Hayley and Ethan's Blog Post

June 25, 2015 - As the day progressed on Sunday, June 21, 2015, high schoolers and advisors a like began their journey to Jamaica Queens, New York City for their annual mission trip. Meeting in the church parking lot the anticipation of the trip was rising as family member's gathered to say goodbye for the week. As time passed and prayers were said, members of the group packed into the cars like sardines in a can to start a new adventure. Upon arrival at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica there were many laughs shared in conversation about the many "hiccups" on the drive to Jamaica.

Walking into the gymnasium we all adapted to the building of which would house us for the next week. While settling in, those who had gone on the trip the year before, could immediately realize that this was going to be a large improvement. As we were accommodating, the Disaster Assistance Coordinator, Dora S., kindly welcomed us and introduced us to the surrounding area. Throughout the week she has helped the group through providing us with nutritious breakfast, lunch, and dinner options; showing us that there are good samaritans prominent even in places of distress.

Waking up bright eyed and bushy tailed with Mark's method of "gentle" wake up calls, we all slowly rolled off of our cots. When we were all ready for the work ahead of us, with are very fashionable work boats on, we must add, we headed downstairs where Dora had an array of breakfast foods ready for us and a variety of sandwich options for lunch. After having a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal to start our day, we got ready for an orientation that was through the Saint Bernard Project (SBP). The SBP is a non-profit organization, and in this case, is partnered with Friends of Rockaway to help rebuild homes in Rockaway and the surrounding areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

After the informative orientation, the group went their separate ways to the different work sites. Upon arriving at the work site the groups had very little knowledge of what they were really getting into. When arriving at our site we were nervous about what we were going to find inside and what the SBP team had in store for us. Walking through the front doors one could see the sigh of relief as we saw all these walls that had been close to being finished, along with working plumbing and electrical. As we took a walk through, no one could miss the jaw dropping view of the New York City skyline from the back room and back porch. As we were greeted by one of the two site supervisors there was a slight apprehension about how everyone would interact with each other. However, the apprehension soon disappeared as we became more familiar with each other along with the site.

Within the first day, everyone had a designated interested: Gabby and Jeff worked on base trim, Christian helped Gabby and Jeff by caulking the base trim and baseboard, Shannon and Ethan became attached to the bathroom and proceeded to work on it throughout the week. During the week Hayley found her "love" interest in mudding, sanding, and taping the walls, even through the sarcastic remarks of the site supervisor, Jeremiah. The work we began and/or completed on Monday continued to follow us through the week as the work began to become associated with friendship, fun, and volunteering rather than sweat and pain.

We personally would like to thank the SBP site supervisors (Blair and Jeremiah) for their endless help and their extensive knowledge about the work, the Senior P.F. advisors for who without them we would never have gotten here without, and the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica for their hospitality throughout the week.
By Hayley Sanchez and Ethan Skuches




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