Galveston Servant Event 2010
After the commissioning service on Friday, our group went out to eat. After a dinner most of us had a quick nap before we got up to meet at the church to leave for Detroit Metro Airport at 2:45am Saturday. We arrived at Houston airport at 8am local time. We rented two minivans and made the hour drive to One Mission: Galveston. One Mission: Galveston operates out of a former school, Alamo Elementary. It organizes and houses volunteers, preparing them for Hurricane Ike relief work. After lunch and a short nap we explored the beach down the street from One Mission. Saturday night we ate dinner there and had our orientation training and went to bed.
On Sunday we worshipped at Hope Lutheran Church. They were very welcoming and treated us all to lunch. Afterwards, we visited NASA and went out to dinner to bond as a group before our work week began.
Monday morning we were introduced to Sam Walton from Streetscape Ministries. Streetscape Ministries provides food and services for the homeless in Galveston. For the first half of our day we moved food and supplies from One Mission to Streetscape. Laura Schroeder and Sam Kusek were part of a crew that sorted clothes so that they could be distributed to the homeless. Following lunch, we returned to One Mission where we cleaned the facilities and prepared dinner for the other 141 volunteers there. Jenny Willner enjoyed preparing the cheese and doing many other tasks necessary for the spaghetti dinner.
On Tuesday we moved four to five tons of food and supplies to Streetscape. Zachary Taylor was an expert mover, lifting the supplies and moving them to the trailer. At the end of Tuesday we sorted the contents of a building owned by Streetscape into scrap metal, trash, and yard sale piles. Tuesday night we prepared barbeque chicken for dinner for One Mission.
On Wednesday some of our group painted the interior of a Streetscape building while another group mudded the main building. Hailey Schaldach was an indispensable and skilled painter. Joe Nettleman was an excellent mudder, especially with the corners. Another third of our group washed, cleaned, patched holes in, and organized a streetscape building that a homeless volunteer was living in. Katherine Bowlby had a good eye for recognizing what could be done for that building.
Thursday was our last, and busiest, day at the worksite. One group painted the interior of Streetscape’s main building while Jessica Zalucha and Sally Albrecht cut and installed sheetrock. Another put up trim around the ceiling of another building. Alex Gollin proved to be a master trimmer. Steve Anderson worked with another group to install a door in the building we had cleaned the previous day. Streetscape would have been fined $500 if their lawn got too high, so Reed Kalso took the initiative and mowed their property for them.
Friday was our day of rest. We left for Bolivar Peninsula via the ferry to tour the destruction caused by the eye of the hurricane. While riding the ferry we saw dolphins! We spent the afternoon enjoying each other’s company on the beach. That night we had our last dinner together at a local seafood restaurant and, sadly, packed to leave the next day.
The entire group would like to thank you for your prayer and financial support. Your help made our trip possible and touched the lives of others as well as our own. Our experiences on this trip will remain with us for the rest of our lives and we cannot thank you enough for being part of it.
God’s Blessings and sincere thanks!
Sally Albrect and Zach Taylor, Trip Leaders
Team Galveston, 2010: Laura, Sam, Jenny, Hailey, Joe, Katherine, Jessica, Alex, Steve, Reed, Zach, and Sally
