Red Lake, MN – June 4-10, 2023

Sunday evening, our group of twelve long-term volunteers welcomed ten lively young girls from Wisconsin, along with their drivers, Chris & Edna and Ivan & Mary. Three of our long-term group completed their terms and returned home Wednesday.

The drivers, Chris and Ivan, created drying racks to hold the newly painted siding strips. Their wives, Edna and Mary, helped the cooks in the kitchen and assisted with the Friday cleaning.

The group of girls finished the siding and did some clean up work at Claudia’s house #2. This house is 100% complete and we were able to close this job card. Some of the girls worked at house #3, Victoria’s house. They removed the old siding and painted new wood siding. They placed the newly painted siding strips on the drying rack to dry. The girls, along with crew leaders, Mitch and Joanne, put on house wrap, applied trim, installed siding and caulked joints at house #3. Some of the girls worked on Delwyn’s house #4, with Becca, Simon and Jon as crew leaders. They removed siding, cut out and replaced rotted boards, painted trim and painted siding, taking advantage of the newly created drying racks at this site also. The girls had fun as they were working though. We even heard about some cherry spitting contests!

In the evenings, one of our long-term volunteers, Simon, entertained the girls by taking them to play volleyball and, perhaps the highlight of the week, one evening he took them to a nearby dump where they sighted three bears!

Wednesday evening, Eugene Standing Cloud, one of the leaders of the Ojibwe Nation, joined us for supper. He talked to us about the Ojibwe tribe and the history and culture of the Native Americans in the Red Lake area. Friday morning we celebrated Ivan’s birthday with cinnamon rolls.