Our founder and all around nice person, Petra Nemcova

Petra Němcová stopped by the All Hands and Hearts Volunteer base the other day. For those of you who are not fashion focused, don’t feel bad. I had to Google her too. The term Super Model kept popping up in the search results. It’s a long story on how she came to create this organization and to a bunk bed in the North Carolina Swamps so I’ll let you do your own googling. She spent the evening in the dining room just chatting with the other volunteers. Couldn’t have been a nicer human being. The next day she was at a work site hanging drywall. I haven’t seen the resulting Youtube segment but I am told she hopped in and hung a sheet of drywall like a champ. I’ll look for the video and update this post when I find it.

On the other hand, I, being not so camera ready, spent the day tearing down wet moldy drywall in a church bathroom with a crow bar. Pretty much the next best thing to hanging with a super model that I can think of.

While Leaps and Bounds might be an overstatement, my volunteer career is progressing nicely. Let’s just say skips and hops. I have already been promoted, albeit unceremoniously, to Assistant Team Lead (ATL). I woke up one day and the job board had me designated as ATL. I am not sure what it entails other than an additional meeting or two but I have been getting to sit in the front seat of the truck when going to and coming from the jobsites. All the more convenient since I am the driver now too.

Don’t worry, all this upward mobility hasn’t gone to my head. No corner bunk for me, I still have to pull my weight with the toilet cleaning and kitchen duties.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Hurricane clean up is broken up into 3 efforts. “Muck and Gut”, is getting all the wet, moldy rotting debris out of the building, “Sanitation” is scrubbing all of the exposed surfaces and spraying anti mold chemicals. These two steps are difficult and about as unpleasant as they come.They are the most important however, because any rebuild work that happens after that will be a wasted effort if the mold comes back.

All Hands and Hearts is on a pretty tight budget so the main goal is to work up to a point where the home is safe, dry and warm with priority going towards homes with elderly or children in residence. The work includes putting in new insulation, doors, drywall, flooring, a working bathroom and a basic kitchen. As you can see from the pictures, there are even some churches getting some help as they are so critical to life and community here.

Which brings me to ask you all for a little financial support for All Hands and Hearts here in North Carolina. I waited to see how they spent their money before I set up the donation page. The organization rates highly among charities for being responsible with their finances.

Charity Navigator gives them 4 out of 4 stars

Charity Watch rates them as A+

Considering my personal experience with the 1 ply toilet paper and generic brand groceries, I have to concur. To that end, I have created a web page that only takes 1% as a handling fee. Typically these fundraising sites take up to 5%. No obligation but if you are so inclined, any money donated via this site stays in North Carolina.

Click the URL or copy and Paste….https://give.allhandsandhearts.org/DonsFundraiser