ASCLS - Idaho
Focus
More Than A Lab
We had a great privilege of volunteering and getting to work on the
Extreme Home Makeover
in Middleton, Idaho this past summer. We say 'getting to work' because there were so many people wanting to volunteer that many did not even get to actually help out. Others waited an hour or more to be called upon to meet a need and get bussed to the construction site.
There were family, friends, neighbors, but mostly strangers, working together to accomplish something very wonderful for a very needy and worthy family. Volunteers performed a myriad of tasks from picking up construction trash to feeding hungry volunteers, taking water and soda to thirsty workers, and providing iced towels for hot workers to drape around their necks (the weather was well into the 90's that week!)
Not only did a few a hundred individuals volunteer to help, but also area businesses supplied all of the construction materials, construction workers, landscaping and all of the food that fed hundreds. Our hospital was also involved in providing volunteers as the family had been frequent patients and one of the social workers was intimately involved with the family.
It was a very positive experience. Yolanda sat across the lunch table from the grandparents and they conveyed how overwhelmed and appreciative their family was to be the recipients of such a gift. The entire community and all of the volunteers were recipients of a gift also - the chance to participate in such a wonderful event.
Leslie Shafer
Yolanda Blackstun
Rhonda Bulcher
