A new building means new walls which means a new coat of paint! Join us as at the end of May as we launch into our project season by supporting the Whatcom Pregnancy Clinic and putting the finishing touches on their new building. The Whatcom Pregnancy Clinic provides caring support and education to women, men and families facing pregnancy in our community. This Response Team will be painting all the interior walls of Whatcom Pregnancy Clinic’s new building so this is a big undertaking. Whether you are a lifelong painter or have never picked up a brush, put on your painter’s pants and make this happen, all are welcome.

Join us in transforming outdoor and indoor spaces at the Lighthouse Mission Agape House. Bring your favorite pruners or lawn tools and help spruce up the Mission's grounds by trimming landscaping, pulling weeds, and spreading bark. Additionally this Response Team will be doing a remodel of the Agape House lobby which includes some light demo, painting, and decorating vision. These improvements will help create a more welcoming, home-like environment where guests can feel valued and at peace. So whether yard work is your favorite way to serve or you have some home renovation experience there is something for everyone on this project. 

The winds up in Lynden kick up a lot of dust which means many dirty windows, gutters, and sidewalks. Our new community partner New Way Ministries is in need of an abundance of power washing and window washing. New Way Ministries offers a transitional housing program for women and their children who are facing homelessness. Serving up to 25 families through a three-phase program, their passion is to help residents heal from trauma and learn new ways to live, based on the life-giving instructions of God’s Word. Many hands make light work, and so come grab a sprayer or some rags and squeegees to help refresh over 200 windows spread around 35,000 square feet of building.

Some projects require lots of people to complete a large feat. Others require small teams of folks with a myriad of skills and perspectives to knock off diverse needs off a list, this is one of the others. AHA Childcare in Ferndale is a new community partner who supports the community with childcare, garage sales to support parents, food bank distribution, and works with multiple other organizations across Whatcom County to support children and families holistically. We’ll be supporting them by constructing garden boxes, fixing doors, prepping floors, and restriping their parking lot. Bring your construction skills, eye for design, or simply ready serving hands to welcome AHA Childcare as a new community partner this summer.

Landscaping is the bread and butter of Response Teams. Each season, there are large-scale yard work projects that get us outside together and solidify our farmer’s tan for the summer. Cascade Connections has been a community partner for several years, and since 1980, they have been providing services to people with disabilities that now include home care, residential programs, training, and vocational services. We are heading out to their group home in Lynden to pressure wash, spread bark, remove a basketball hoop, weed whack, and make some minor fence repairs. Lace up your closed-toed shoes and apply your sunscreen for a day serving out in the sun; all are welcome!

Extreme makeover: Garage Edition (along with some other handyperson repairs). Are you an excellent organizer, or maybe just strong and able to move heavy things? Engedi Refuge Ministries is a faith-based, holistic program where women can recover from the devastating effects of sexual exploitation. Response Teams will support them this summer by helping reorganize their garage space, install new shelving, build outdoor furniture, and perform a handful of interior repairs. So come lift with your legs, decode some furniture building instructions, or lend your handy abilities to this project. 

Grab your gardening gloves, your shovels, and wheelbarrows, it's time for some large-scale landscaping and bark spreading. Right down the street from CTK Bellingham is an opportunity to spruce up one of the Boys and Girls Club’s many locations throughout Whatcom County. The Boys and Girls Club Northwest Daycare provides daily childcare and enrichment opportunities to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential. The Boys and Girls Club provides affordable ($40 annually) care and opportunities for many young people throughout Whatcom County. We will be supporting them this summer by removing debris and yard waste across the Northwest property, installing a landscape barrier, and spreading many yards of bark.

Many hands make moving light work, especially when we need to put everything we pull from a storage unit back inside. Lydia Place is focused on disrupting the cycle of homelessness and pursuing healing for generations to come. Lydia Place serves over 300 homeless families, single adults & single-parent households in our community each year. This year, we’ll support them by constructing a loft area in their storage unit where they keep many of their items for the work they do. Response Teams will pull everything out of the unit, construct the storage loft, and then put everything back in. So whether you're a construction visionary, a solid organizer, or a strong back, join us in serving Lydia Place.

Running an organization of exclusively volunteers often means the someday list can get long. Specialized projects like installing security lighting or reapplying asphalt and painting lines in a parking lot can sit incomplete. The Community Access Program, or CAP, serves the people of the Blaine, Birch Bay, Custer, and Point Roberts communities who are in need of assistance to meet their basic requirements for food, clothing, and other necessities of daily life. They are entirely volunteer-based in their efforts as they serve out of the CAP Center in Blaine. This year we want to step into the gap and serve CAP by providing some much-needed maintenance to their parking lot, making asphalt repairs, and striping. Additionally we’ll tackle landscaping and install more lighting and signage around the building. Join us in serving CAP.

The change of seasons means a change in weather, which means a change in temperature. While during the summer months it can get quite warm and an A/C unit gets put to good use, the units are less ideal come fall and winter. Road2Home is a local agency working to fill critical gaps in resources and support our neighbors experiencing homelessness. If you drive towards Sudden Valley, you’ll pass by the Gardenview Village, filled with tiny homes, that is Road2Home. They are a new community partner, and we want to support them in the seasonal change by uninstalling A/C units and making sure each living space has a heater for winter. It’ll take a team of determined folks to get this done, so grab your screwdrivers and drills and come get to work.