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Voc-Ed 08/01/08

Posted by tgoudzwaard in the Vocational Services blog on August 01, 2008
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Wow! What a good summer. It was very hot but the students worked very well. I thought I’d just post some pictures so you could see for yourself.
Here’s the before
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and then the after
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I want to thank all of you for all of your support today as well. We celebrated the completion of the project and the end of summer school with a picnic. Instead it was much more like a feast! I’m sorry if we did not eat all that you sent in. We just had so-o-o much and everything was very good. Thank you.

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Voc-Ed 07/27/08

Posted by tgoudzwaard in the Vocational Services blog on July 27, 2008
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We have just about completed both this summer school session as well as our main project – the picnic stand on the western side of Elim’s campus. I think we have just a couple more things to clean before we do some painting inside and replace both the screens and the countertop. The kids have been great and worked very hard this summer. You should be proud of them. I will try to post some before and after pictures later this week.

Here’s this week’s schedule:
Monday, July 28: Finish Cleaning Picnic Stand and paint
Tuesday, July 29: Work at Southwest Chicago Christian School in Oak Lawn
Wednesday, July 30 & Thursday, July 31: Screens and Countertop in Picnic Stand
Friday, August 1: Last day picnic to break in the newly remodeled Picnic Stand

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Voc-Ed 07/13/08

Posted by tgoudzwaard in the Vocational Services blog on July 13, 2008
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We have been making really good progress on the picnic building. We have all but a few little things cleared out of the inside and are ready to begin cleaning and “redecorating”. Outside we have cleared and re-graded the front and are ready to put down the landscape fabric, patio blocks, and mulch. After that we can powerwash and re-stain the outside walls. I’m not sure how much we will be able to work on this project this week because we may need to wait for a couple of repairs. So, this week we will continue to work on the picnic building as well as do a little shopping for new materials and a little cleanup inside the school building. We are most likely going to split the groups between the different tasks each day.

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Voc-Ed 07/06/08

Posted by tgoudzwaard in the Vocational Services blog on July 06, 2008
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I hope that all of you enjoyed a safe holiday weekend. I just want to take a moment to say that I have been nicely impressed with the amount of work the students have been able to accomplish this summer. Last week we were able to move about 9 yards of woodchips into the courtyard to make an immediately visible improvement in the area as well as complete most of the prep work in front of the picnic building. We pulled weeds, dug up a few small trees, filled in some old animal holes, began leveling the ground and discovered an old animal skull along with some other bones. The students working at the time found it completely fascinating. Each day this week we hope to continue working on the picnic building to complete the approach area as well as begin removing and relocating the many different items that have been stored inside. At this point I’m not sure what the weather will allow but we’ll take our best shot it at.

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Voc-Ed 06/27/08

Posted by tgoudzwaard in the Vocational Services blog on June 27, 2008
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Wow! The first week is done already and it feels like we got a lot accomplished. This week, besides exploring and talking about different possibilities, we worked in the courtyard pulling and digging up weeds (some of them were really big!) we trimmed all of the bushes. It looks like it will be cooling off a little for next week so, at this point, we’re planning on working outside every day.
Monday 6/30 – Spreading woodchips in the courtyard
Tuesday 7/1 – Begin work on the picnic building
Wednesday 7/2 – Work on the picnic building
Thursday 7/3 – TBD. If things go well on the picnic building we may continue but we also might try to change things up and wash buses. I will let you know.

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