Merced, CA – Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2025

The week of January 27 – February 1 in Merced, California, our weekly volunteers included a group of 14 from the Denver, PA, area and a group of 4 from Ogema and Calaway, Minnesota. The PA group consisted of 10 youth accompanied by 4 men.  Many were first time MDSers.  This group was full of vim and vigor.  When they weren’t working, they were playing and added lots of life to the projects and base. The group from Minnesota was brought by an experienced volunteer who wished to gift 2 of his employees and his 12 year old son with the experience.  These four worked really hard and took in the full experience of service.  The week went way too fast.  They finished up several projects, bringing our total of completed ones to 13.  Lots of floor tiling and grouting, installing baseboard trim, caulking, painting, wiring, finishing, drywalling, plumbing filled the week.  One highlight was the project that included a large open space was offered by the owner that we could use it as our warehouse.  Because of this, MDS has been painting the outside and fixing window spaces.  It has received lots of attention as it is a historical building.  The plan is for local students to come and place a painted hand print on the walls.  The school principal is very enthusiastic for this.  Another favorite moment was when 3 of the PA volunteers were hearing loud and slightly obnoxious children across the street, and eventually realized they were parrots!! (-:

In the upcoming week, we foresee finishing up several more jobs.  We have some fairly small ones on the list, and we plan to start several of them.