Saturday was the annual Christmas in October event. CIO is a non-profit organization that supports efforts to rebuild/improve homes in the Kansas City area and help "winterize" their homes for the upcoming season. This year the Millennial Employee Resource Group (MERG) had three houses. I was the co-captain of one of the homes alongside Megan Fostich. Our work crew was 10 people strong - a mix of Hallmarkers and family members.
Megan and I had to do a few rounds of inspections before selecting our home. After our selection, we made a work plan then had to shop for our materials. 90% of what we needed we found at the CIO warehouse. The other 10% we had to buy at Lowe's, etc.
Some of the major projects we took on were: fixing/installing light fixtures, installing smoke detectors, stripping and painting his house, cleaning up his back yard, repairing minor patches on his roof, clean out his gutters, mow his lawn and trim/pull weeds around his home. It was a hard/fun day of work from 8-3! Below are some pictures of the event.
Inspection Photos
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| Light fixture in kitchen - we later put in a nice chandelier! |
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| Back yard...a mess! |
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| Backyard overtaken by weeds/trees... |
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| and ivy! |
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| Did I mention ivy? |
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| His antenna was not attached too well. We actually took it down and then we patched that open spot near the roof. |
Event Day Photos
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| Starting to tackle the backyard. |
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| Down with the ivy! The backyard took us all morning, but it looked amazing afterwards! |
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| Some of the ladies tackled the painting duties |
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| Chip away that paint, Becky! |
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| Hedge trimmers |
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| Matt mowing the backyard. It took us 3 hours of solid work to get the backyard "mow-able" |
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| Our awesome homeowner, Corranzo. He was very grateful. |
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| Some of the gang during lunch break |
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| Mike (on roof) chatting with Corranzo |
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| Katie (blonde hair) and her family |
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| Me and Niquey! |
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| Crystal caulked the windows in the back |
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| Nancy got after it all day |
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| Anique and I tag-teamed the trees |
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| Pat - a little sweaty. He was the chainsaw man...knocked down 3 dead trees in C's backyard. |
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| The gang with Corranzo. You can see the painted house, shutters, and mowed lawn. |
Our homeowner, Corranzo, was so grateful for all of our work. It made all of us want to work that much harder for him to get his house cleaned up. Our group of Hallmarkers couldn't have been better. Everybody worked hard and had a blast.
God bless you, Corranzo. Merry early Christmas!
Wow! That's AMAZING!!! What a transformation! You all got to play Santa Claus for the day. Nice work...I'm proud of you! Love you!!!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to comment the past couple of posts, but for some reason when I try to post, the comment gets erased. Kyler clued me in to try on Firefox (he had the same problem). Just thought you'd want to be aware... But I'm persistent! :) Love you!
ReplyDeleteAwesome opportunity to give back. Glad you had the opportunity and took advantage of it. I am sure Corranzo is grateful - yet another small way to mirror Christ's example.
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