Spreading the Brotherly Love....

Every year Catholic HEART Workcamp grows, reaching new people and doing

work in communities across the country. Last week, CHWC took

Philadelphia by storm for the first time! And what better place than the

City of Brotherly Love to live life uncovered and spread the CHWC love.

Among the 35 work groups working in the city, three groups worked at Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) Parish in the Kensington neighborhood of the city. Clearing nearly a hundred bags of garbage from neighborhood streets, painting the Visitation BVM School cafeteria, and

renovating a local convent, these groups made a monumental difference.

In the process they also learned that This Place Matters.

Visitation is currently one of a hundred finalists in the national This

Place Matters competition run by the Historic Trust for Historic

Preservation. In order to win though, Visitation needs votes! Currently

ranked 7th in the nation, Visitation will use the prize to continue the

outreach efforts of the Parish, which sustain the neighborhood and are

estimated at a value of $22 million. To learn more about the work

Visitation does and to cast your vote visit:

http://www.preservationnation.org/take-action/this-place-matters/community-challenge/places/visitation-bvm-parish.html

Voting runs through the end of June. Each e-mail address can only vote

once, so vote with every address you have!

This is a great way to continue the work that begins at CHWC and allows

the agencies we work with to flourish! So take a minute- share it with

your friends- vote & spread the brotherly love!

What an Unbelievable 4 Days

What can 407 Catholic HEART Workcampers do in a community in 4 days?
At 117 different houses we scrapped and painted, 11 houses on the outside, 96 rooms inside, 3 sets of kitchen cabinets, 7 unattached garages, 14 sheds, 3 swing sets, cleaned and repaired 12 bathrooms, completely tore down and built a new deck, rototilled 3 yards, power washed 14 homes, removed 15 stumps, repaired or moved  4 electrical services, assisted 12 homeowners with their computers, removed and replaced carpet 2 homes, washed over 500 windows inside and out, scrubbed 20 houses inside entirely, reset or replace 15 toilets, repaired and painted 22 doors, totally vacuumed 18 houses, fixed 12 screens, hung 5 ceiling fans,  repaired 3 swamp coolers, 7 floors, 6 light fixtures, 5 leaky faucets, 12 drywall jobs, 2 garbage disposals,  repaired 12 decks, painted 24 decks,  repaired and painted 1000 foot of fence, cleaned and repaired 6000 foot of gutters, poured a concrete sidewalk, fixed 3 concrete steps, help plant and weed 18 gardens, pulled weeds at 46 different homes, trimmed and cut grass at 48 homes, varnished 5 staircases or tables, laid mulch at 36 homes, built one clothes line, repaired 5 sprinkler system, built 4 iron hand rails, moved and help build 12 stone gardens, help plant flowers at 9 houses, sorted 1000’s of books to be sent to library in Kenya, removed 7 old appliances, 50 old tires, cut down over 50 trees, cut and trimmed bushes at many houses, but more than that we removed over 350 compressed cubic yards of trash from our neighborhood.  But more important than all that.  These 407 campers brought excitement for life and Christ to the homeowners.
WHAT AN UNBELIEVABLE 4 DAYS.

-Roger Gudenkauf, CHWC Denver Manager

Staff Training #2

The first staff is on the road, and teams 2,5&6A are here for a week of training. Here are pictures of the teams.

TEAM 2

TEAM 5

 TEAM 6A