For the last 2 1/2 weeks we've been @ Shults-Lewis Child and Family Services just South of Valparaiso, Indiana. It's affiliated with the church of Christ and is a residence home off troubled teens. We have gone there for the last 4 years.
The greatest part of it is getting to know and make a difference in the lives of the kids. For some this is their last hope before they would end up in Juvenile Hall. Virtually all of them have issues with authority --- of any ilk. Many are the product of SEVERELY dysfunctional homes. One girls mom taught her to steal to get her mom drug money and her brother is the one that was giving the girl cocaine and LSD. Others have been physically and/or sexually abused.
Within two weeks they think of us as the grandparents they WISH they had. It's a joy to see the transformation in there attitudes.
For the most part Irene and the other ladies got a MONSTER rummage sale ready. We got there the 1st of September and the Children's homes big yearly fund raising day "annual day" as they call it was the 13th. The rummage sale items took up a whole gymnasium. New and used items of every kind have to be sorted by size or type. Then they have to be stacked and priced. It took 6 ladies 9 days 7 hours per day to get it ready.
I painted the office of one of the counselors Robin Egg Blue (3 walls) and purple. quick, guess: Is the counselor male or female?
The day before annual day all the men set up the 500 chairs and 100 tables for the vendor booths and auction area. It's a nightmare!
The rest of the 2nd week and Monday & Tuesday of this week 5 of us men spent our time putting together a large utility shed at resident home #5.
We got stuck leaving. it rained 8 inches in the 3 days before we arrived. It made it difficult to level our rig: the blocks we use under our jacks just kept pushing into the soft ground. Then, while we were the it must have rained another 10". It was a quagmire. It took us 4 hours to get out of the much.
As I write this we are in the parking lot of the Walmart in Effingham, IL. We have to be in Mission Texas on Monday to close on our brand new home.
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