Saturday, March 10, 2007

Team 21, University at Buffalo Underway!!

Loving the cellular Internet (thanks Brad)! We're cruising down I-71 headed for Cincinnati at 9:55am. Lots of rain, but this is an irrepressible group! Here's the picture from near midnight last night when most had arrived at Westerville Christian


We are driving straight through to Bayou La Batre, Alabama along this route and should arrive around 11:00 tonight.

Keep checking the blog. I'll load updates all the way down and have daily updates on our work during the week.

John McGuire

Monday, March 05, 2007

Help and tools needed for spring break trips

Please forward this request to distribute as widely as possible. We have two urgent needs to be resolved this week.

We need to collect tools or store gift cards to buy tools to send down with our first spring break team which leaves Saturday. We’re not picky, if you have two circular saws, get us your old one. As long as the tools are in operating order with a new blade. The list is below.

We are still in need of drivers 25 or over and construction team leads to accompany this group of college students. We have 44 students and the two “leads” who have volunteered. I’d like to have 2-5 more and will probably have to go down myself. Without these drivers, van rentals will cost us an additional $1,000 or more.

The first three teams are going to Bayou La Batre Alabama, to a church who is doing good work with the very few resources they’ve had. The next couple weeks are going to be a lot larger than they’ve had to support. There will be over a hundred volunteers. That'll be 15 work crews for reconstruction. Some will have their own tools, but many are college students and won't. I'd recommend they need to add the following list at a minimum to their inventory which can then be loaners to the community when there are less volunteers. We may not collect all of them, but I’m working on some other ways to help them out.

4 circular saws (cutting counter tops and other material)
4 sawsalls (general cutting)
9 electric or cordless drills (drywall and other screws)
1 jig saw (Mostly used for wood floor cutouts and countertops)
2 table saws
2 cutoff saws
4 drywall squares
Utility Knives
4 chalklines

Tools can be dropped at my house 5511 Copenhagen Drive, Westerville, Ohio 43081, preferably with some warning. I’ll also schedule a pickup day later in the week to come by with the truck to pick up tools if necessary.

If you would like to loan tools… you know the score. We can try, but can’t guarantee their return.

The safest bet would be to answer both needs listed above and then you can keep track of them yourself!

Thank you for your continued assistance and generosity.