners and the type of work that needs to be done to their homes. During this trip we will be assigned to three homes. We’re calling them Miss T’s house, Darrin’s house, and the Boone house. Today we worked at Miss T’s, and Darrin’s houses. 

Let’s start with Miss T’s house. That’s where you’d find, fearless leader Fletcher Tukes, Edco Bailey (Mary Wasik, when she headed up the Prison Ministry (PM), recruited PM volunteers Edco and sometimes his wife Cecillia to come on our mission trips), Lucille Baur, Elisa McClelland, Laura Wilson, David Francis (also a recruit from the Bob and Mary Wasik days), Wendell Nelson, Pat Keziah, Maxine and Bob Aldridge (Maxine is the former Maxine Counihan member of GPC), and Jerry Brown. We had two top-priority jobs today, painting a small bedroom and installing a new front door. A coin toss was won by the women; and with Bob’s able assistance, we focused on the painting. It wasn’t just painting of course, first the room had to be cleared out, and the ceiling had to textured to become a “popcorn ceiling. (Every self-respecting HGTV-watcher knows that a popcorn ceiling is the first to go when redoing a house. But when a ceiling is in bad shape, it is a best practice. While they were holed up in a tiny bedroom, the other guys were planning, positioning, and restabilizing for the new front door installation. Suffice it to say that they were very happy when that job was successfully completed. The good news is that they are all still speaking to one another. 

Our friends at Darrin’s house included four men and a lady, Stuart Morrison, Dave Fosdick (former GPC member), Bruce Andrews, Dave Salak (Stuart’s friend), and Alice Alexander. Some might say it was an “electric” combination. But that’s only because their chores were all electrical in nature, rewiring sockets and light switches. Alice, a now retired long-term federal employee, said she learned a lot from the three engineers and Dave Fosdick, a retired electrical professional. They all agreed that their homeowner is great. He has been working on his house himself and with other PDA volunteer groups for quite a while now. Getting this important wiring work done not only brightened up his day, but will also brighten up his nights! 

Mission trippers voted most popular by a landslide were our cooks Mary Beth Lawrence, Yvonne Miller, and Barb Thorne. Do you know the expression, “An army travels on its stomach?” Well, so do we. Dinner was a tender roast chicken with potatoes, squash casserole, and a tantalizing cabbage dish. There were brownies and ice cream for dessert. Elisa likes to say, “We come to do good work and keep coming back for good food!” Well fortified, we are ready to see what tomorrow may bring.