A Special Thank You

We are all very appreciative for the blessing that the Juniper Tree is to us and we want to do our best to keep it clean and maintained. The teams’ work has helped us maintain this pride in our new home.

The focus for the past few months has been to reduce dust and clutter at the Juniper Tree. Being at the edge of a desert, the home site has more than its fair share of light, sandy soil that gets tracked into house. To combat this problem we have been pouring cement and planting grass to give the kids non sandy places to play.

A team from Lawrence Free Methodist Church (Lawrence, KS) poured a concrete patio at the back of one of the houses and sealed off some ventilation holes that were left open on top of the houses.



A team from Door Creek Church (Madison, WI) poured a concrete base for our new carpentry workshop.



We then started on the structure and a team from Holy Trinity Church (Raleigh, NC) finished the structure and started putting wood trim on the walls.



Next, a mixed team from Pennsylvania , New Jersey, and Ontario finished the wood trim on the workshop and painting the entire building. Then helped begin huge concrete sports pad, where the kids have been enjoying skipping and hopscotch as well as rollerblading and spinning tops.





The last team of the summer from Hespeler Baptist Church (Cambridge, ON) finished the sports court and did a major cleanup of the entire property.



Throughout the summer we have planted grass around three of the houses. It not only cuts down on the dust, but also gives the kids a place to kick the ball around and just lay to watch the clouds go by.

Behind the Scenes

Though hands-on work with the kids is done on the field, nothing that we do would be possible without some behind-the-scenes help from the Kids Alive International home office staff.

I had a rare opportunity to visit the home office yesterday and met these wonderful people.

Here they are.

Marketing

Clockwise, starting top left - Kristian Pruitt, Director of Marketing and Communications; Debbi Kozak, Data Coordinator; Valerie Blohm, Communications Coordinator; Beth Murvine, Grant and Major Donor Writer; Phyllis Pierson, Donor and Network Specialist. NOT PICTURED - Rich Anderson, Director of Special Services

Accounting

Left to right: Lindy Melrose, Accounting Clerk; Brenda Yack, Accounting Assistant; Marjie Van Schepen, Accounting Clerk. NOT PICTURED - Renée Beauregard, Chief Financial Officer

Operations

Left to right: Gordon Sheffer, Director of Administration and HR; Cambria Breitzke, Short Term Missions Coordinator; Emily Johannes, Sponsor Relations Assistant; Ashley Berry, Receptionist/Operations Assistant. NOT PICTURED - Traci Hardel, Sponsor Relations Coordinator; Rachel Yack, Sponsor Relations Assistant; Ashley Rice, Sponsor Relations Assistant; Matt Parker, VP of Operations; Jeff VanDerMolen, VP of Operations

The Kids Alive President of Operations, Al Lackey, also wasn't in the office when the pictures were taken, but here's a picture of him visiting the Oasis last year.