Vermont Bridges – Dec. 15-21, 2024

Our team of eleven volunteers from northern Indiana arrived Sunday evening after a 13 hour drive through the night.  They joined Project Director, Don Horst and his wife Rachel, from KS, who were there for the second week.  Total number of volunteers this week was 13.

Monday morning the team went to the Teachout bridge site to remove the forms and do some backfill dirt work.   At the Cook bridge site, volunteers drilled and epoxied in the rebar for the stem wall.  Tues. the equipment was moved to the Freedom Acres bridge site where the footers were laid out and dug.  Wed. Several of the team worked at Ty’s shop, building the rebar cages and forms for the footers.  The rest of the team went to the Freedom Acres site to drive pipe.  Thursday, footers and cages were installed and concrete poured. Friday, the stem wall forms were set and the concrete poured for the stem walls.  After cleaning up the site, volunteers were ready to prepare for their trip home.

In spite of the difficulties encountered throughout the week, due to “quick sand” like soil, heavy snowfall, icy conditions and over an hour’s drive to the Freedom Acres bridge site, the team completed the work that leadership had hoped to accomplish!  The community expressed their appreciation for our work in various ways, including serving hot foods at lunch time.

The delivery of the beams for both Teachout and Cook bridges will make the swinging of these beams possible next week.

We greatly enjoyed working with Ty, getting to know the homeowners and being part of the bridge building process here in Vermont.  We leave knowing our teams were committed to doing their best to represent Christ as we worked through the challenges we faced.  We are grateful for the opportunity to share God’s love in this northern community.

Submitted by Don Horst, Project Director