by adminuucm

ASP Blog Update #10

Post from Friday:

On the morning of our last work day at AS another church led a devotional featuring the bible story about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. We have all been living into the role reversal of being the ones who serve vs those who are served, being the teens doing the bulk of the work, being the adults who have to step back to allow the kids room to step up.

Noses to the grindstone, we finished up our projects!! The ramp project group finished the spindles up by midmorning and spent the rest of the day mitigating a couple new issues that popped up as well as getting the bathroom prepped for the plumber to come next week. Continue reading →

by adminuucm

ASP Blog Update #8

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The 9th grade crew has been working on two different projects for Virginia, a homebound homeowner and her adult son, Richard. One project involves building a ramp and installing railing spindles to improve ease of access, and the other is to work underneath the floor of a bathroom to fix structural problems before installing a new toilet and bath. Today the crew got really close to being done with all those spindles and finally? closed up “the hole,” as it is affectionately called, in the bathroom.

The 11th grade crew is working on a project for homeowners Carl and Jessica, 6 year old Blake, and 4 year old Charleigh. They are tasked with prepping (wrapping/insulating) the exterior of their house for the addition of new siding as well as a new window installation. One side of the house butts up against a fence and has an air conditioner in the way, which makes the workspace extra tight. This crew celebrated finishing up the front side insulation today which involved lots of angled cuts and small pieces to measure.

Tonight ASP provided a delicious picnic dinner in a nearby park where the kids got to burn off some extra energy and go swimming. (How the youth have any energy left after working hard on these extremely hot and humid days is still baffling to the fearless, and tired leaders.)

Tomorrow is our last work day and we are all anxious to challenge ourselves to finish up as much as we can before passing the work onto new ASP crews who will take over where we leave off next week.

by adminuucm

ASP Blog Update #7

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The kids have been having a lot of fun bonding. Part of what kids do is make memes and Ellen made a meme of Henry which references stranger things because they lovingly call Henry the economy eleven (bc he has hair like eleven and can lift big things but not true superpowers). They were hoping the meme would make the blog!

The rest of the photos are probably self explanatory 🙂

by adminuucm

ASP Blog Update #6

We began Wednesday with the group sharing the UU principles, our chalice lighting, and a reading as part of morning devotions and a way to let others know a bit about our faith.

After breakfast and chores, we headed to our respective worksites for what turned into a productive day! Yes, a chunk of time for each team was spent undoing work from previous days, and the outdoor crews were delayed by a midday thunderstorm, but all in all, we returned feeling pretty successful!

At the evening program, we learned more about ways the community is coming together and trying to revitalize as well as the vital role affordable housing plays in this equation.

After the program, we took a drive to the picturesque Kingdom Come State Park and ended the day with treats at the Dairy Hut.

The youth are in the groove on the construction projects, and all are finding new strengths and ways to cooperate. They are also getting pretty comfortable being together at this point, which means both increased connection and increased goofiness. Helping the kids find an appropriate mix of the two has allowed the fearless adult leaders the opportunity to love, laugh, and set limits. 😉