Happy to add to the years events that Youth Conference 09 ~ Extreme Makeover for Haltom City Senior Park is now complete and was a great success! Woo hoo!
It's been months of planning, prayer and great faith the Lord would help us provide a tough opportunity for the youth to strengthen testimonies by losing their selves in service, experience team cooperation, leadership, skill building and also offer a rewarding humanity element.
Prayers were answered!We framed up and poured a 1/4 mile 6' wide walking path for the Haltom City Senior Citizens Center, and subsequent landscaping embellishments like clearing fence lines, grooming the ballpark, assembling picnic tables and painting playground equipment.
As this project materialized, it was evident to me Andy and Todd had to be the General Contractors, as I knew they would share the same vision of hard hands-on work opportunities for the youth, high expectations and a finished task to feel the pride of start to finish accomplishment. That we did!
It was quite a feat to stage truckloads of lumber, rebar, sand, mulch and concrete to keep 240 youth busy to complete this task in two days.
The boys pulled strings to get 11 concrete trucks on Saturday over Easter weekend to allow us to literally leave our mark. Not only did the youth learn skills, but were able to strengthen their testimonies and draw a few seminary lessons from the process of framing a strong foundation, anchor, tie and cement with the gospel.
Heather was in town for Easter weekend. Traditional holiday it was not, but so grateful she was there to share in the project with us. She quickly got involved and served lunch to the masses! Not traditional, but fitting on Easter, to follow the Savior's example and render service to our fellowman.
The little ones enjoyed visiting the site and playing on the equipment. It was especially entertaining to watch the guys pull out the sunk concrete truck that held us up for an hour.
The hickson-hickson-hickson-hickson team!I am filled with gratitude the project provided the youth with an experience they will never forget, but even moreso, grateful for the opportunity to work so closely with the boys and strengthen the bonds of our circle. They were absolute rock stars in making this happen - I choose them on my team EVERY time!
"The things you do for YOURSELF are gone when you are gone.
The things you do for others, REMAIN AS YOUR LEGACY."
~H. David Burton ~
FHE - walking the legacy! xo
