When I received word that Extreme Makeover Home Edition was coming to town, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to give back to the community that made us so successful for the last 16 years!
I knew this would be a very challenging week, because Tony Smith, my General Superintendent, and right hand man, would be out of town on a much needed vacation.
Pictured are Tony Smith (left) and Richard Bell.
Just in case building a house (and soup kitchen, garage, cottage, pavilion, mature garden, and more) in seven days was not enough work to do, Mother Nature decided to throw her weight around, too! On Tuesday, August 23, a 5.8 magnitude Earthquake rocked Virginia, sending shock waves to the East Coast, including Delaware.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/23/magnitude-58-earthquake-hits-virginia-sends-shockwaves-throughout-east-coast/
Even with the rumble of the Earthquake, the building was going strong and the volunteers were working around the clock to get the job done on time. Nothing would stand in the way of our community coming together for such a meaningful cause! Except maybe a hurricane! When the authorities started planning evacuations and warning people about potential damage from this massive hurricane, I knew we had to get our paver crew in there right away to start working. I contacted the project coordinator and explained the importance of us getting our pavers laid before the torrential downpour of hurricane Irene, which was due to start impacting Delaware as early as Friday night.
On Thursday, August 25, my paver crews were sent to their scheduled customers’ homes to work on paver projects that had already been started. When I received the call that we could begin working that night, instead of our scheduled Friday night, I contacted those customers right away to explain the situation. Everyone was very understanding and happy to hear we were a part of this project. I sent my entire crew home at lunch time on Thursday to get some rest, eat dinner and wait for my call. Some of these guys clocked out as late as 2:30 p.m., to return that night.
My entire crew and I met at the shop at 8 p.m. We loaded up our materials and tools and headed to the Extreme Makeover check in location.
Pictured from Left to Right are:
Ryan Houghton (Project Manager), Tony Smith (General Superintendent), Cesar Garcia (Base Foreman), Angel Rodriguez (Paver Tech), James Jones (Pool Foreman), Cristobal Tinoco (Paver Tech), Richard Bell (President), Ramon Ruiz (Paver Foreman), Fortino Sanchez (Paver Tech), Avidan Roblero (Wall Foreman), Doug Arcos (General Sales Manager)
Not pictured, but a very important part of the team behind the scenes are:
Debbie Morgan (Office Manager), Ann Smith (Customer Service), and Jennifer Bell (Administrative Assistant)
By 8:30 p.m., we had checked in and signed our release forms at Cape Henlopen High School. They gave us our crew passes, Extreme Makeover blue t-shirts and our hard hats.
Approximately 9:15 p.m., we checked in with the secretary at the makeover site.
Sadly, by the time we were ready to start working, we had a rain delay until about 10:30 p.m. It rained hard for about an hour. Luckily, plastic was covering the entire site, so the whole work area would not be covered with rain water.
