North Carolina Bridges – Jun. 1-6, 2026

We had a total of 18 volunteers during this week; 2 Weekly, 2 Crew Leaders, and 2 Leadership volunteers, and 1 Long Term, to work on the Pace Bridge in Hendersonville. We also had 8 volunteers from Islamic Relief USA, to help, observe, and learn how MDS does long term recovery. This group included several staff of IRUSA, some weekly volunteers, and a couple of cooks. Our volunteers were from VA, OH, PA, MT, TX, NY, and Canada.

Many thanks to IRUSA for providing the food for the week as well!

We had a few exciting things happen in Bat Cave this week. The neighborhood bear continues to pay us visits! Along with IRUSA group, we had several visitors from the Lititz office, and a local guest, Emma Churchman, who so kindly came to talk about Hurricane Helene, answer our questions, and gave a tour.

Kevin King joined the volunteers Sunday – Tuesday. Josh Carson and Becky Gochnauer joined the group Wednesday – Friday. Paul Hunt and his wife, Julie were here all week videoing and interviewing the experience of the week.

We worked on one bridge this week, Pace Bridge. Progress was as follows:

Monday,11 volunteers started to remove the culverts. Emma Churchman joined the group Monday evening to talk about the experience of living through the hurricane and answer questions the group might have.

Tuesday, 13 volunteers set footers, set micro decks, and built rebar cages.

Wednesday, 12 volunteers set concrete footers.

Thursday, 10 volunteers removed forms and set rip rap. We stopped early today to join together for a hot lunch and a tour of the area offered by Emma Churchman.

Friday, 11 volunteers finished rip rap and set steel. We wrapped up early to come back to camp and clean before departures.