Much appreciation to Frogger, Jenny, Drebin, Rotary Club, Ping, and Ping’s M for volunteering an entire Saturday to work in Lansing and Creston in Ashe County. For the record, we spent a ton of calories and this was a tough day’s work.
On the way up Ping and Rotary Club discussed their military days. We also discussed how much teachers are overpaid in NC (not)… In the other car, Drebin had to endure the likes of Frogger and Jenny in conversation, so…
We weren’t sure what the day would hold when we arrived. We ate breakfast at a local diner (thanks to Drebin for getting the tab). We then headed back to the volunteer tent. We were told up front that we could be sorting donations, helping with logistics, serving food to volunteers and community members in need, helping the town with cleanup efforts, or helping get supplies to residents who can’t get in and out of their home.
We arrived at Toby’s former/abandoned Elementary School to check in at the volunteer tent. They asked us if we could operate a skid steer. We didn’t lie and said no. However, do you know those times in life when you should’ve just stretched the truth a bit and said yes? We totally should have (more on that later).
They initially assigned us to help with donations. It was kind of like the matrix at first because they told us just to look for the ”orange haired girl” who would give us directions. That was easier said than done, but eventually we found her. We were assigned carrying in donations from crates that were donated/delivered from the outside to be sorted for residents in need to “shop”.
We were then assigned to help cleanup at the local town park that was flooded. We were given the playground to “dig out”. No joke-we really slung a lot of mud. Back to the skid steer. The whole time we were working at the park, we realized how much a skid steer would’ve helped, but also how much fun we could’ve had operating it. Learning for the day: always say that you can operate a skid steer-even when you can’t, cause how hard can it really be?
“Winging it is just part of life.”—Jenny.
Frogger showed us that he can operate a wheelbarrow with ease. Drebin did more farmer carries with buckets of mud than he ever hopes to do again in life. Rotary Club, Ping, and his M worked hard with shovels. Jenny made a friend from Troutman. Everyone worked hard and the progress was noticeable before we wrapped up.
We then ate lunch. Volunteers were served by local churches and we had smoke pit BBQ chicken. It was legit.
After lunch we were deployed to a farm who had trees fall on a fence that had cattle in the field. While this owner probably could’ve paid someone for this service, Jenny and Rotary Club were itching to use their chainsaws and Drebin really wanted to take his new 4×4 off-roading. Well, they all got their wish, because we went off-roading up a freakin mountain.
While on the peak, fun things happened like everyone wondering if trees that were larger than we should be cutting would fall on us once cut. Limbs were pulled away from the fence line. Also, Jenny wanted to see how many times he could get his chainsaw stuck in a tree…just…for…fun. Rotary Club’s chainsaw blade began to fade and Jenny was spent, so we called it a day. The farm was better than it was before we arrived. While we couldn’t finish the task, we made a good dent in it.
We headed to Boondocks on the way out of town for some R&R before getting back on the road. Thanks to Jenny and Frogger for getting the tab. Also, thanks to Drebin and Rotary Club for driving.
We saw some hard hit communities from the storm. Western NC will take a while to rebuild, but their people are resilient. I can’t thank this group enough for volunteering their day. While it wasn’t what I envisioned or would’ve mapped out, I would do it again. We’ll be taking another crew up in a few weeks. Any Pax interested should let us know.
It should be noted that Jenny is currently researching skid steers…