Sleepless haze to horray's

Hello all,
This has been a month full of activities! We had Family Volunteer Day with Boy Scout Troop 4. The invasive honeysuckle at Kiwanis Park and Trinity Church suffered greatly. The Scouts were full of energy, positive attitudes and hard work. I was worn out 30 minutes into the removal so having those energetic boys around helped.

Ok, now what I really want to talk about. Part of my job here is to get some sign frames made for the wonderful signs for our Rain Gardens. After pricing steel, I began to get worried as the price was very close to going over budget, and the evening welding instructor was not returning my phone calls. After a sleepless haze caused by accidentally purchasing and using 24-hour energy toothpaste, I began to get very nervous and even considered making the signs out of wood. Then, I was reminded by the secretary of the Columbia Area Career Center that there was a daytime welding instructor. I called him and he was very accommodating. Julia and I went to meet with him to discuss this project. After a few minutes of discussion, Mr. Henneke, the welding instructor, agreed to have his class build the signs for MRCN, costing us only the price of the steel. He said he would call in a few days with a quote. He did, and his quote for steel was one-half of that quoted by the steel companies. He said they got a deal because they were a school and used a lot of steel. The sign frames will be done soon. They still need to be painted, installed and have the sign screwed to the frame, but hey, no problem.

We also began to get started on the Rain Barrel Art Review. This year we decided to prime the rain barrels, thinking the artists would like that. My old employer, Wayne Guariglia, owner of Oakstone Homes and Columbia Showcase Cabinets, offered to let us use his spray room in his cabinet shop. With the help of Rebecca and a volunteer named Mark we got them sprayed in one morning. Thanks for the use of your spray gun Jason Neirmier.

I am beginning to get started on The Healthy Watershed Series, so keep a lookout for updates concerning that.

Keep up the good work AmeriCorp members!