Walking with Purpose

THE team - Jan, Ebe & Brandy

This post is technically a week overdue, as I am reporting on an event from LAST Saturday, but just roll with me here and we will get back on track.

Elizabeth and Brandy have been doing the Alzheimer's Walk for at least 6, maybe 7 years in honor and memory of Ebe's Mom.  I joined up about 4 years ago in support of the cause; right after David's Dad passed away from the same disease.

My boy...the perfect mascot!

The event is held at Huntington Beach and is typically always a BEAUTIFUL day along the beach.  Ebe has had a team each year, some years with more people than others and, for 3 of the years, we had a mascot...my boy Freddy!  We decided to forgo the mascot and the larger team this year, so it was an intimate group of Ebe, Brandy and me.  We still managed to raise a good chunk of money as a team and of course we had an enjoyable time.  A little misty-eyed at a couple points, remembering Lucille, Lin and Freddy, but it was nice to think about and honor them all.

I appreciate having the opportunity to share the love of those near and dear to me through thought and action combined - I am indeed thankful to be blessed with so much purpose in my life!

Team Lucille

The lack of postings of late is in no way an indication that nothing is going on. Quite to the contrary, as a matter of a fact!

I will be blogging about things from a month ago at the rate I am going these days, but for today we have to only look back a few days...to Saturday...to enjoy a nice morning in beautiful Huntington Beach with some of my favorite peeps, a very cute dog and a worthy cause.

The Memory Walk is an event introduced to me by my fine friend Elizabeth, who leads a team each year in honor of her mom (named Lucille, hence our team name!) to help raise money and awareness for Alzheimer's, a disease that sadly affects many people - either those who suffer from the illness themselves, or their families who sadly watch the deterioration (and eventual loss, as was the case with David's Dad last month) of the people they love.

Elizabeth has been coordinating walkers and donations for several years now, inviting me to join her this year. After checking out the event on the website, I realized that they encouraged dog participation too, so we decided that it would be a nice event for Fred Fairbanks IV. All dogs were given a purple memory bandanna to sport, which Fred did willingly. The dog costume contest however, we politely declined. Fred is not into dressing up, even if it is Halloween.

We had a great time on the course (we opted to do the longer 4-mile jaunt). Elizabeth, Kris, Terri, Brandy, Jim, Gay, Fred & I all trekked along the boardwalk in support of the cause and the perfect So Cal day. It was one of those events that was just special...it made me think of David's Dad a lot, so I was kind of quiet, but it was a very positive and uplifting experience, especially with all of the volunteers along the course, cheering us on.

Fred did very well in his debut outing and celebrated his walk with a bit of breakfast on the beach after the walk, followed by a long snooze in the car, his fur blowing in the breeze created by the open sunroof.

It was a good day for Team Lucille indeed!

100+% !!

We brought it in right under the wire, but the fundraising goals/commitments have been made, thanks to many of the fine NFA readers (the acronym for Newton Family Adventures, of course!).

I was very excited to see that I hit my goal this afternoon, thanks to a donation from a mom of someone that I work with...how cool is that? My co-worker asked me for the link and then passed it along. The unity that this walk inspires is powerful and I am still very moved and appreciative of it all.

Holly of course has to point out that she is at 100+% of her goal because she is currently $50 over what she projected she would raise. No matter that my goal was higher, she has the little + and I do not.

Given the event and the fact that we are competitive over who raised more for a great cause, I am more than happy to yield that "+" to the Schnoogs. She has earned it!

Up on the Rooftop

After the successful use of power tools, I was promoted to painter. Laura (the leader) had Laura (the worker bee) and I sprawled out in the middle of the street (actually a hill unpaved and so steep no car in its right mind would dare take it on), painting portions of the lumber that would be placed on the trusses to complete the roof and close the house in.

We only had one roller-handle between us, so there was a good deal of creativity using branches, scrap pieces of lumber and when all else failed, our hands to roll the brush and spread the paint. We did a thorough job and made it to a late lunch. I was feeling pretty good about things, so when Laura (the leader) asked worker bee Laura and I to go up on the roof to lay the paper, tar and roofing stuff, we said, "sure!"

I learned something very quickly while laying on my stomach, head first near the edge of the roof holding nails for Craig and Matt to pound...I am OK with heights, but I DO NOT enjoy the sloping angle. I felt like I was slipping and was going head first!

Tim was in charge of teaching WB (as in worker bee, it's shorter!) Laura and I how to install the roof and much to my dismay, he was intent on us learning by doing. This meant that WB Laura (who shared my slope-phobia) and I had to hang dangerously close to the edge of the roof as we pounded in roofing nails to hold down the paper and then the roofing itself. There was a lot of anxiety-sweat, let me tell you. I will also admit that I was kind of mad, mostly because I was really feeling as if I was about to freak out over the whole ordeal.

Not surprisingly, once I relaxed, things went just fine. No one fell off the roof, had to be rescued or tripped and nearly broke their neck. In fact, we had a great view of the ocean from our elevation and pounded in the last nail, finishing the house, just as the sun set.

I decided that I was so cool with the whole roofing deal that I went over to another job site early the next morning to help with their roof because there was not a willing volunteer to climb up there. It was a flat roof, no incline. We had that gem rolled out in 2-hours, piece of cake!

You'd think I have been doing it all my life looking at the picture here! By the way, this photo is courtesy of the SOTHUMC website, nice job, peeps!

Beware of Sharp Tools!!

I must admit that I didn't know what to expect when I showed up Friday night at the center Craig and his group were staying at in Mexico (south a bit of Tijuana). We were welcomed warmly by the group who told tales of some unbearable heat at the job site and also to a chiropractic table in the middle of the courtyard...Matt was sharing his occupation with all who wanted to take advantage!

The next morning had everyone up by 6, packing our lunches, loading up on water, eating breakfast and gathering our tools. I was assigned to Laura's group-a fine collection of 8 or 9 other builders with varying degrees of skill but all committed to getting the job done.

The first few minutes I felt a little awkward; this group had a whole day on me in terms of experience! Soon, Jerry took me under his wing as his apprentice and we were framing in windows, which required me to use two tools that I was hoping to avoid-the table saw and nail gun. When I was packing my tools and gear to prepare for the trip, David had warned me against both of those tools if at all possible. He, more than anyone else knows of my potential to be clumsy and likely envisioned some none-too-pleasant outcome of me with power tools.

I am pleased to report that no appendages were cut, punctured or in any way harmed through my efforts!

Hola, mi amigos

I have been fortunate in my life to come across a number of people with a very philanthropic spirit, offering me opportunities to share in the same. One venture that I have seen in action for 8 or 9 years but have not had the opportunity to participate in has been building houses in Mexico with my friend, Pastor Craig.

PC (AKA "The Mighty One") was the pastor at my church for 6 or 7 years and introduced the house building ministry to our church. Year after year youth and adult groups made the trek (including my own youth group member, at the time an 8th grader we call Schnoogs), but for some variety of reasons, the timing was never right for me.

Now that Craig has abandoned the fine people of Thousand Oaks and moved on to his new parish in Mission Viejo (do I sound bitter?) called Shepherd of the Hills*, the home building ministry has continued, although many of the players have changed. I decided over the MLK Jr weekend that I was FINALLY going to make the journey down to see what all of this home building buzz was about. The SOTHUMC group left on Thursday and were coming home on Monday, which was a bit more than I could muster, so I opted to ride down with my friend Tim on Friday afternoon for two intense days of house building.

The photo above does not represent my best photogenic skills (I was after all using the Blackberry!), but I am somewhat intrigued with the lighting and the story that this photo tells for me. This is the picture that I took as soon as we got to our work site; the team had been there the day prior and they constructed the shell of the house, starting from the slab that had been poured the week prior. The walls are up, but there is still a lot of work to do!

The adventures of the day were many...you will have to tune in tomorrow to find out all about it!

*For the record, all of my grousing, complaining and feigned bitterness over Craig being moved from Thousand Oaks to Shepherd of the Hills is an act because although I miss Craig in T.O., I am enjoying my assumed "associate" membership with the fine people of SOTHUMC