Whispers of Hope NOMADS Project - P4

Period 4 NOMADS (L to R) Kathy & Dave Smith, Jeff & Joyce Fetters, Billie & Lon La Bumbard, Mary & Barry Stewart, Midge & Bub Morris, Kathy & Dave Waters and Betsy & Bill Losey.

     Saturday, March 8th, a new crew of NOMADS settled into the RV parking area at Whispers of Hope. This was a fun time of reunion as we had worked with 3 of the couples previously in the past couple of years. That afternoon some of us headed out to do a bit of shopping. The women dropped off at Hobby Lobby and Hancock's Fabric store while the men headed for Home Depot & Lowes.

     Sunday afternoon we held our get acquainted meeting. The allowed everyone to get to know each other and the project plans. Monday morning, after we had our devotions, we eagerly headed off to work. We needed to give the contractor a few more days to finish the new horse building before we could start inside on the office framing and stall walls. So we concentrated on other projects:

Barry trenching for new sanitation line for RV's

Dave cleaning the rental trencher before it is returned

Working on the sewer line

Kathy, Billie & Joyce finish painting the fence

A truckload of stained lumber waiting to be installed in the horse stalls

Bub & Bill

The contractor was making good progress

We worked on completion of the staining of 600 2x6 lumber, insulation above the restrooms and volunteer room in the arena, finish painting the roadside fence, trim brush along the fence line, stump removal, installed sewer hook-ups for the RV's, putting benches together, and preparing hinges for new upper wind gates at the arena. 

 Dave & Mary loading lumber

Joyce screwing lumber to steel braces

 Kathy and Midge pre-drilling holes

 We get started on framing in the office areas

 Barry was building the cupola for the new horse barn

 Lon & Bill ram-set the walls to the concrete

 The offices are looking better

 Billie took time out after work to ride

 The horse barn is coming along well...notice Barry's nice cupola up top!!

Joyce and Mary carry 18' doubled 2x6 rafters

Billie, Cathy, Joyce and Mary taking a break at the end of the day
 

 This is how much we completed by the end of our time here at Whispers of Hope.
Notice the drywall waiting to be installed - horse wash stall on the right

Bracing completed

 Framing around the beams

Dave and Janis (Barn manager) making plans to grade

The office entrance is a red Texas star door

The crew eating at Mazoli's pizza

     As usual our 3 weeks together as NOMADS during period 4 flew by quickly. We enjoyed making new friends and being together with friends from previous projects. We had 3 couples from Wisconsin, 2 from Michigan, and one from North Carolina and Kanas. We bonded together well and accomplished a lot during our brief time in Wichita Falls.  

Whispers of Hope Horse Farm - NOMADS Project P3 -2014

NOMADS Team Period 3 @ Whispers of Hope Project in Wichita Falls TX

L to R - Mary Elizabeth Pearce (Director), Martha & Kent Mason, Betsy & Bill Losey, Pat & Don Fowler, Dave & Cathy Smith (leaders), Mary Lou & Paul Stark, Joyce & Jeff Fetters

Concrete slab & foundation for new offices and 20 stall horse barn

     While working Period 2 on a NOMADS project back in February we noticed that there had become an opening for the Whispers of Hope Horse Farm in Period 3. We were scheduled to work there during Period 4 so we volunteered to work the last 2 weeks of Period 3 at Whispers and were accepted. That gave us a week to relax and take our time driving from Arizona to Texas before starting there. We arrived Saturday, Feb. 22nd and were greeted by our leaders Dave & Cathy. We parked our trailer and settled in. Gradually over the weekend we met the other members of the NOMADS team. Bill & Betsy Losey from Kansas, Kent & Marsha Mason from NC, Mary Lou & Paul Stark from New York, Don & Pat Fowler from Nebraska along with our leaders Dave & Cathy Smith from Michigan. 

                         Horse Arena  >  

<<<<< NOMADS RV parking area

Whispers of Hope is a non-profit program that helps physically and mentally challenged children along with Wounded Warriors. It's a equine therapy program operated strictly by volunteers. It has been in existence for more than 12 years. http://whispersofhopehf.org

     Due to waiting for contractors to erect the steel building we continued to work on other needed projects around the farm: 

 

Kent & Don make repairs to playground equipment

Martha & Joyce cleaned and painted the restrooms

 Bill is painting one of the awards stands that he and I built

 Joyce and Martha using wire wheels to prep fence for painting

Joyce painting road front fence and new gates hunter green

Kent and Don heading back to work in the Mule

Finally on Tuesday of our last week the metal starts going up.

It was exciting to see the progress made each day.

    We had a great time with this group of NOMADS. It was especially interesting as this was only the second project for "Newbys" Kent & Martha. While many of the others have been doing NOMADS projects for many years. We all blended well together. We were very lucky to have lots of musicians in our group which made morning devotions a lot more fun. Martha played the keyboard, Kent played his violin, Mary Lou played her mandolin and Paul had a variety of guitars to choose from. We had weather that was like being on a roller coaster with one day only reaching 20 degrees, while others were in the 70's.

    Next time I will cover Period 4 at Whispers of Hope!

Wesley Community Center - Phoenix - NOMADS Project

NOMADS Team @ Wesley Comm. Center - Period 2, 2014
Enjoying a meal together: L to R, Charles, Carol (leaders), Rose, Irv, Debbie, Thom, Steve, Sandy, Emma (Wesley Operations Director) Betty (Wesley Exec. Director), Joyce

    We arrived at Wesley Community Center in Phoenix Saturday, Jan. 25th and set up camp in their parking lot. We had a total of 5 NOMADS couples on this project including our leaders Charles & Carol Townsend from Washington state, Irv & Rose Barrett from Portales NM, Thom & Debbie Abrahamson from Lemoore CA, Steve & Sandy Drake from Tulsa OK. Thom & Deb and Steve & Sandy are full-time RVer's. 

    The Wesley CC is community health center primarily and has a very active after school program as well. During the 3 weeks were there we completed numerous projects for them.

We built a center privacy wall in the lab

We built a new reception desk & counter

Sandy painting the new short wall

Irv & Steve installing new cabinets in office

New swinging door we built and installed

The restrooms were cleaned and painted

The janitor closet was given fresh paint

The ladies cleaned and organized the kitchen

     We had a fantastic 3 weeks working with our fellow NOMADS. The people at the medical center were friendly and very cooperative as well.

     While in the Phoenix area we went over to my sister, Gwen's house to visit her and my parents. We try to do some chores that they need done while we are there visiting. This year we built ramps to the back door and the storage shed.

New ramp to the back door

 New ramp to storage shed

New power lift for dad's scooter