St. Mary Appalachian Mission Trip

HOME SAFE AND SOUND

2011-07-24T12:44:00.003-04:00

From left to right this is Nick (our guide), Miss Tammy (Nick's mom and our cook that took such good care of us and Mick (our other wonderful guide).

Everyone and Miss Jenny after we gave her our special surpises of the kid's room signs, the picture frame with all of us in a picture, and the terrarium that the kids made after the scavenger hunt.

The ride home was long but uneventful. Watched some movies, did some sleeping, played cards and games. We got home early, around 9:30 which was nice. I am sure everyone liked sleeping in their own beds. We had an amazing week. We were sad to say good bye to Eagle Ranch and everyone there, but we are already making plans for our return trip next year!

Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers during our trip. The kids will not forget the experience of the past week, and neither will the chaperones. Thanks again to Mr. C, Mr. Z, Mr. Kop, and Mr. Mack, without them we could never have done what we did. They are the absolute best and they were wonderful with the kids! We love you guys!

ON THE BUS

2011-07-23T18:57:00.002-04:00

Right now we are on the bus headed home. thanks to modern technology we can post from the bus. It has been a long but uneventful ride home. Many naps and lots of card games. We will actually be home earlier than we thought which is good.We are all looking forward to getting off the bus for good and being home. Definitely too much junk food on the ride home. See everyone soon!

HOMEWARD BOUND TOMORROW

2011-07-22T21:06:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow we will head out after breakfast. We have truly had a wonderful week. We are proud of the work we have accomplished. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel home. When you see us at church feel free to ask about our trip. I know all of the kids would love to tell you all about it. It has been a learning experience for all of us and one we will cherish and remember for the rest of our lives.
We'll let you know when we get home. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

WHITE WATER RAFTING!

2011-07-22T20:50:00.003-04:00

The kids had a blast white water rafting. Even though many of them met the river up close and personal they still had a ball. It is an experience they will always remember.

OUR FAMILY AND GUIDE

2011-07-22T20:42:00.003-04:00

Meet Nick, our Eagle Ranch guide for the week. He was with us all week long for everything. We met Nick last year when he worked with us and we all just fell in love with him. Nick wears hats and collects them so one of our kids bought a hat at home and had all the kids sign it as a gift from us. His mom is Miss Tammy and she is the cook here at eagle Ranch. She takes such good care of us coming in early to have breakfast for us an hour before the usual time, packing our lunches with all our special needs, and feeding us a super dinner every night. She is the best!

This is the family we have fallen in llove with and have worked so hard for all this week. Miss Jenny, Isaac, and Virginia. Miss Jenny works at Eagle ranch and is so sweet. We just love Isaac and Virginia as well. They are really sweet kids. We worked on Miss Jenny's house last year too. We are looking forward to coming back next year and doing all the finish work on the addition we built this past week.

DAY FOUR LATE MORNING ACTIVITIES

2011-07-22T20:28:00.002-04:00

After we got back from working this morning, Eagle Ranch staff had a scavenger hunt planned for the kids. They collected a variety of things and then they used all the items to create some things for thefamily we worked for this week. They made name signs out of natural items for Isaac and Virginia (the kids) , they decorated a picture frame for Jenny (the mom) and put in a picture of all of us; and they made a terrarium for the whole family. It was a nice experience for them and they had a good time.

DAY FOUR MORNING

2011-07-22T11:29:00.003-04:00

Instead of just heading out with a small crew this morning we decided to take the whole crew. We finished the piping for the wood burning stove, so now they have a safe exhaust system for their heat in the winter. We wrapped the addition with TYVEK and insulated at the soffit for winter. We also covered the window openings for winter. The girls did an amazing job putting up the TYVEK by themselves! Yeah girl power! The boys wanted to get in on the action toward the end so we let them help with a few areas.
Now we are back at Eagle Ranch and the kids are on a scavenger hunt. They are going to make a terrarium for Isaac and Virginia (the kids whose house we worked on).
When they are donw with that it's lunch and then WHITE WATER RAFTING! The kids are very excited. There will be some pictures of that tonight.
We are so proud of the kids. They have worked so hard and accomplished so much in a very short amount of time. Not one of them complained about getting up an hour early again this morning to head back to the job site on what was supposed to be a completely free day. Hats off to ALL OF THEM!

A special thank you goes out to our male chaperones! They are the absolute best! Without them we could not have accomplished what we did! Thanks guys! We love you!

DAY THREE COMPLETE!

2011-07-21T19:45:00.005-04:00

Well we had another productive day today! We finished the stone work around the wood burning stove area so that is now complete and ready for winter use!

We worked hard all day outside. We were able to get all the walls sheeted, the roof built, and the tin layed on the roof. We started to Tyvek the addition to deal it for the winter but ran out of supplies. We were dissapointed we could not complete it. We are going to take a crew over tomorrow morning and actually finish putting up the Tyvek so the addition will be sealed for the winter. To everyone's shock and surprise we were able to build a 2 room addition in just 3 days! We could not be more proud of the kids. It has been hot and grueling working but they have all stepped up to the plate and worked hard. They have not complained at all during the day. We have gone through enough water to fill a swimming pool in the past 3 days! It was certainly worth all the hard work throughout the year getting ready for this week. The family we have been working for is so apprciative of what we have accomplished. We very much want to be the ones to finish this and are going to ask Eagle Ranch if we can have this as our project for next year. We will do the finish work in both rooms, and put on the exterior siding. If we had another 3 or 4 days, I have no doubt we could have completed that as well. Tomorrow is our free day. Some of the kids will do a scavenger hunt in the morning while the others go over and finish up with the Tyvek. We would take them all but there is just not enough for all of them to do. After lunch we are going white water rafting. Everyone is really looking forward to that! It has truly been a wonderful experience for all of us. We are sure the kids will have lots to talk about when they get home.

DAY TWO COMPLETE, WE DID IT!

2011-07-20T22:29:00.006-04:00

Sorry for the late update, but we just got home from our night on the town dinner. We went to downtown Copperhill and had a great meal and a lot of fun.

Today was an incredibly productive day. We awoke to rain, but it stopped right before we headed out to the job site. Unfortunately it was hotter and more humid than yesterday. We once again headed out an hour early to try and beat the sun and heat.

Our goal today was to get all the walls built and WE DID IT! We are so happy and proud! The kids worked really hard, even in the brutal sun and heat. Inside we finished laying the floor in the hallway and we also got about 2/3 of the stone work done around the wood burning stove area.

We worked so hard and finished what we had set out to do, so we stopped by the "Blue Hole" on the way home and went for a swim. It was great to just cool off and relax a bit. The kids certainly earned it over the past 2 days.

We had to hurry after swimming to get cleaned up and headed right back out for dinner. After dinner, the kids took a walk to Georgia. They are having a lot of fun crossing state lines all the time. It is quite interesting here and so far we have been in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia and have been able to walk every time we cross state lines. Tomorrow is going to be another hard work day. We plan on getting the sheeting on the walls, the roof built and covered in tin, and the windows in so the rooms will be completely enclosed for the winter. We know we will have to push ourselves and work hard, but we are confident we can get it done, and the kids really want to finish this. They have all worked really hard and we are so very proud of them!

DAY ONE COMPLETE

2011-07-19T19:11:00.007-04:00

Today as planned we got up early and had breakfast at 6:30. We headed to our job site by 7:45 and got a good jump on the sun and heat. We unloaded the bus, set up our work site and got to work. It was a good thing the guys went over yesterday and marked everything. We got right to work digging for the posts. It was hard work as we hit a LOT of rock! We got the holes dug, posts set and cement poured by lunch. After lunch we started attaching the under supports. We can honestly say those 2 X 12s are pretty heavy, but working together we got them up. After that was done we started on the floor joists. We got them all in and then we layed the floor decking. It was our goal to get that much done on day one so tomorrow we can start building the walls. We want to get all the walls built and in place tomorrow so we can get the roof on on Wednesday. We are confident we can do it if we work hard.

We also worked inside the house today as well as beginning the addition. We layed tongue and groove flooring in the living room and prepped the area around the wood burning stove for the stone work we will do tomorrow. We re-routed some wires which required some of the kids to go under the house. It was an adventure to say the least! We are very pleaed with how the living room turned out. It really looks great!

We did not get back to Eagle Ranch until 5pm tonight. A VERY long but extremely productive day. The kids worked hard and did a great job. We are very proud of them.

Unbelievably, many of them got in a quick game of volleyball before dinner after we got back. Now everyone is cleaned up, and just hanging out, playing some horseshoes, swinging on the swings, and just chilling (wish we were literally chilling). It is very hot and humid here, but we are keeping well hydrated and taking breaks to ensure everyone stays healthy and safe.

Looking forward to another productive day tomorrow. We will once again get up early so we can be on the way to the job site by 7:30. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers please!

VOLLEYBALL

2011-07-19T19:03:00.003-04:00

We had fun playing volleyball last night. The kids came out victorious, beating the team from the other group that is here. They all had a good time. After the volleyball tournament we sat around the fire and had some marshmallows. Unfortunately we left the smore stuff on the bus so we made sure we took it off the bus today so we can have smores tonight.

WE'RE HERE!

2011-07-18T15:36:00.004-04:00

We arrived safe and sound at Eagle Ranch at about 1:30 today. It was a long but uneventful bus ride. We are so happy to be here! Nick will be our guide for the week. He was with us last year and we feel very attached to him. Miss Tammy was here when we arrived. It is great to see her again! She takes such good care of us. We appreciate all she does for us! It is VERY hot here. Right now everyone is just kind of relaxing and getting the lay of the land at the camp. The guys are over at the job site right now, laying things out and marking so we can hit the ground running tomorrow morning. Because of the heat Eagle Ranch has offered to serve us breakfast an hour early (6:30am) so we can hit the road earlier (7:30 am) and avoid some of the extreme heat. This way we can take the kids swimming when we are done to cool down each day. I'll try to put up another post tonight after dinner. We have a volleyball tournament tonight so hopefully we'll have some pictures from that to put up. We will definitely have to get to bed early tonight so we are rested and ready to go tomorrow.

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT!

2011-07-17T16:27:00.002-04:00

We all celebrated mass together this morning as a final send off prior to leaving for our trip. Our young participants who were just recently confirmed were able to be Eucharistic Ministers today. All the kids did a fabulous job as usual. We are so proud of them! They are a wonderful group of kids. It was really nice to have our last church event be a celebration of mass before we leave.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we set out tonight. Watch our blog as there will be a nightly post complete with pictures so you can watch our progress while we are away.

LEAVING SUNDAY!

2011-07-13T21:51:00.002-04:00

We are set and ready to go. We leave on Sunday at 11pm. We will be attending mass together on Sunday morning the day we leave at 10 am. We will be providing all of the liturgical ministries at mass. We are so very excited to be leaving. We have taken on a very complicated large project, but we are confident we can get it done. The kids are all in countdown mode and can't wait to get going.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel and while we are gone.
Each day a post of the day's activities with pictures will be completed so you can keep track of what we are doing.

We want to thank everyone for all of their support over the past year during our fund-raising and community service. Without your support and generosity we could not take this trip.
THANK YOU!

PASTA DINNER

2011-05-18T22:06:00.002-04:00

Please plan on attending our Pasta Dinner this Saturday night form 6 to 8 pm. It is our last big fundraiser for the year. Dinner will be fabulous as all 4 sauces available are homemade. The salad bar is amazing and of course the service can't be beat!
Aside from a wonderful meal we will also have baked goods for sale and incredible handmade items (made by Barb Nowicki) for auction.
We hope to see you at dinner!

We still have about $7,000 still to raise toward our trip.

I know I have been very bad about keeping our site up to date. We have been hard at work doing so many things I have fallen very far behind. I promise to get things updated and pictures posted of what we have been doing as soon as we get through our pasta dinner.

Suffice it to say we have been hard at work with tool training and building. We have been working on building dog houses which has been a great experience for the kids. It's like building a house on a smaller version the way we have made them. They are raised off the ground, have floors, T-111 siding, roofing felt and are completely shingled. Any dog would be happy to have one of them. If you need one give us a call at the church and we will be more than happy to build you one. You can reach us at 246-685-1482. I have been told by a few wives they are thinking about buying one to have around for their husbands when they are in the 'doghouse'!
We have also been working on planter boxes. I have to say they are absolutely beautiful. They are made of cedar and are 12 inches square and stand 18 inches tall. They really are nice. They will be available for sale at our pasta dinner, or you can call us to place an order.

FISH FRY

2011-03-21T22:39:00.002-04:00

Join is every Friday night at St. Mary for the Knights of Columbus Fish Fry. We are providing the service for the meals. Helping out with the food service is part of our community service commitment. We are also hosting bake sales. All proceeds from the bake sales help to fund our trip. We need to raise about $28,000 to fully fund our trip. At this point we are almost half way there. Still a long way to go but we are confident we can make it! Come on down every Friday night and enjoy a great meal with fabulous service! We would love to meet you. And the bonus is, you can pick up some wonderful homemade baked goods to take home with you!

LOCK IN

2011-03-21T22:19:00.005-04:00

On March 4th we had a lock-in for the Mission kids. just a night of fun, food and spending some time together getting to know each other outside of working, and tool training. We had a great time! Everyone really got to know each other a lot better. It was a good night, especially as now we are heading into overdrive with community service and fundraising.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

2011-02-22T20:46:00.002-05:00

We have a lot of things coming up. You will see us on a regular basis over the next several months.

Join us for mass this coming weekend, February 27th at the 10 am mass as we will be providing all the Liturgical Minsitries at mass.

We will be helping at the Soup Supper on March 9th.

We will be working all the Fish Frys during Lent, beginning March 12th. Come and join us for a great dinner. Bring your appetites and your wallets as we will be hosting bake sales each Friday.

We will be hosting a Can and Bottle drive on April 16th and 17th, so please save your cans and bottles. If you would like to return your bottles and bring us the receipt we would greatly appreciate that as well.

Pasta Dinner will be held on May 15th, so please mark your calendars and plan on joining us for a fabulous dinner!

TOOL TRAINING

2011-02-22T20:21:00.003-05:00

Each month we have been getting together to learn about the tools we will be using and also to learn how to safely use them. First we learned about non-power hand tools and then we moved on to the power tools. We started with saws. It's been fun and interesting lerning to use the different saws. We have worked with the circular saw, chop saw (miter saw) and the table saw. Next month we will continue working with the saws, and we will learn about the drills as well. Lot's of real life skills are being developed. Can't wait until we get to put our learning to actula use. This year we are going to build dog houses after we learn to use all the tools. Looking forward to it!

GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER

2011-02-22T20:05:00.002-05:00

Each time we get together we spend some time getting to know each other. We do some activities that help us learn about each other, and also some things that help us learn to wrok together as a team. We have a lot of fun. It's a good thing to really get to know each other and work together. Sometimes we don't coordinate so well, but we still have a good time.

LOTS GOING ON

2011-02-22T20:00:00.002-05:00

I have to apologize for being behind in my updates. Things have been crazy. We have a great group of kids going on our Mission trip this year. We have been meeting with them monthly and we have begun tool training. We have also been working the events and activities at the church to clock our community service hours. The kids have been fantastic. The last event we worked was the Candle Light Dinner at St. Mary. The kids did an amazing job. Everyone who attended had a wonderful night and we heard nothing but positive compliments about the night. So proud of the kids and the night. Thank you to everyone!!!

PASTA DINNER THANK YOU!

2010-11-13T23:57:00.002-05:00

To everyone who attended our pasta dinner last night THANK YOU! To those that missed it, don't worry we will host another one in May, so watch for the date. We had a great night! The kids were wonderful and everyone worked hard. We are so PROUD of everyone! Thanks Guys you were great! Thanks to all the parents that worked so hard we really appreciate all your help! Special thanks to Angelo Vitalli for cooking for us. We certainly couldn't do this dinner without you! Thank you also to Paul and Donna Trupianno for helping in the kitchen we appreciate it more than you can know. We also want to thank Steve Hansen, Barb Nowicki and Claudia Schimetz for making our auctioned baked goods, they were big sellers! Thank you to all those who brought us all the other wonderful baked goods for auction and sale, your support and help is greatly appreciated! We hope everyone enjoyed their dinner. For those that had a bit of a wait for thier food, thank you for you patience! Man everyone ate a lot of pasta. A bit more than we had thought but we did our best to keep up. We enjoyed meeting everyone and we hope you enjoyed meeting us. We thank you profusely for your support. Without that we wouldn't be able to accomplish our goal.
You will be seeing a lot of us throughout the coming year. We look forward to meeting you and being able to be a part of everything that happens at St. Mary. Thank you everyone for your support and your prayers!

OUR NEW YEAR HAS BEGUN

2010-11-13T23:51:00.002-05:00

Well we have begin our new year! We have 26 students and 6 chaperones that will be traveling to Appalachia next summer. We will spend the next year preparing for our trip. We meet monthly and will spend the time getting to know each other and also learning all the skills we will need to complete out projects. We had our first meeting last week and we were all trained in the various liturgical ministries so we will be completing our first mass in December. We spent some time getting to know each other. We signed up for all of our community service. And most importantly we discussed and planned our first fundraiser. Our pasta dinner for November 13th. It was great meeting new people and starting to get to know each other. We have a great group and we are looking forward to the year! We will have pictures up soon and we will introduce all our students in our parish bulletin. We're looking forward to meeting you and having you meet us!

HOME SAFE AND SOUND

2010-07-17T10:00:00.003-04:00

It was a long ride home, but we got here last night at about 11 pm. There was a lot of movie watching and a lot of sleeping on the bus. We had a great trip! We have been told that our work made a huge impact on the life of the family we worked for at site 2. We will be staying in touch with that family over the coming year, and have adopted them and will do all that we can from here to help them out in the future.

The picture you see below is of Nick. He was one of our camp guides. He stayed with us all week and worked on job site 2 with us. He also did many of our other activities with us. His mom "Miss Tammy" runs the kitchen at Eagle Ranch. We feel especially close to them as well. Nick will be undergoing neurosurgery in the fall for a siezure disorder. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. We will be requesting a prayer quilt for him so that he has it for his surgery. When you see the quilt out, please take the time to stop and say a prayer for him.

We want to say a huge thank you to all of the Eagle Ranch staff. They are the kindest, most accomdating and wonderful people, and helped to make this experience one that none of us will ever forget.
Thank you also to everyone at St. Mary for all of your support. Without your help we never could have taken this trip.
Finally a special thank you to George Niepoth, in whose memory we dedicated this trip. Without his staunch support and belief in us, we never would have had the courage and the fortitude to attempt something like this. We love you George, and we know you are sitting with God and smiling down on us and what we have done.
We will post albums on our facebook page next week. Enjoy all the pictures.

PAINTBALL

2010-07-17T09:51:00.004-04:00

As promised, pictures from our last night there playing paintball. It was quite a game! The kids had a blast. We sustained more injuries during paintball than throughout the rest of the week. Luckily they were minor scrapes and a LOT of bruises. We went through a lot of antiseptic, ice and icepacks, but all was well.

DAY 4

2010-07-15T19:05:00.005-04:00

Well today was our fun day. We went white water rafting in the morning on the Ocoee river and we went tubing in the afternoon on the Tacoee. It's the same river, it just has a different name in Georgia and Tennessee. So we've been state hopping. Of course the afternoon tubing was in a much calmer area of the river. The kids had a blast. Several met the Ocoe up close and personal as they were catapulted out of the rafts but all was well and everyone was fine. The afternoon was a little less challenging, just floating down the river on tubes. The water however was COLD. The kids didn't mind, but the adults were pretty shocked with the temperature. After those activities we had dinner and as this is being written the kids are playing paintball. Needless to say the adults are observing and the kids are playing. Pictures of that to follow maybe later if it's not too late when they finish. Tomorrow it's breakfast, then we load up and hit the road. We will be home tomorrow night at about 11 pm. I think most of us will be sleeping. It has been a wonderful trip and we accomplished a lot. We are happy with our work. We'll post again tomorrow night or Saturday after we get home. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel.

DAY 3

2010-07-15T07:45:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was our last work day. We finished with everything so late we couldn't update the site. We are really pleased with what we accomplished. At job site one we finished the living room including all the windows and trim. Thanks to Mr. Kopy and his plumbing skills they now have a safe useable toilet. We worked incredibly hard. We were bound and determined to finish those rooms, so we stayed on the job site until after 6 pm. The work group from house 2 finished and came down and helped out so we could get more done. We have so many more skills after this trip than we had when we got here. We are proud of our accomplishments. At house two we finished everything that was to be done and even did a few extra things with trim. It was a good feeling to totally complete a project. The back deck is great, they can now safely go out the back door and have a place to relax with the kids. The front porch is also a great place for them to gather when the sun is too hot or it's raining. The windows have been completely trimmed out so they won't have problems with drafts in the winter. We have learned and grown so much on this trip.
We gave the small picnic tables we made at home and brought with us to the kids yesterday. They were so excited. It was so nice to see them smile. The kids are great and are so appreciative of the things we brought for them. The family overall has been appreciative and has thanked us daily. It was so nice to meet them and work with them. Our kids have much truer appreciation for all that they have. At no time during the week has anyone in the families complained about their situation. They have been gracious, and are thankful for what they do have.
Yesterday before we finished up many of the kids asked if we could work an additional day, raft on Friday and come home a day later on Saturday. It was gratifyling to hear that they would like to do more. Parents, be proud of your kids and what they have done. We are more proud of them and all their hard work than you can know.
After our long, hard hot day, we went out to dinner last night. One of the restaurants stayed open late just to serve us. Thank goodness because we were really hungry after the day's work.
White water rafting, tubing, and paint ball today.

DAY TWO

2010-07-13T19:28:00.008-04:00

We continue to work on getting the walls covered in house one. Putting up tongue and groove siding is very time consuming. We completed the hallway today and began working on the living room. We made good progress, but still have a lot more to do. Tomorrow we will continue with the living room and hopefully we will move on to the kitchen.

Here is a completed room. Looks pretty good!

We are almost done at house 2. Today we added a landing and put the steps on the front porch so that is now done. We put the railings and spindles on the back deck porch. We also put up lattice along the bottom and got the steps in. Tomorrow we have to put railings on the back deck steps and trim out the windows on the house. We will then be completely done with house 2. It was a lot of hard work, but it has been great. When we finish house 2 the crew will head down and help out with house 1. Tomorrow is our last work day so we really want to crank out as much as we can.

We have had dinner and everyone has finally gotten cleaned up. Now we are just hanging out, playing some volleyball, horseshoes, and just chilling in general. I think we'll all be in bed early tonight. We're all pretty tired after all the hard work in the heat.

OUR FIRST DAY OF WORK

2010-07-12T19:55:00.008-04:00

We are working at two houses, that are very close to each other. We can walk back and forth between them, which is a good thing. At house one there is much to be done inside. There ate no completed interior walls. They are framed with 2x4s but that is it. They have only cold running water and can not have their electricty completed and their hot water heater turned on until there are walls. We are putting up tongue and groove pine walls and will try to get as much done as we can while we're here. There was a lot of cutting and measuring. We are getting pretty good at that. We also were very vareful and did a lot of detailed hammering and nail punching putting up the walls. We finished on of the bedrooms and a section of the hallway today. Tomorrow we hope to get another bedroom and the rest of the hallway done.

Since our job sites were so close to each other, we got to have lunch together. It was nice to get together as a whole group during the day. We got to compare notes with each other about what we were accomplishing.

At house two, before we could begin on the front porch we had to do some demolition. We tore out the old screen and lattice, and cut out the floor boards that were rotted. We also removed the stairs. In the back we were able to start without demolition, but we had to cut out some of the house siding to mount the header for the deck. You can't tell from the pictures, but it was pouring rain. Even so, we kept at it. We had canopies we brought so the tools wouldn't get ruined. The rain slowed us down some, but didn't stop us. By lunch time it finally stopped raining, which was good. The afternoon was hot and steamy, but we still worked hard. Just drank a lot of water.

The culmination of a hard days work. We are pretty proud of what we accomplished. We will complete both the front porch and back deck tomorrow. Have to build stairs for both and then also put rails on the back deck. When we finish that we will trim out all the windows on the house.

Even though we worked hard all day we entered the volleyball tournament at the camp. As I write this, the tournament is still going on. Team one was eliminated, but team 2 has yet to play. We'll let you know the results tomorrow night.

WE'RE HERE

2010-07-11T16:07:00.002-04:00

We arrived at about 2 pm today. Boy is it hot here. We had orientation and then got checked in. We are staying in the Frontier cabins. There are 4 cabins tucked in the woods behind the volleyball court. We have our own picnic tables and fire pit area in the middle of the cabins. It is in the woods so at least it's a little cooler. The bad part is that it's a bit of a walk to the 'comfort station' (aka, bathroom) but we'll survive, that's what buddies are for so we don;t have to go alone at night in the dark! We got all settled into our cabins, it's a tight fit, but things are good. Now we are just hanging out, playing volleyball, horse shoes, swining on the tire swing, playing ultimate frisbee, and just plain "chilling out". Dinner will be in a few hours. It's nice to have free time after bieng on the bus for so long. Tomorrow morning we start bright and early on the job. We are excited and looking forward to being able to accomplish as much as we can for our families this week. We'll check in tomorrow night after we get back from our worksite and let you know how the day went. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers while we were traveling.

ON THE ROAD

2010-07-11T16:00:00.003-04:00

Last night we met at St. Mary at 11 pm. We loaded up the bus and by 11:45 we were on the road. We have decided to dedicate our trip to George Niepoth who passed away a few hours before we left. Without his support, and his willingness to teach us many things we would not be going on a mission triip like this. We love you George, thank you for everything over the years. We will miss you!
It was a long ride, but we watched some movies, tried to sleep, played cards, and just spent time hanging with each other. We stopped for fast food twice and we're already tired of McDonalds. Hopefully we'll have more choices for food on the way home. Everyone got along just fine which is saying a lot when you're stuck on a bus for 14 hours.

LEAVING TONIGHT

2010-07-10T14:46:00.002-04:00

We will all be at 5 pm mass this evening before we go for a special final prayer and blessing. Then it's home for final packing and back at 11 pm. The bus rolls out at midnight. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we travel. We will let you know when we get there. It will be late afternoon tomorrow. Then on Monday it is off to work on our job sites. We will be working daily on the same 2 job sites as there is much to do. Thanks to everyone for all their help and support in funding this trip as well as helping us to prepare for this trip. Your generosity is appreciated more than you can know. You'll hear from us tomorrow in Appalachia.

LEAVING SATURDAY NIGHT

2010-07-07T21:55:00.002-04:00

Well we are leaving Saturday night for Appalachia. I have been really bad at keeping our blog updated. Sorry about that, I will update it daily while we are in Appalachia I promise. We are excited and looking forward to being able to do a lot of good hard work for our families. We have our job assignemnts and we are going to do our best to crank out some really hard work. We have two families we will be working with. We will be doing construction at the homes of both families. We will do finish type work at one home and complete construction type work at another to try and get the home liveable for a family who has been living in their car. We have trained and worked very hard for this and we hope we are prepared to accomplish a lot while we are there.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we are traveling and look for our nightly updates.
Thanks for all the support we have received from our parish family at St.Mary!! We appreciate it more thank you know!!!

UPCOMING STUFF

2010-03-10T16:00:00.002-05:00

We will be at Fish Fry again this Friday night. There are only 3 Fish Frys left, so if you haven't come out for dinner please think about doing so. The food is great and the service is unbelievably spectacular! And of course don't forget we have incredible baked goods for sale, including items from the kitchens of Barb Nowicki and Steve Hansen.
We will be providing all of the Liaturgical Ministries at the 10:00 am mass this weekend. Please consider joining us.
Mark your calendars as we have a Can and Bottle Drive on April 24th and 25th after every mass. Start saving your CLEAN cans and bottles now.
Please also mark your calendars for May 15th and come enjoy another fabulous pasta dinner!

DISABILITY LUNCHEON

2010-03-10T15:54:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday we helped out at the Disabillity Luncheon. We got to meet a lot of really neat 'special' people. We enjoyed being able to serve and socialize with everyone that attended. Here's a few pictures from the event. Lots of smiling faces.

MORE TOOL TRAINING

2010-03-04T13:17:00.003-05:00

We had our second session of tool training last week. We continued to work on learning how to safely and effectively use power tools as well as hand tools. We worked on building sections that could be floor joists and decking. We also built a 'crossing over' bridge for a cub scout troop. It is good to put the skills we are learning to functional use. Next time we get together we hope to build a picnic table as practice. We then hope to auction it off at either our pasta dinner or the parish fair. We will need to secure the lumber through donation if we are to build this. It has been a really great learning opportunity so far and we are looking forward to continuing with our learning. It also gives us time to work with each other and get to know each other better.

FISH FRY

2010-02-22T11:08:00.002-05:00

Last Friday night was our first Fish Fry. There were a lot of us there to help out. Our 'experienced' waiters and waitresses worked with our 'new' participants teaching them the ropes. It gave us a chance to get to know each other better. We had a lot of great baked goods to sell. We all worked hard throughout the night. We thought you would enjoy seeing some pictures of our night. The kids enjoyed meeting many of the parishioners and I know the parishioners enjoyed meeting the kids and getting to know them

Come by any Friday night between 5 pm and 8 pm and enjoy a great dinner while you get to know the kids. Our roving dessert carts are a great addition. And of course don't forget to stop by the bake sale table for some great homemade treats to take home.

We look forward to seeing you at the next Fish Fry!

KICKING IN TO HIGH GEAR

2010-02-02T19:15:00.002-05:00

With the start of the new year we are kicking in to high gear to prepare for our trip, complete our community service hours, and raise the needed funds.
You will be seeing us at ALL the upcoming church events and activities working our community service hours.
You will also see us EVERY Friday night during lent working at the Knights of Columbus Fish Frys. We will be providing all the service as well as the desserts. We will also have homemade baked goods for sale each week. Once again we will have the wonderful baked goods from the kitchens of Barb Nowicki and Steve Hansen available each week. Come on out and enjoy a great meal, fabulous desserts and baked goods, and get to know the mission trip participants!

JOIN US AT THE:

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS FISH FRY

EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT DURING LENT

5 PM to 8 PM

ST. MARY PARISH HALL

TOOL TRAINING

2010-02-02T18:34:00.004-05:00

Since we are going to do habitat projects this year, everyone needs to learn how to handle a variety of tools. We began our girst tool training session on January 28, 2010. All of our male chaperones were there to lend a hand. We had to begin the night with safety training first. Once we got through that we began learning about the individual tools, both power tools and hand tools. Then we all got to take a crack at working with each type of tool. It was great to see everyone working together, listening carefully, following all the directions, and trying really hard to learn everything. Each month we will be getting together for continued tool training.

As a culmination of our training we will actually construct 2 different things. We will be making a porch swing and also a picnic table. We are hoping to be able to complete these projects by our pasta dinner so that we can auction them off to help pay for our trip. We also need the experience in building these 2 things because we will be taking all the supplies to build them again with us. At each home we work on we will also build one of the items to give to the family as a gift. We are really excited to be able to do this!

OUR FIRST MASS

2010-02-02T18:29:00.002-05:00

We celebrated our first mass together on January 24, 2010. We provided all the liturgical ministries. It ws a really nice mass, and everyone did a great job. Fr. Ron and Fr. Manny were very pleased with how well everyone did. We even got some pictures of everyone dressed nice.

PASTA DINNER

2009-11-17T10:40:00.004-05:00

We thought you might enjoy some pictures from our recent pasta dinner. Everything was wonderful as usual. The kids were super waiters and waitresses and worked hard during the dinner and then afterward, during clean-up. We can't say thank you enough to all those who helped us before, during and after the dinner. We also can't say thank you enough to all those who attended the dinner and contributed to our fundraising.

We will be hosting another dinner on May 15, 2010, so mark your calendars.

Next month we will begin trianing in the various Liturgical Ministries, so you will be seeing us becoming more actively involved in the masses at St. Mary.

We'll try to keep things up to date.

PASTA DINNER THANK YOU!

2009-11-08T21:59:00.003-05:00

Last night we held our first Pasta Dinner of the year. We had a really great night. All the kids worked really hard and it was a wonderful way to intorduce our mission and our kids to the parish community. We had a very good response to our dinner. The food was fabulous and the service couldn't be beat!
MANY THANKS to all who turned out to enjoy a super dinner.
A heartfelt thank you to the wonderful people who helped us put this together. Angelo and Marisa Vitali you are the BEST! We don't know what we would do without you! The food you cooked was absolutely wonderful! Thank you also to Petruccis and Trupiannos for all your help during the dinner. Thanks also to all our wonderful parents who pitched in and helped us out during dinner and for clean-up afterward. Without all your support we could not begin to accomplish the many things we do.
We will post pictures very soon.

2010 MISSION TRIP

2009-10-22T08:27:00.004-04:00

Well we have already begun planning for our 2010 Mission trip. We will once again be traveling to the Appalachian Mountains. Our plan is to travel with 30 high school students next summer. We have been getting things organized and have been planning needed fundraisers.
Please join us for our first fundraiser this coming weekend.

We will be hosting a CAN and BOTTLE DRIVE after all masses October 24th and 25th.
Please drop off your CLEAN cans and bottles before or after any mass in the upper parking lot.

Please also mark your calendars for our upcoming pasta dinner.

On November 7th we will be hosting a pasta dinner from 6 pm to 8 pm in the St. Mary Parish hall. Dinner will consist of 2 types of pasta with 4 different sauce options (all home made), salad bar, rolls, and dessert.
Cost of dinner will be a free will donation.

We hope to see you there!

Thank you for your support!

WE'RE HOME

2009-07-25T09:13:00.002-04:00

Got home late Thursday night, Another 14 hour ride on the bus getting home. Watched a lot of movies on the way. It is good to be home. The trip was really great. Hopefully everyone had a really good time and learned a lot about themselves and the lives of others. We are all pretty tired and many of us are sore and nursing a few bumps, bruises and scrapes but no serious injuries.
Over the next few weeks we will start planning for our trip for next summer. Now that we have been there we know what type of projects to request. Next year we want to actually do a habitat project where we will work on building a home, or completely rehabbing it. We will have to have more adults with us who have special skills to help out with actual building. If you think you might be interested give us a call. You can also watch the St. Mary bulletin for announcements and registrations.
Thanks again to everyone who supported us while we were fundraising and getting ready, and to everyone who kept us in their prayers while we were gone.

WEDNESDAY'S ACTIVITIES

2009-07-22T22:41:00.006-04:00

Another late entry due to another long day.
Today we took part in 2 different activities. We completed an environmental project at Eagle Ranch. We helped to build natural railings along the hiking paths used for educational purposes here. It was hard work, but neat to see the results of a completed railing system along the dirt steps created.
We also took part in a helping hands project. We helped remove kitchen cupboards, put in new ones, did some painting on a porch, and removed a storm door so that a new pne could be put on. It was nice to help someone out, who otherwise could not have these types of repairs done.

After a hard day at work we went to the Blue Hole again for a quick swim. Had a good time. Found an even better spot than yesterday. By the way, did we tell you that this area is on the Ocoee River and the only reason we can swim on the afternoon is because the 'turn off' the water in the river. It is quite interesting to see. We swam in the Upper Ocoee which is where they had the white water kyak competition in the 1996 Olympics.

Tonight was out night on the town night. After swimming we came back to the Ranch and got cleaned up and then headed out. We went to the Field in the Woods. It was absolutely beautiful. They have the 10 commandments layed out on a hill. The steps going up the middle create the spine. At the top are the two first commandments again. There is an area with the Psalms, and steps going up into the woods with many Bible verses. There is a specific verse for each state. There is a replica of Jesus' tomb and the crosses at Calvery. It was absolutely beautiful. After we visited there we went to dinner. Didn't get back until after 10.

Tomorrow we get up at the usual time and have breakfast at 7:30. We will finish packing, load up and hit the road. We hope to be on the road no later than 9 am.

See you all back in Michigan tomorrow night!

TUESDAY'S ACTIVITIES

2009-07-21T21:10:00.006-04:00

Sorry we're so late posting but it has been an unbelievably busy day. Our activities just ended at 9:30. It has been a GREAT DAY!

We started the day at the Ducktown Senior Citizen Center. We spent the morning there dancing, and talking with the senior citizens. We learned quite a bit about the area and it's history talking to the seniors. We also had lunch with them.

After lunch we went to the Ducktown museum where we learned even more about the area and the mining history. The picture above is all off us at a spot the looks out over the area where the three states , Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina all meet.

After lunch we went to a home and worked on clearing kudzu. Kudzu is a vine that grows rampant down here. It takes over everything, including trees and buildings. It was really hard work. A lot of scrapes but no serious accidents or injuries. The kids worked really hard. We were very proud of them.

After we finished working we stopped at the Blue Hole on the way back to Eagle Ranch for a quick swim. It is quite a popular place with the locals. It's a great place to cool off after a long hard afternoon of clearing kudzu.

We got back to Eagle Ranch late for dinner, but they were very kinf and accomodating. We went right in to dinner with our clothes on over our wet bathing suits since we were so late. After dinner we had to rush to the showers to get cleaned up for the night activities.

We listened to some great Bluegrass music, by a local group. One of the guys in the group played at the Grand Ole Oprey a few years ago. It was nice. After that we had some lessons in lline dancing. We all learned the Texas 10 step.

We had an amazingly busy but very rewarding day. We are finally just relaxing before bed. Tomorrow promises to be another busy day.

MONDAY'S ACTIVITIES

2009-07-20T17:30:00.005-04:00

Today we worked in the National Park clearing hiking paths. The park ranger that was with us is the only paid employee of the National Park area here, so all maintenance of the parks and hiking trails is done by volunteers. It was hard work, but the views were incredible and the areas where we took breaks along the river were great. We really had a good day. We are back at Eagle Ranch now and everyone is relaxing a little before dinner. After dinner there is a volleyball tournament. Many of the kids will be taking part, with those of us not playing rooting on the teams. After the tournament we will be having a bonfire if everyone can stay awake long enough. We're all pretty tired.

Everyone that we have worked with and that works at Eagle Ranch has been so wonderful. The kids have been very respectful and courteous of all as well. It has been so nice to see. We have been very proud of them so far.

Tomorrow we have another long day of service. In the morning we will be visiting the seniors, and then off to the museum. In the afternoon we will be working at a home clearing the outside of kudzu. We plan on stopping at the Blue Hole on the way home at the end of the day for a quick swim.

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES

2009-07-19T19:35:00.007-04:00

After breakfast we had a brief orientation. We climbed the rock wall first. Everybody, including, Val, JV and Mr. Makie gave it a shot. Everyone was great about supporting each other and rooting each other on. After the rock wall we did a challenge course. There were a variety of activities and we all had to work together and porblem solve together to be able to complete them. It was great. Everyone was supportive of each other and they all worked together to solve each challenge. They learned patience, support, reliance on each other, and a willingness to sacrifice for each other. It was a great morning. Also good for us in preparpation for working together tomorrow.

After lunch we headed out to the Ocoee River for white water rafting. It was incredible. The kids had an absolute blast. A few ended up in the Ocoee during the trip down but had a great time and all were safe.

It was the most awesome adventure for everyone!

After rafting we got back to Eagle ranch just in time to shower the river water off of us and then have dinner. Right now we are relaxing, playing cards, horshoes, and a variety of other things. There is a talent show tonight, and after that we will have a bonfire.

Tomorrow the work begins. We will be off site all day working in the National Park. We are all looking forward to it.

LAST NIGHT

2009-07-19T19:26:00.002-04:00

Last night after dinner went to mass at St. Catherine's in Copperhill. It was very nice. It is a very small church as can be seen by the pictures. We almost filled the church. After mass we walked to downtown and had ice cream. It was a lot of fun.

WE'RE HERE!

2009-07-18T16:12:00.002-04:00

Last night we left St. Mary at about midnight. We were on the bus all night long and all morning. We arrived here at about 2 pm. It was a long night and a very long bus ride. Our drivers were really nice. Floyd took us as far as Southern Kentucky. There he left us and Mike joined us. He will be with us for the whole week and begin our journey home with us.

Eagle ranch is beautiful. We saw the river we will be rafting on the way here, man it is going to be an unbelievable raft ride down. We can't wait for that.

As soon as we got here our guide, Tiffany, took us all around and showed us where everything is and explained the rules and the various projects we will be doing. It sounds like it is going to be a busy week. We actually get to just veg out for about 2 hours before dinner. Then as soon as we are done with dinner we will head into Copperhill for mass. When we get back we will have a bonfire and roast some marshmallows. I am sure we will all be heading to bed VERY early as we are all tired.

Tomorrow we will post some more after we get back from our challenge course and rafting excursion.

WE LEAVE TONIGHT!

2009-07-17T20:41:00.001-04:00

In about 3 hours we will be on the road to Tennessee! We are all very excited. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will try and update the site each day when we get back from working. If we are unable to get online we will have to wait until we get back. See you all soon!

THANK YOU KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS!

2009-07-13T12:07:00.002-04:00

Last thursday night the Knights of Columbus invited us to their annual end of year ice cream and cake social. They presented us with another check for $2000 toward our trip. The Knights have given us a total of $5000 toward our trip. We can't say thank you enough to the Knights for all their support throughout the past 6 months. They have been wonderful and we appreciate it more than we can say!

We leave this Friday night. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we are traveling and while we are there.

We will try to update our site each day if we can.

We will reutrn on Thirsday night, July 23rd at about 9 pm. Can't wait to leave!

Upcoming events

2009-06-12T11:06:00.003-04:00

We will be once again taking a major role in the mass on June 28th at the 10 am mass. We will be lectoring, altar serving, Eucharistic ministering, and ushering. We are looking forward to being able to take such an active role once again. This has been such a great experience for all of the kids, and the adult chaperones as well. We are starting to get excited about the trip. We leave in about a month.
Many of us will be helping out with the preparations for Vacation Bible School as well as working each day during Vacation Bible School. It should be a lot of fun.
We continue to raise funds for the trip, but we do not have time to schedule another major fundraiser before we go. We still need to raise a little over $3000 for the cost of our trip. If we are unable to raise the last of the funds we will be working to raise them after we get back. We have already scheduled ourselves to provide the Friday night dinner for the fair on July 31st.

If you would like to contribute, please mail or drop off donations to St. Mary, 1955 E. Commerce Rd., Milford, MI 48381. Please make checks out to St. Mary and mark them Appalachian Mission.

Our Leather Making Night

2009-06-12T10:50:00.007-04:00

We have been busy with the end of the school year commitments so we are a little behind on our posts. Last week we had a great night making some leather gifts for the senior citizens we will be visiting with. It was a lot of fun. Denver Dunn was a fabulous teacher. Not only did he have all the supplies for us to make the gifts, he had supplies for us to make things for ourselves. It was wonderful. All the kids had a great time and really enjoyed learning how to do leather crafting. They are all looking forward to getting together with Mr. Dunn in the future to make more projects.

THIS WEEKEND

2009-05-20T22:22:00.002-04:00

This weekend most of us will be at the 5pm mass on Saturday. It is a mass honoring the graduating seniors. We will all be working during the mass as lectors, altar servers, ushers, and Eucharistic ministers. Some are signing with the music group New Covenant. We are all looking forward to taking such an active role in the mass.
After this weekend we will be working the upcoming Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast on June 7th from 8 am until 12 noon. Come and join us for a really nice breakfast. Of course you will receive service with a smile, and a thank you. See you this Saturday at mass and then on June 7th.

OUR PASTA DINNER

2009-05-20T11:57:00.007-04:00

Last Saturday night we hosted our Pasta Dinner fundraiser. It was a great night! The food was absolutely incredible! Everyone commented about how great it was. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our chefs who worked so hard to produce such great homemade sauces. We also heard a lot of comments about how wonderful the salad bar was. And of course, the service couldn't be beat. All the kids and adults worked tirelessly through dinner service. It was wonderful to see everyone working so hard together, helping each other out. We raised over $4000 toward our trip. Thank you so much to everyone who came and supported us. We are getting closer to our goal. But more importantly we are all leanring and growing together in our faith. Below are some pictures from the night.

OUR WEEKEND

2009-04-26T17:48:00.006-04:00

It was a very busy weekend for us. We helped out at the luncheon for the Mass of the Anointing. It was a really nice afternoon.
When we were finished with that, we had a short break and then headed into our really busy time. We held our can and bottle drive. We were there for all the masses, Saturday and Sunday. Everyone was so nice, and people were so generous. We can't say thank you enough. The kindness and encouragement made having to get up so early on a Sunday, and spend so much time in the parking lot and then at can and bottle machines worth every minute. Many thanks to everyone.
Here are some pictures of our day, working hard, but still having fun!
WE HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE AT OUR PASTA DINNER.
MAY 16TH 6 PM TO 8 PM.
IT PROMISES TO BE A GREAT NIGHT!
WE HAVE SOME GREAT COOKS, AND OF COURSE THE SERVICE WILL BE EXCEPTIONAL!

THIS WEEKEND

2009-04-20T21:00:00.004-04:00

This weekend we will be helping out at the Mass of the Anointing on Saturday morning. We will once again be assisting with serving and cleaning up at the luncheon that follows the mass.
After that we host our CAN AND BOTTLE DRIVE. Don't forget to drop off all your clean cans and bottles before or after all masses in the upper lot in the designated area. We will be there with our usual smiling faces!
Thanks in advance for your support!

Pancake Breakfast

2009-04-20T20:58:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we helped out at the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast. Again we had a good time, and enjoyed serving and clearing and working with the Knights. The Knights have been a lot of fun to work with. Thanks guys!
The food was good too!

FISH FRY

2009-04-20T20:34:00.005-04:00

Our last night of fish fry. We were all a little fried, but we had a great time!

Just a few pictures from that night. Whether cleaning or serving, the kids were always happy and always had a smile on their faces. It was great to see them happy and smiling each and every week. It was also great to see them getting to know each other and working together so well. Over the 6 weeks they have become friends already. I can't believe it, but we miss spending our Friday nights with them!

It's a good thing we still have a lot more to do so we get to see them more!

Holy Thursday Presentation "The Passion Revisited"

2009-04-07T20:31:00.003-04:00

The St. Mary Men's Group is hosting a special presentation of "The Passion Revisted" this Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 9:30 am in the church. The presentation will last approximately 1 1/2 hours. Free babysitting will be provided. The mission students will be helping with the babysitting. Please come and experience this wonderful presentation.

PACKING EASTER BASKETS FOR CHILDREN'S VILLAGE

2009-04-05T21:51:00.006-04:00

Tonight we worked together with Holy Spirit Church and other members of the St. Mary Youth Group to pack 200 Easter baskets for Children's Village. Below are some pictures of everyone working together to get things done. It was a lot of fun, and a good expereince. Helps everyone to remember just how fortunate they are and it really makes the kids feel good to know they have done something to help out another child going through a very difficult time in life.

First we all worked together to get everything loaded up to take to Holy Spirit.

Once we got there we had to unload it.

Had a few issues with things tumbling out, but everything was in tact and we got it done.

Once we got everything inside we had to sort it all out.

We finally got to the good part. Packing!

It was a great night. We did a good deed, met some new people and got to know each other better.

2009-04-05T13:12:00.003-04:00

These are the students who will be going to Appalachia this summer. You can find out more information about them each week in the parish bulletin. The bulletin can be seen online as well at www.saintmarymilfordmi.parishesonline.com

THANK YOU!

2009-04-05T12:34:00.008-04:00

Thank you Knights of Columbus for all your support during the last 6 weeks of Fish Fry. Thank you also to all those who came out each Friday night in support of both us and the Knights.

For all those who purchased baked goods over the past 6 weeks, our sincere thanks. You have helped us tremendously and we greatly appreciate it.

UPCOMING FUNDRAISERS

2009-04-04T10:03:00.001-04:00

On April 25th and 26th we will be holding a can and bottle drive.

Please bring your clean cans and bottles to St. Mary Catholic Church to the designated area in the upper parking lot. St. Mary is located at 1955 E. Commerce Rd., Milford, Michigan (we are at the corner of Commerce and Burns Rd) Hours of drive are as follows:
Saturday, April 25th from 4:30 pm until 6:30 pm
Sunday, April 26th from 7:30 am until 1:30 pm
If you don't want to hold on to your cans and bottles until then, you can return them yourself and bring us the bottle return receipt.
If you would like to make a monetary donation, you can drop it off any time before the drive at the parish offices or during the drive.

Please join us for a Pasta and Salad Bar Dinner on May 16th.

Dinner will be available from 6:00 pm until 8:30 pm.
Cost of the dinner is a free will donation. Baked goods will also be available for sale during the dinner.
Please join us for what promises to be a wonderful dinner.

All of the Mission trip students and chaperones will be at both of the fundraisers so come on out and meet everyone in person.