Hope Week is seven days of local churches radically serving their community. In, 2017 that was certainly the case. Over the course of the week, volunteers were able to accomplish 25 different projects that totaled up to 1,678 hours of community service! That is absolutely amazing. That is about 240 hours of community service every day! Here are some of the details on these projects:
Downtown LaSalle Planters: 56 people served 149 hours to paint over 50 planters in downtown LaSalle.
Oglesby Library: Over 3 days, 71 people served 241 hours to clean and repaint the entire interior of the Oglesby library as well as rearrange sections of it.
Hegeler Park: 50 people served 88 hours to 111 hours to repaint the chain link fence around the tennis courts, repaint all of the picnic tables and a shelter.
Park Signs: 7 people served 23 hours to paint 3 park signs with careful detail to make them look beautiful.
Oakwood Cemetery: 11 people served 23 hours to repaint gates and fences. They also landscaped the entrance sign with new plants.
Sunset Park: 7 people served 21 hours to repaint a shelter.
Bakers Lake: 56 people served 113 hours to repaint two shelters and a ton of picnic tables. They also stained the dock on the lake.
Washington Park: 26 people served 56 hours to repaint two shelters and the picnic tables with them.
28th St. Park: 5 people served 18 hours to repaint a shelter.
Rotary Memorial Park: 18 people served 37 hours to repaint two swing sets, do some weeding a repaint a shelter.
PADS Shelter: 38 people served 78 hours to rebuild and organize storage sheds. They also cleaned out the building so a flooring company hired by Hope Week could strip and rewax their floors.
I&M Canal: 10 people served 26 hours to hike the I&M canal and pick up trash.
Peru Cemetery: 30 people served 77 hours to repair and repaint the concrete fence on the south side of the cemetery.
Centennial Park: 37 people served 76 hours to repaint picnic tables.
American Nickeloid Park: 8 people served 20 hours to repaint a shelter.
Spring Valley Library: 29 people served 103 hours to clean, repair a staircase, and paint railings around the building.
Savitch Park: 23 people served 43 hours to repaint a slide, swing set, merry go round and other park equipment.
Kirby Park: 38 people served 85 hours to repaint a slide, two swing sets, a merry go round, other park equipment, and the lines on a basketball court.
Baltikuski Park: 15 people served 27 hours to repaint a slide, swing set, and merry go round.
Webster Park: 10 people served 18 hours to repaint a piece of equipment and lines on a basketball court.
LaSalle Library: 25 people served 45 hours to clean, repaint parking lot lines, and paint little libraries.
Route 6 Weeding: 15 people served 35 hours to pull, scrape and spray weeds along Route 6 on the east side of LaSalle.
Lehigh Park: 50 people served 117 hours to paint a huge shelter, two swing sets, a slide and a piece of equipment.
Oglesby Pool: 9 people served 30 hours to paint the chain link fence around the pool.
The amount that can be accomplished in 7 days is amazing when this many people put their energy together. The community looks and feels better in these areas because of the work that was done. On top of that, because of donations from Ax Church, Hope Week was able to put over $11,000 into the community through these projects.
I want to thank all of the people who showed up to serve their community. We had people come from 8 different churches and even had some people join us who had no affiliation to a church. Hope Week 2017 was a record setting year, and we are looking forward to an even bigger and better one in 2018. Be sure to mark your calendar now: June 10-16, 2018. Show up and see what can happen when churches come together to bring their community hope.