Our club used our District 6060 Incentive Gift to donate items to Almost Home and got our hands dirty in a good way.
We came, we saw, we conquered the playground at Almost Home!
Andy Newbold, Lauren Georgaias, Lyndsey Reichardt, and Charlie and Emily Jernigan formed the Clayton-Ladue Rotary Club New Member project team on-site. Adam Weyhaupt, Toni Shelton, Tim Durbin, and Bob Staniforth were also on the team. Tim dropped off the wish list items as he was unable to stay. We also missed Toni, who had to be out of town, and Andy and Bob who were unable to make it.
The staff welcomed us and gave us a tour of the facility. We watched a short video that helped us understand more about their mission and how they work to achieve it and talked with several staff members about their work and Almost Home. We were expecting to work in the basement sorting donated items. Instead they turned us loose on the playground to spread mulch and put together a sandbox. It was the nicest sandbox any of us had ever seen.
Adam and Charlie tackled the sand box. Lyndsey, Lauren and Emily laid down plastic liner over part of the new swings and slide area and spread what felt like 200 bags of mulch. Emily did not do the heavy lifting, but Lyndsey and Lauren got all those heavy bags onto the ground. After we spread out the mulch, we could immediately see what a big difference it made. Lauren had to leave so Lyndsey and Emily helped with the sandbox. Check out the teamwork photo with Lyndsey, Charlie and Adam working together to get one bolt screwed in the right place!
Lyndsey and Adam had to get back to work so Charlie and Emily finished it up, all but the sand that they will put in place soon. The kids will enjoy playing in the sandbox that offers protection from sun and rain.
Besides donating items and helping get their new playground set up, the group had fun working together, getting to know each other, and feeling great about experiencing Rotary in Action!
Thank you, Toni, for getting this gift from the District for our club and for your leadership enabling us to make this new member project come true. We told the staff that we would have more items to donate, maybe next week.
