I'm going to take some space to tell you a little about the cast in our story. We had a group of 15 people and I want to point out a few of the people I'll be mentioning along the way and give a quick rundown on my teammates.
Allison (on-site coordinator): She's quite a character and I'll talk more about her later. She certainly loves seeing projects come to fruition and hanging with our group. Unfortunately, she had to leave one day early to fly back to Chicago for work. The nearest airport was in Gulfport, MS. I guess she flew out of the Gulfport International Airport.
Evan: I probably spent the most time with him. He jokes a lot, moreso than I do. But I have to say he has an ability to talk to anybody. Whenever we worked together, he would just talk to people and ask them about their experiences with the hurricane, how they were coping, etc. That takes some real courage. He's 41, spent some time in the military, and lives in Villa Park.
Eric: He was the technical brains of the group. He's been down here before and I think that was in March. He oversaw a lot of the projects we did like buying supplies, organizing painting, and building the plywood box. He spent a lot of time working around camp doing projects for them as well. He also oversaw the handling of the vans and routed the trips.
Bob: Speak softly and carry a big stick? That would describe Bob Birch pretty well. My mom as I found out after the trip worked with him on a Blitz Build. He's around 65, just retired from teaching science at an elementary school in Batavia. He was always on his own schedule it seemed. At the end of most nights, he would leave our team meeting and just head back to the cabin and get some extra sleep. Maybe his body just needs that at this point. I got to know him a little bit, but he tended to like remaining in the background.
Madeline: She's a physicist and there was no project she would not do. Using huge circular saws, painting on rooves, she was just fearless.
Mary, wife of Evan: Mary was quiet, which makes sense considering Evan tended to do most of the talking for them. I worked with her most days and she always did things without you knowing. She would never talk about what was going on, she would just work and do things well. Since Evan wasn't allowed to drive the vans, she did a lot of the site driving as well.
Mary, Premonition: I'll get to the premonition part soon enough. Mary was a mother-type for me. She was never in a bad mood that I can remember. She was always sharing something on her mind. She was probably in her 50's. We worked together on the bridge over the last day. And she told me on Thursday she had a premonition about me. Now I don't know what it's about, although I have an idea what it could be about. She said she would e-mail me in one month. Why one month? Your guess is as good as mine. I guess I'll find out soon.
Debbie: I didn't spend too much time with her. We were always doing different work projects until the last day. I remember she had big earrings and controlled the walkie talkie radio in the vans. She always came back with quick one-liners that were really funny. And she brought an Ipod with 60's and 70 music. That always helped work go by a little faster. I bet being in her van would have been good beause I heard they were playing most of the ride.
Jill: Simply as compassionate a person as I've ever met. She's a PE teacher and driver's ed teacher in Algonquin and I think she's around 45 or so. She wouldn't tell me exactly. It's hard for me to figure out how she's never married. She spent most of the van ride organizing her photo albums. By the end of the trip, she got through 1993 and 1994. If I organized my whole photo album, I'd be done in 30 minutes. We did some drywall together at the house in Louisiana. And for a PE teacher who's in good shape, she eats more like a shop teacher. Whenever we went out to eat it was Cokes, "Coney Island" hot dogs, BBQ ribs, ham and cheese sandwiches, potato chips. I asked her how she did it. She said when she eats junk food, she doesn't eat much of it. My thought was well if you eat junk food 20 times a day but only eat a little each time, it still adds up. That's the first thing I thought, not the first thing I said. And on one ride to Sonic, she told a story or two about getting massages in Russia and China which thanks to a few other people, quickly turned into a "conversation on acid" as Allison put it. I was laughing at it so hard, I can't even remember the details. Have you ever laughed so hard your ears hurt? That happened to me. But I was glad Jill came. She's a special woman.
Ellen: She's a doll, as my father's side of the family might say. She's 30, although she looks younger, which may me because she's small in stature. She lives an hour from me in Lake Villa, a town around the Illinois-Wisconsin border near the North Shore. Several times I saw her take this HUGE black and yellow locust (the picture will be here soon) and rest it on her forearm. She had to be out of her mind. But she was always working hard, she was a great listener, and had a nice wit about her.
Lee Ann and Alison: I had to group these two together because they are crazy and spent so much time together. Anytime they were together, crazy things could happen, as I've mentioned in the Sonic story above. Alison was in her late 20's and I think the youngest person on the team besides me. Good to note she is Italian, Catholic, and married. She said she was a little taken aback at the church service we went to. She's used to spirituality being more personal and reserved. So it was a little different for her as it would be for any Catholic. Now during our first dinner in Mississippi, I sat at a table with Evan, Mary, and Lee Ann. She's in social work and very eccentric. Every big group has that one loud goofy person who breaks up the tension. She was it. The last day of painting, she was covering a few people's clothes with it. Fortunately, I came a little later in the day.
Susan: Well, she lost her voice after about the second day. But we enjoyed being around each other. Put it this way. I never went away from a conversation with her feeling worse than I had before.
Other notable people:
Jim: From Willow Creek. A United Airlines pilot in his 60's or 70's who flew down to work with us. He was a good man to have around. We talked about a number of things including the airline industry since I have the obvious connection with my mother working for American.
Todd: Also from Willow Creek. He lives in Mundelein and works in finance. His wife is freaked out by bugs and he saw the big black locust. So when I told him about the photo of the locust and Ellen, he begged me to send him a picture so he could show his wife. Apparently, she gets freaked out by a spider. The last thing I said to him before I left was you'll get the photo as soon as I get the film developed. He was all pumped up.
Bob and Megan: They were both on staff at camp. Bob's in college in Ohio and Megan is in high school in Ponchotula, Louisiana, which is the hometown of American Idol's Lindsey Cardinale, who was way better than Carrie Underwood, for the record.
Lou Ann and Jeff: One of several married couples involved in the house we built in Louisiana. They came back to Camp Coastal afterwards and hung around our camp to see what we were doing there. From Georgia and Lou Ann is the epitome of a Southern belle between her hospitality, her accent, and her grace.
No comments:
Post a Comment