Our Third Project with RVICS
We have just completed our first week of the January RVICS (Roving Volunteers In Christ Service) project at Lake Swan Camp and Conference Center in Melrose, Florida. The team is made up of four couples. I'd like to introduce them to all of you in this blog post.
Steve and Joyce Parlette (on the left) are the teams leaders. They are originally from Ohio and have been with the RVICS ministry for six years now. They travel in their Reflection fifth-wheel by Grand Design and were our team leaders back in November 2023 also here at Lake Swan. Steve worked in IT before he retired and now does magic as a ministry. Joyce ran a knitting non-profit for years providing items for new mothers and their babies.
Our newest couple to RVICS is Dirk and Julie Small from Pennsylvania (on the right). Dirk is a Pastor with a passion for missions looking to retire soon. Julie, a former teacher is retired now and they are looking to see if RVICS will be a good fit for their future. They are traveling with their dog Tilly, who is very cute and enthusiastic about this new adventure and loves making new friends. They are traveling in a beautiful 42' Jayco Pinnacle they picked up used but was meticulously cared for by the previous owners.
Rounding out our team are Kerry and Peggy Stover (in the center next to me) who come from Indiana, They travel in their Jayco Eagle fifth-wheel trailer and have been with RVICS for three years. Kerry and Peggy come from manufacturing backgrounds and bring a long-list of skills to the project. The are part-time RV'ers and still own a "stick and bricks" home so they can be close to their grandchildren.
In addition to our team from RVICS we are working with three other couples from SOWERS (Servants On Wheels Ever Ready) and two couples from Campers on Mission. One of the couples with SOWERS, Jay and Laurie Johnson are from Glennallen, Alaska so we will definitely need to pick up some hints and secrets from them for our Alaska trip next summer. The town they live in is named for Major Edwin Glenn and Lt. Henry Allen, both leaders in the early explorations of the Copper River region. The name was originally written as two names, but later made into one word by the post office. The community is about 4 hours east of Anchorage and north of Valdez dating back to construction of the Glenn Highway in the early days of World War II.
The women have been assigned the interior painting of the dorm rooms in the Anniversary Lodge. This is the same building our women were painting back in November. The project is challenging due to the interior wall material being difficult to paint and there is a lot of trim to cut in as they proceed.
With his electrical background, Kerry is installing new LED light fixtures in the dining hall. The rest of the men have been assigned the construction of an addition to the Chapel in the camp. This 12'x60' addition required 2'x2' concrete footings to be set and poured, with seven 12' - 6x6 vertical stanchions to support the floor joists and sleeper along the overall length. We completed all the concrete footings, stanchions and horizontal framing in the first week.
Monday we will continue attaching joist hangers and begin the laying of the 2'x6' floor joists, Our hope is complete the floor framing for the addition by the end of week two.
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Tilly is adorable!