Monte Lake, B.C. – July 24-30, 2022

This week we had the privilege having Grant from Calgary, AB; Rudy from Langley, BC; Glenn from Stoney Plain, AB; Bob from Saskatoon, SK; Gordon Baergen from Edmonton, AB. As well as a group of 4 from “The Meeting Place Church” in Winnipeg – Randy, Tim, Susan, and Rick.

The 4 houses have seen progress over this past week:

• Eager house is taking shape with the interior studs up, ready for the floor on the 2^nd
• On the Maisonneuve house the siding is on; Robert & Michelle are very excited. Rick, our weekly volunteer, was thrilled that his father stopped by and was impressed by the quality of work being done. Insulation has been delivered, which Rob wants to put in himself. He was also there to witness the last nail being put into the siding.
• On the Sundby/Hanton house, odd little things have been completed, as well as 14 bundles of insulation installed. Need to get another beam under the deck, so this is taking some creative thinking.
• The Peden house is waiting for the windows, which were delivered on Friday. Something for next week’s group!

We also had the privilege of serving some of the community members with odd jobs, such as the Frans, where volunteers are constructing a shed.

We have had very warm weather this week. The volunteers have managed to be safe, enjoying the visit from the cooks who brought out ice cream treats to the job sites. They even enjoyed a dip in the lake during their breaks or on the way back to camp. The whole group has remained happy and positive as we endured the heat this week, something noted by one of the volunteers.

We invited Greg O’Neill, a Silver-Culturist from Vernon, to join us on Tuesday for supper and share some of his knowledge of trees with us. Greg works with trees and reforestation planning, he also spoke of the effects of the fires on the vegetation and the forest floor, answered many questions for the volunteers.

A special supper this week was BBQ Ribs, the ribs were a donation from the soup kitchen in Kamloops as they could not make use of this product there. We enjoyed them here – thank you to our cook Florence for the connection and the great meal!

Thank you to all the volunteers this week for managing through the heat. You accomplished great things this week!

Also thank you to others who are leaving the project this week: Ralph Hughes, Denis Sabourin, Florence Walde. As for our Long-term Volunteers, we will be welcoming a new cook – Connie Goertzen. Long term Volunteers this week were: Florence Walde, Ralph Hughes, Denis Sabourin, Don O’Neill, Nathan Bartel, Abram Reimer, Sofia Epp, Brianna Wiebe, Hannah Cober, Ike & Priscilla Epp.

Reporting – Priscilla Epp