A long first day.

Wow, it is hard to believe that it has only been one day of volunteers so far. Today has been a pretty long day and eventful as well. I had shed duty this morning, which basically means that I was on hand to check out power tools and insure that groups received the tools and supplies needed for the projects. Personally, it is my favorite duty to have in the morning as I love helping people to find where the tools they need are. Everything went well and with out a hitch, I did however have to spend a solid hour putting together measurements for a tin order which set back our runs. Some staffs like to participate in what is called "Blue Monster Monday" which is simply shotgunning a blue monster before heading out on runs on Mondays. Typically Sunday night is the longest meeting for the week (not always but it can run a little long) which can leave us a little tuckered out to say the least. Stuart, Jen and I took part in this time honored tradition with "Proud to be an American" sounding from the radios in our vehicles. Needless to say, it was a proud moment.

Runs were uneventful, each of the projects we visited were doing an awesome job so far. Many were actually ahead of where we thought they would be at this far into the week. It was however after runs ended where the real problems arose. Jen and I arrived back to find that we had ordered the wrong stuff for our food order that night, which meant we had to drive the 20-25 minute drive into town to pick up 20 pounds of ground beef. Being the great multitasker that I am I figured I should stop off at the bank to try and pick up our late arriving checks. After a solid 20-30 minutes spent at the bank sorting out the details (evidently the checks were not sent overnight as they should have been) we had to rush back to the center to get the taco meat back in order for the cooks to have it prepared for dinner at 6:00. Fast forward past the typical half hour spent doing paperwork and talking with Group Leaders about their projects to dinner. As I walked through the dinner line I stopped to talk with our cooks to see how they were, they let me know that Kristen, my center director, had a fever and was laying down for a little while. Kristen has been sick for a little while now so we decided to just let her sleep as long as possible. Well literally as I was sitting down to eat, Jen let me know of a problem that was just discovered. "Phyllis says that the water has shut off..." Uh-oh was the only thought that went through my head. The next hour and a half was spent running around trying to figure out the problem with Stuart and Jen without volunteers really finding out and us trying to let Kristen sleep some of her fever off. Eventually, midway through Evening Gathering that is, our Facility Manager was able to come by and get everything fixed up and usable. A good way to put how our Evening Gathering went tonight is just simply to say that it needs some work. Singing with volunteers, especially when they don't know the song and you don't know how to play it, absolutely sucks. One of the worst experiences I have had with putting on an EG however we will continue to tweak the game show idea. To top that off with a staff meeting that started at 11 just makes for a long and stressful day.

1 day down and many more to come.

Happy Day 2 of Week 1!

Apologies

I would like to apologize for the lack of updates. Its going on 2 and a half weeks now since I have left home and I haven't really gotten a chance to stop and catch my breath! A full update is coming but here is a quick overview of what all has been going on. Training lasted 10 days from May 25th to June 4th and was jam packed with construction, informational and positional sessions. I found out my staff and where I will be stationed about halfway through training and was (and still am) really excited about it! I am on staff in Wyoming County Guyan Valley, West Virginia as the Finance/Supply Coordinator. My center director is Kristen Donovan and my two first years are Stuart Sullivan in the Operations Coordinator position and Jen Armstrong in the Volunteer Coordinator position.

This past week has been Set-Up week, basically the week where we set up our center, find all of our projects and get a feel for the area. It sounds a lot easier than it is when put into one sentence but my lack of updates might show how much free time I actually have. We have found eight awesome projects for our upcoming Week 1 with volunteers and I am really excited to see where they will go! That being said, Volunteers show up tomorrow (technically today)! There is still a lot to be done and I need to get some rest before then or else I would write more. Again I am so sorry for not keeping you guys updated, I know my family has been bugging me to!

Feel free to send me mail and or goodies at;

ASP Guyan Valley Center

Attn: Torre McLain

P.O. Box 455

Brenton, WV 24818

(I promise an in depth update will come when I can stop to catch my breath!)