Conroe, TX – SYP – July 13-19, 2025

Katie & Jonathon Snyder, year-long volunteers, continued to serve as Crew Leaders until early August.  Also, here for this week were Crew Leaders Norm Yoder and Dale Horst, Project Director Lynn Miller, Office Manager Thaine Dirks, and cooks Richard and Marjorie Heatwole.   The weekly volunteers were a SYP group from PA, with a total of 20 youth and adults, an individual from Indiana, and a daily volunteer from the area.  It was a terrifically energetic, joyful and adept group. 

The Schaefer house with siding and floor damage was completed.  At the Korp house a beautiful new ramp was built to satisfy the job card and delight the homeowner.  A third job was completed this week.  There the roof was repaired; a shed that was blown over was set right; and debris in trees were cleared.   No simple task, as all the contents of the shed were taken out and then returned to the newly upright shed.   In addition, three more houses were worked on. 

Next week we hope to get a good start on a couple of new jobs and would like to finish the kitchen cabinets in one place; plan a roof patch and tree branch removal;  and complete the restoration of a closet filled with mold.  The Hope Disaster Recovery staff has identified at least three more homes in need of repair from the triple weather storms the area suffered.     

Highlights of the week included the up righting of the storage shed at the Todd place, and contrary to the photo, it took a team.  Also, in the process of taking out and returning items to the shed, a long-forgotten cache of coins was discovered.    The first few days of the week, the quip was “It must be 2:00 because it is raining”, indicating some showers and often downpours.      

Leaving us this Saturday are Norm Yoder and Dale Horst.    New Crew Leaders Edward Lombardi and Eric Wiebe arrive on Saturday.  

On behalf of the Conroe, TX team, Thaine Dirks