On Thursday and Friday, July 26th and 27th, several members from Southside and supporters of Southside met to continue to update our RV.
A huge thanks goes out to Terry Love from Habitat for Humanity, Rex Green from Minuteman Press of Fayetteville, Kristen DeSantis, Chrissy Marrero, Melanie Street-Harper, Corina Bronzi, Issac and my neighbor who happened to walk by and was willing to lend a helping hand. Additional thanks goes out to Meera Sarin for providing us and amazing Indian lunch on Friday and Bobbylee Wargula, our ever faithful photographer and cheerleader. Others who stopped by to cheer us on were Rory Christian, Raissa Chandler and Kristen Peirce Lane. And we made new friends at the Fayette County Dump.
Thursday morning began with Terry knocking on my door at 0800, ready to take on the day. His direction and enthusiasm helped us to complete the demolition of the RV and we were even able to start putting in new floors and painting the walls!!!
Just to make sure everyone is up to speed, I want to share a little background on this RV, it is a 1997 Ford Bounder and 34 feet long. It is in good condition, although old and a bit smelly...like we were after all that manual labor. Over the summer, we had a wheelchair door installed professionally by Cobb and Sons RV. It certainly got us motivated for the next step in the process.
We were ready for our demolition work days. All the carpeting had to go. There was even carpet on the ceilings (apparently carpeting was all the rage in 1997). The couch had to go. The bed had to go. The toilet had to go. Lots of destruction helped us start anew and make this RV a welcoming place for anyone who needs a safe space at a large community events such as the Renaissance Festival, Chick Fil A Movie Nights, People First Egg Hunt, Fayetteville Market Days, and so many more. The RV will be equipped to assist medically fragile children and adults needing to cool down, provide a cool and clean place to change a diaper of most any size, give or refrigerate medicine, nurse, and offer a quiet place for a child to self regulate.
At the end of the work days, we were proud of the work we completed...and looked forward to much needed sleep! We finished demolition, patched walls, removed sticky stuff, removed a half a million or more carpet staples, and started painting...some of us with our hands...sort of by accident...and installing floors.
There is still more work to do and we will need wish list items and funding to finish turning this dream into a reality. We are connecting with local groups and organizations who might provide continued support to help us see this project through. Keep an eye out for our next workday. We hope to schedule it soon!