Friday, August 05, 2011

Once in a lifetime kinda thing

This week I got an opportunity that is a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity. You see, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition decided to help a veteran and his family in Ottawa, KS. They are a very deserving family and the dad suffers from PTSD. Loud noises can set him into a panic attack, so the family really needed a place in the country. And Extreme Makeover decided to step in and help them out.

I was trying to think of when I could volunteer but registration was always full with volunteers and so I didn't think I was going to get a chance. Then, I saw a post on Facebook that they were needing volunteers Thursday morning from 2am-8am.

So, I called Dannie and asked her if she would want to go with me. Luckily, Mimi was off on Thursday so she would be able to watch the kids for me if I needed to sleep after my shift. And since we decided we had better get there early to be sure we could volunteer, Dannie and I showed up at midnight. We decided to try and be brave and pull an all-nighter. (I am much to old for that now!)

We arrived at midnight and signed our waivers and received our hard hats. (Those cannot possibly be flattering on ANYONE.) They told us to go to the next tent to start working.

I guess I was hoping we could do more to help- like painting or something hands-on. But, they mostly have professionals do that and they weren't to the point of painting yet anyway. So we got to take bottles of water and gaterade around, then breakfast, more water, ice cream, etc. Then we picked up the trash. It was a lot of fun to see how fast they were working. A lot changed in just the time that we were there (even with the storm that came in).

I think the house is supposed to be done on Saturday. We are going to try and go to the reveal if possible. It was great to do my part in helping, even though I didn't feel like I was much help!

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