The cast of reporters from TV Station CHLC has returned to College Hill Lutheran Church to resume their studies at the University of Northern Iowa. Having spent a week in Houston, Texas during spring break experiencing their servant event trip for 2009 they are excited to flood the media with their work and play endeavors as well as their impressions.
The crew of fourteen (14) left Cedar Falls on Friday evening in the fire red College Hill van and drove all night reaching Houston and their host church, Our Redeemer Lutheran, on Saturday. Grocery shopping and gazing around the wet, wet streets of Houston occupied the day and evening. Sunday the students attended church and were treated to supper and Bible study that evening. Another rainy day.
Okay. Time to get to work.
Work was directed through an organization called LINK. They had eighty (80) volunteers between two locations. There were forty at the site with the LSF crew. There were work crews from Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, Canada and Texas.
Monday, the students planted trees and plants in a median. They raked and weeded to clean up the area and put down mulch. Tuesday found the crew working at a future nature preserve. The area had been designated as a park but now was badly in need of clean up of brush, weeds, debris and garbage. Wednesday, the work load was much the same, cleaning up a site littered with stick, branches, and leaves. This area was College Park Cemetery, a long established burial site where free blacks and their families were buried. There were also elaborate burial sites for important black members of society: first blacks on the City Council, members of the Armed Forces, etc. The last work day, Thursday, had arrived and the crew was put to work taking out garbage, tearing down dry wall, paneling and spraying disinfectant on the walls for a lady’s home in Houston.
The crew members are the first to admit that the trip wasn’t all work. They did enjoy the sites of Houston. The relaxation times included a trip to an aquarium, watching the NBA Houston Rockets basketball game at Toyota Center, walking the beach and swimming at Galveston, going out to eat and other site seeing.
Now, Thursday was the day of the UNI appearance in the NCAA tournament, so everyone worked especially hard so they could finish the work task early and make it to the nearest TV to watch the game. This was also the time to head home, again an over night drive. So it was clean up the church area, shower up and pack up. Checking to make certain there were no geckos or cockroaches planning to go along, everyone loaded into that comfortably, crowded red van for the trip home to Iowa.
Station CHLC Channel 3 has lost it’s analog and ceased broadcast until the next event at College Hill Lutheran Church and Brammer Student Center, Cedar Falls.
“Good night and God bless”.
