We had a very successful Service Weekend May 15-17, 2009. We had a
number of projects and were able to complete almost all that were on the
list. We painted the walls and ceiling in the inner office of the
Staffhouse, we reshingled another section of the LS roof, we rebuilt
screens, we hung the old wooden Nature Camp sign in the Museum, and got
Camp ready for another season. The finish on the new wooden sign was
still wet when we left, but Charlie has since mounted it in the same
location as the old wooden sign. It now reads “Providing environmental
education to young people since 1942″.

We removed the old shingles, felt, and rotten wood from the north end
and middle sections of the dining area of the LS and replaced them. This
was the second section of the roof that we have reshingled. We will
continue with the final section of the LS roof in September 2009.

Of the 75 folks who attended, 13 had never been to a previous Service
Weekend, 5 folks will be on Staff this summer, and 6 folks will be
campers this summer. In May of 2004, we had 78 folks at Camp for the CD
release party. That is the only weekend we had more folks than this past
weekend. We have now had 312 folks who have attended at least 1 Service
Weekend.

Katie and Chuck were chief cooks and bottle washers with help from
Maggie, Amy KG, Nell, Shirley, and others. The meals were, as usual,
just fantastic. We sang in the LS after dinner on Friday and Saturday.

Eight folks, Flip, Matthew, Dave, Joe, Peter, Walter, Jonathan, and
Mike, arrived at Camp on Thursday May 14th to remove the shingles from
the roof of the LS. Katie and Maggie also came along to feed the crew
when the project was finished. The original shingles that were installed
in 1952 were still on the roof. Some 20 years or so ago, the caretaker
had installed new roofing felt and shingles over the old felt and
shingles. I figure these folks removed between 3 and 4 tons of old
shingles and felt in about 5 hours. Charlie had arranged for a dump
truck to be there to receive the old shingles. It rained like crazy
shortly after dark on Thursday evening, shortly after the shingles had
been removed. The plastic and tarps that had been stretched over the
unshingled areas of the roof blew off with the first gusts of wind, and
it was raining inside the LS. While a number of us manned mops to dry
the floor so it wouldn’t swell and buckle, Flip and Matthew went up onto
the roof to secure the plastic and tarps. For their bravery and
dedication, these 2 fellows deserve the hero awards. It was pitch black
outside and they had to wait for the lightening flashes to see where to
put the nails to hold the plastic and tarps. Did I mention that it was
raining like crazy and everything was very wet?

Thanks to Allison, Amy, Amy, Anna, Anna, Annie, Art, Barak, Beth, Bob,
Cammie, Cary, Cat, Cathy, Chris, Chris, Christopher, Chuck, Chuck, Dave,
David, David, Don, Ed, Ellis, Flip, Flynn, Gus, Henry, Jane, Joe, Jon,
Jonathan, Josh, Kat, Katie, Kim, Kristin, Larry, Latham, Laurel, Lily,
Louise, Lucas, Lucy, Maggie, Mary, Mary, Matthew, Michaux, Mike,
Mitchell, Molly, Neil, Nell, Paul, Paul, Peggy, Peter, Rachel, Reid,
Robert, Rosie, Ryan, Sarah, Scott, Shirley, Steve, Terry, Theta, Tom,
Tony, Walter, and especially Charlie. There is never enough thanks for
Charlie. And a special personal thanks from me to everyone who
contributed to “The Star of the Service Weekend”. I was really touched.
Thank you.

Download “Star of the Work Weekend Mp3″ – this is a large file (19 Meg.)

Amy K. Gonzales has invited you to look at her photos from this past
weekend. She has them posted at the following website:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=x44a7h7.2ko8m943&x=0&y=96lhre&localeid=en_US

Jim Brooks
NCF Service Committee Chair