October 8, 2011

THANK YOU from Christmas In October!

Christmas in October (CIO) is the leading volunteer organization focused on rehabilitating the houses of low-income homeowners in the Kansas City area – at no cost to them.  Our primary purpose is to rebuild  houses, lives and  neighbor- hoods so that needy families, the elderly, the disabled and veterans may live in safety, warmth and dignity. A person’s house is much more than boards and nails. It’s the place where loved ones live and have a haven from the worries of the day; where people feel safe and secure.

St. Michael took on a huge challenge this year and made an impact on the Armourdale neighborhood in Kansas City, KS. We started off with five houses this year and ended up working on seven! What an unbelievable team effort!!

Our day started off around 6:30 a.m. and ended at 7:00 p.m.! A huge “Thank you” to a few folks who really stepped up and did a huge job of prep work for this day. To Kathy Creighton for getting all the food, drinks and much of the paint & painting supplies for the day! Matt Dierks handled getting the roofers together to fix & tarp the roofs as well as gathering supplies and being one of our experts on the wheel chair ramp! Jim Gardner for planning and leading the huge job of wheel chair ramp construction! Kirk Kisinger for house captain, gathering supplies and doing a lot of the work on his house. Jill Ellena, being house captain and taking on an extra house, (part of God’s plan for the day). Bob Kralicek, Dan Hurst & TC Janes for taking house co-captains on a complete exterior paint and outside clean up. Tim Witt for co-captaining with the extra house as well as staying to help with several other duties after his house was completed. Ken Bryant for working the morning on a the house with Kirk & then moving on to house captain for the last house in the afternoon, as well as getting us the large trailer which was a huge blessing to move all the supplies around and gather them ahead of time. Barry Barclay & his family for helping run to pick up extra supplies etc. Chad Robacker for getting us the generator so we could have off site power! Jerry Ilk for being our electrician and helping with runs to the warehouse for supplies. And Julie Tuttle for helping load her truck at 6:00 a.m. with all of the extra painting supplies that could not fit on the already full trailer ...and picking up the donuts!  Finally, to the small army of adults, parents & a great group of kids & teens who came together and made a huge impact on the seven homes they worked on!

Again I cannot THANK YOU ALL enough!!  The work you did and your support is priceless to the homeowners and to CIO!  This is truly one of the greatest ministries I could be involved with.  To me it mimics Christ as the helper and builder that He is.  He never turned anyone away and always helped those in need!

God Bless,

Don Puchalla, Chairman of SMTA CIO

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