Red Lake, MN – September 10-16, 2023

Long-term volunteers this week were year-long volunteer, Jack Odhiambo from Kenya; Inko Ndlovu-Mathuthu from Zimbabwe;  Eric Douglas from Mississippi and Janis Ott from Germany.  From Virginia was David King, crew leader; Lois Wenger from New York, head cook; Mim and Leo Martin from Pennsylvania, serving as assistant cook and crew leader; Don and Rachel Horst, project director and office manager.  Our weekly volunteers were Andrew Nawrocki from Wisconsin and Jack Tillatson from Minnesota bringing the total number of volunteers this week to 12.

Steps were built for the back door at Margo’s house completing the work that was to be done there.  The old siding was taken off Shelda’s house, old windows removed, and 16 new ones installed, furring strips installed, new siding painted and installed as well as a new front porch and steps built.   Windows for Polly’s house were ordered and reordered several times over the past number of months.  With modifications to the house, this week’s team installed standard size windows and Polly is delighted to have the work on her house coming close to completion.

Highlights this week include the happiness the children at Shelda’s house express as they watch the repair work in progress; welcoming John Longhurst who came down from Canada for a few days and the year-long volunteers’ trip to the Mall of America, which was very enjoyable for them.

Next week we will finish trimming the windows at Polly’s; finish caulking and painting at Shelda’s house and packing things up for the winter shutdown.

Rachel Horst for the Red Lake team.