Blightbusters Sat. Oct. 4th. 7 people, com on!

Here's a link that's clickable so that you can go sign up...

http://motorcityconnect.collectivex.com/calendar/event/2008/10/4/70512

I may have a different plan on 10/4 as noted in my recent request for 100 volunteers post.

"You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want" Zig Ziglar

Do we want to help Blight Busters? Come on people we only have 11 volunteers. We need at least twenty to make an impact and thirty or forty would be better.

We just added another volunteer, only 13 to go. Let's do this!

I'm going to bump this thread since we're talking about tomorrow!  Looking for a good way to spend a Saturday and do good... join us.

We're starting to cook now folks. It's a perfect day for doing something good tomorrow. Not to hot, not to cold. Join us for Blightbusters and help us purge a neighborhodd of an eyesore. Blightbusters 10-4-08 from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

It was a perfevt fall day for the event.  The sun was warm and the air cool.   I believe that we had a good turn out for the event.

I would like copes of the photos taken at the event and will share those that I took.

Good day and very interesting project.

A little photojournalism, Michigan fall breeze, lots of sunshine, nasty dust particles, hard work and good people making a difference. That is what today was all about at the former crack house that was reduced to rubble by the MCC volunteers and the Blight Buster Crew. If you missed this one PLEASE make it a point to be at the next one. Many photos were taken. Were you in one of them???? Below is a link to the ones I shot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magicinthemoment/sets/72157607738873886/

Oh, I forgot to mention. Virginia was practicing for the next MCC Bocce Ball event. Today she was using bricks! Look for her photo on the link listed above.

Can I get Woooo HOOOO

Man, I sure hope those of you who didn't show up felt the energy and the good feeling that those of us who did shared.

It was AWESOME! I wrote more about it on my blog: http://networkedinc.wordpress.com/blog/

I want to thank, and we'll see if I get all of these (sorry if I missed you, please just add your name):

Charlie Wollborg

Stephanie Styron

Duane Ahola- btw, I am not 100% sure that he will receive it, but the MCC member of the year award has been officially named "The Duane Ahola" award

Keith Stonehouse- A quick shout out to Gina

Ric Dojai

Jeremiah Staes

Robert T.

Virginia Tatseos

Travis Milward

Walt Rush

Chris Mosier

Pat Williams- glad you're boy had a good time

Ryan Charleton

You all made this a very special day for me. I hope you can say the same.

Be Connected-

Terry

Hi Gang,

Blightbusters was an interesting event for me yesterday. I had been fighting a head cold for a couple of days and when I woke up Saturday I had the annoying congestion headache and that tired run-down feeling that accompanies a head cold. It was a struggle to drag my rear out of bed but I still managed to get to BB at around 8:30am. Lo-and-behold the second person in the lot was an IT person from Quicken Loans. I'm not the youngest person in the group but if I recall correctly I think I do a little IT stuff. WOW! What a nice way to start the day.

Fast forward to around 9:00am and we're heading to the demo site. I have on a nice warm sweatshirt with long very soft sleeves, keep in mind, I have a head cold so you can use your imagination as to the significance of that. Soon we became engrossed in the task at hand.

After a while I notice a few things about my fellow MCC friends. Virginia for one had on a shoe with the front part cut off. I asked her what happenned and she told me she had surgery for a break and needed a little extra room so her toe would not hurt and I surmized not-as-much. I marveled as she tossed bricks on the truck, carried debri and performed numerous essential tasks throughout the day.

A little while later I noticed Charlie grabbing a bottle of water and looking like he was about to collapse from the hard work he was doing. I asked him was he OK? He said I'm fine, got his second wind and plunged back in. That's Charlie for you.

All the other MCC people were equally inspirational. Keith, Gina, Ric, Robert, Travis, Walt (I'll call him the Bull, because he's such a powerfull strong worker) Chris, Pat and Ryan, all put in a strong effort using sledge hammers and axes to make small pieces out of big pieces of debri, carrying and shoveling debri and anything it took to get the job done.

Another person that caught my attention was Jeremiah. He had to leave at 1:00pm because of a prior commitment. He came up to me and apologized and I said for what. You came here, worked your rear off and made a substantial effort to help out. If only we had ten more Jeremiahs.

Then there is Terry doing all of the above, and Stephanie who Terry calls his lady and that she is. I was particularly impressed with her as she did a round on the truck hauling up trash cans full of debri, a job many of the guys were not volunteering for. A while later I saw her shoveling up debri and putting it in a trash can. She shoveled right up to the point where there was not enough to worry about and I told her that she must have the cleanest house on the block (no chauvanism intended) and if I spelled it wrong I never won a spelling bee.

A while later it dawned on me, she shares the same philosophy as Terry, if you can't do it right, don't do it, but I nthink they take it a step further, if they can't do it right maybe they know someone who can. One nice thing I noticed when we were done. Stephenie walked up to Terry and said: "Want to go for a burger and a beer?" Without hesitation Terry said: "We could do that." No debates just a clear understanding of what makes the other happy. Kinda neat.

By the way for those of you who doubt the rewards of giving, I got a lead and by the time we were done my cold was gone. Isn't life great!

Another BTW. Why should we do this, because somebody has to.

Thanks for a great time on Saturday!  It was hard work but well worth it.  I added a couple of pictures to Flickr, they're not labeled with people's names since I need a lesson in remembering names.... who is offering that seminar? http://www.flickr.com/photos/cletch/

I was surprised to learn that Stephanie was with MCC!  I assumed she was with Blightbusters because she worked so hard and knew all the ins & outs of the work. (Stephanie - thanks for that tip about the crack in the bottom of the can!) 

It was also great to see Virginia Tatseos again, it had been too long.

I added the images to my blog as well where I thanked Charlie & Terry for organizing the event... Duane, it seems I may need to add your name... let me know and I'd be happy to do that and link to your site.  www.RealHomeSense.com

I was so elated about the day, my neighbor wants to join in next time. 

Despite the pounding headache, Gina and I had a blast doing something that otherwise would be ran away from lol ... A great gang showed up and we could not ask for more! I was impressed to see everyone jump in and give 110% like they did. It was an extremely dangerous work zone and everyone from MCC threw caution to the wind to do their part and make a difference!

Great job guys! This is what it's all about!!!!!!