Destination - Red Rock

Posted on behalf of Roma Leaming

Phoenix Team: To our left, Roma Leaming and on the right here, Todd Godsey.

When we left at 6:30 AM for our drive to Red Rock, we were pleased to see clouds in the sky. We were very grateful to Mother Nature for blessing us with periods of shade and a nice breeze.

Park Ranger Patty Denison met us at the gate and directed us to where Ranger Trevor Gottschalk was located in the maintenance shed behind the Visitor's Center. There we donned gloves for our first assignment. The large landscaped area surrounding the Visitor's Center was overgrown with a weed called Red Brome (we had fun with the name, when you say it quickly several times, it sounds like 'redrum' in the Shining). It doesn't take much for us to find humor in small things. We picked this nuisance weed for a couple of hours. I fumbled with the gloves so they didn't last long.

Todd disturbed some red ants and a couple managed to find there way under his clothing. Oops! What with the ants and working around the cacti, mutters of 'Ouch' and 'Ow' were frequent. Trevor came back to relieve us from the stooping job and when we were finally able to stand upright, we were given the duty of filling a wheelbarrow with water and using watering cans where we went over a large area giving water to newly planted, trees and bushes.

We went to Sedona for lunch and found a great place where we could sit outside. We were sitting about 2 stories up on a patio with a fantastic view when a group of students came to sit at the next table. Pretty soon, there was a lot of commotion coming from the girls who were looking in dismay over the railing below us. A gust of wind had picked up a credit card and over the railing it went landing in a flower bed located halfway down in a large inaccessible flower bed. The student ran out and down to the 1st floor wondering how to get to it as it was halfway between the 1st and 2nd floor. So Todd, being the gentleman that he is, went down and found a way through the trees and bushes, climbed the rocks and retrieved the card for the young lady.

Upon returning to the park, Trevor took us to the shed where Todd and I were given garbage bags and we hiked for 5 miles on all the trails. I'm happy to say that the park visitors appeared to be respectful of the park as we only found 3 cigarette butts. The park is so beautiful that I almost felt guilty being so happy and content. Like I said, I almost felt guilty. I could barely keep my eyes open on the drive home and bless your heart, Todd, for driving! I almost couldn't get out of the car after the 1 1/2 drive, but when I got home, I slept like a log and wondered if there could be a semi annual Labor Day? ; )

Chastain in the Rain

Posted on behalf of John Stachura, who I forced to do a write-up about the day's events.


The Chastain Team (L-R): Mandy Crawford, Celeste Mott, Dieko Toyin-Adelaja, Todd Evans, Kevin Engle, Joleta, Don Ouzts, Mary Benavides, Jean Ray, Necia Barlett, Ray Jones, Amy Trifilo, Saphrina Walker, John Stachura
















The Engle Martin Team that volunteered to assist the Chastain Park Conservancy initially received a bit of the background on the park and the conservancy from the head of the organization. We then branched off, and engaged in a variety of tasks ranging from hanging birdhouses and bat houses(they need a place to sleep too, and they control the mosquito population) to planting wildflower seeds and preparing Dwarf Mondo Grass for replanting.





(Lots of raking going on over there at Chastain.)












When torrential rains began, the team broke out the ponchos and pulled together to prepare an area with dirt and mulch in order to plant the Mondo grass that had previously been prepared.



Wet and muddy, but still full of energy, we then proceeded to Fellini’s where we directed our energies at multiple pizzas.


After all was said and done, the team not only had a great day at the park, but also left a small footprint of their efforts there as well.

The Dallas ReStore Gets restored

Photos and captions posted on behalf of Cheryl Baker.

(Blog author's note: I noticed that for some reason the Dallas team didn't take a group photo at any point. Fortunately I was able to dig up a fairly good shot of them all when they all worked together on the hit TV series "Beverly Hills 90210". Here they are: (L-R, as always) Scott Brown, Jody Wender, Nick Cimino, Crystal Crosby, coincidentally a guy who now works for ReStore, Candi Hopper and Kyle Brothers. The part of Cheryl Baker was portrayed by someone's left hand and is shown there next to Kyle. Sadly Tom Brownfield did not join the cast until the show had already jumped the shark and no group photos including him could be located.)

Crystal Crosby
Nick Cimino, Tom Brownfield, Scott Brown and Jody Wender
Jody Wender shows off her baby bump

Nick Cimino and Kyle Brothers
Candi Hopper

Candi and the team
Crystal Crosby and Cheryl Baker
Jody Wender and Crystal Crosby
Scott Brown, Tom Brownfield and Nick Cimino far right

The Sandy Springs Heritage Crew Cleans Up Nicely!

Posted on behalf of Kristen Foster

The Sandy Springs Heritage team: (L-R) Carlos Ruiz, Alli Kraft, Kristen Foster, Alan Clark, Lisa Artusio, Erin Cote, Kellie Schoolden, Amy Moua, Brooke Mueller and Stephanie Green (mysteriously missing from this photo: Lee Maddox and Lori Hammock)

Our Labor Day in May project went exceedingly well! The group met at the office (with the exception of a couple real go-getters that were at the park before we got there!) and we got to the park right at 10am, greeted by one of the staff members, Andrea Haney. Once the group was gathered, we talked to Andrea and Carol (another staff member) about the background of the park, events that take place there and some of the jobs we would be doing that day.

After we got some group photos, we met with DJ and Jenn, the park's horticulturists, who brought us to the street side of the park and showed us where we would be laying pine straw. The group geared up with gardening gloves and got to work! There was amazing team work all around and it was an incredible sight to watch everyone pitch in, untie the straw bunches and turn the surrounding areas into beautiful landscape!!

The straw laying project took about an hour and 20 minutes in all and we then moved on to "cleaning up" some of the surrounding areas - the area was recently hit by storms which left various debris in and around the garden areas. Our team split up, some of us helped pile the debris while others helped DJ moved bricks and a few helped with planting some flowers and pulling weeds. Just after the rain started coming down, Stephanie arrived with lunch from My Friend's Place and we all headed indoors to devour our food. We had a great time at lunch, chatting and enjoying sitting around for a few minutes. Then it was time to get back to work!

The rain never let up, but the group was fantastic about pitching in and we split up again to pick up trash and debris from the perimeters of the park - Once that was done, the park had no other jobs that we could perform in the rain and it was time to go. Everyone did a great job helping and working and the park looked incredible! There was a wedding to be held at the park the Saturday after we were there and a couple people in our group did so good that they were invited to come to the wedding!!

We had a wonderful experience and enjoyed giving something back to the community and learning a bit about Heritage Park and Sandy Springs.

Zee Red Steek - Alimentation de l'affamé

Posted on behalf of Doughty Kogel from the faux French town of Baton Rouge where people named Drew spell their name "Druex" - as anyone named Provost can tell you, the French have a lot of extra consonants lying around.

The Baton Rouge team: (L-R) Doughty Kogel, Stephen Beene & Druex Babin

Baton Rouge Labor Day in May, 2008

On a mission to find our mission
Was harder than we thought.
Calls & emails all went out
“We’ll never find anything” we thought.

No call-backs.
No need for help
‘til Baton Rouge Food Bank
needed to stock their shelf

Were we prepared?
Our time was near.
Then the Atlanta crew
Shipped us our gear.

Not just a T-shirt
Been there – Done that
That Engle Martin “prize” had all but a hat!

Wednesday had come
And Thursday was near.
Phones were forwarded
With nothing to fear.

Then all of a sudden
Darkness took over.
Storms, tornadoes and flooding –
The rain just hovered.

Thursday came
And still the same
We were tying to do something good
And we still had bad rain.

Did it stop us?
No way!
(C’mon, guys…
it was Labor Day in May)

We got there & signed in
Ready for the day to begin.

OK, “what do we do?”
Thousands of boxes all around.
George gave us the “ropes”.
Our jobs we had found.

“Get the food over there.
Start sorting like this.”
All the different categories made quite a list!

“High Protein”, “Vegetables” and “Drink Mixes”
Were just some
“Dried Food” or “Baking”? –
Which is the right one?!

This was not as easy
As it sounds, you see.
Stephen’s phone started ringing…
What else could it be?

CAT 40 – that’s right.
That’s what it is called.
Calls left and right…
Will our day be stalled?

No way! No how!
We got the job done.
Believe it or not, out came the sun!

How much did we sort?
About 3,000+ pounds they say –
The Engle Martin 3
On that Labor Day in May.