A couple of updates:
*** Elliott Warren became ill earlier this week and Colleen Saxton from the Fleming Federated Church took his place.
*** Paul Riker, (United Third Methodist Church in Sodus) had joined our group about a week or so earlier, so our team of Volunteers in Mission is now 33.
A longer update - a month or so ago, I was contacted by Donna Blondel who had collected children's books from St. Michaels in Newark to send to a school in New Orleans. She asked if there was any way we could help her get the books they had collected to the Holy Rosary Academy in New Orleans. It was decided that each of us taking the plane could take a box of books as our second piece of luggage, if they were under 50 pounds each. Newark folks would take the boxes to the Rochester Airport and the folks from Holy Rosary would be in Gulfport to pick them up when we arrived.
Photo credit, Cathy Everett
*** Elliott Warren became ill earlier this week and Colleen Saxton from the Fleming Federated Church took his place.
*** Paul Riker, (United Third Methodist Church in Sodus) had joined our group about a week or so earlier, so our team of Volunteers in Mission is now 33.
A longer update - a month or so ago, I was contacted by Donna Blondel who had collected children's books from St. Michaels in Newark to send to a school in New Orleans. She asked if there was any way we could help her get the books they had collected to the Holy Rosary Academy in New Orleans. It was decided that each of us taking the plane could take a box of books as our second piece of luggage, if they were under 50 pounds each. Newark folks would take the boxes to the Rochester Airport and the folks from Holy Rosary would be in Gulfport to pick them up when we arrived.
Photo credit, Cathy Everett
Saturday, January 6th finally came. The day we'd been planning for since we left Vancleave last February. It was hard to believe that our trip was about to happen.
Bill Hall, Roy McCarthy, Brian Thiel and Dylan Thiel started out on Friday with our tools, snacks donated from local businesses, and their luggage. They drove straight through and arrived around noon.Those of us who were flying met at the airport at 10:00, checked in with 15 boxes of books (11 boxes of children’s books and 4 boxes of bibles from UTMC in Sodus for the Vancleave UMC to give to homeowners with whom they work) Everything went smoothly. Not a hitch. We got to Atlanta, the gate we had to find was only three away from where we landed, and arrived in Gulfport without any problems.
While we were in flight, Bill, Roy, Brian and Dylan arrived in Vancleave, unloaded their tools and luggage, then went to get a trailer full of tools lent to us by a Methodist church in Oneida. Then they went to the airport to pick up Paul. He had flown down earlier, as all the seats on our plane had been sold. They took him to Vancleave UMC to get settled.
By the time we arrived at the airport, they had returned, Nancy and Stuart Balch were there (having driven over from where they were visiting in Texas, Pete Jimerson had arrived from Florida. All we had to do was rent the vans and hand the books over to the folks from Holy Rosary Academy.
Did I mention that the airport in Gulfport is undertaking a major renovation/expansion project? The car rental place was in the parking lot, and they did not have a debit card machine. We were using a debit card to pay for the vans. They tried running the card through as a credit card, but that didn’t work either. A couple of anxious hours later, after many phone calls to our credit union and to the central offices of the rental agency, everything worked out.
Now, the books. As the result of a communication error, no one from Holy Rosary Academy showed up to get their books. More phone calls home, and being unable to reach anyone from that school, we decided to bring the books to Vancleave, and, when we reach the appropriate people, we will give them directions to pick up the books here.
All this resolved, we had a relaxing dinner at Applebee’s and then drove to the Vancleave UMC. So here we are. We’ll go to church tomorrow morning, then do some sight seeing at the USS Alabama battleship in Mobile and at the Estuarium on Dauphin Island.
Check back tomorrow for the next installment of the adventures of the 33 Volunteers In Mission.
