Laser tag, Bass Pro and Misery…I mean Missouri.

Days 18 - 19: Kansas City, Springfield & Purdy, MO

Besides another day of driving, Friday proved to be a pretty cool experience. Once we arrived in Kansas City we met with the man who organized our weekend: Mr. Mark Cameron. He had a diving accident in 2004 and has quadriplegia. As independent as he was in his late 20's, he began to work on becoming nearly completely independent. In his journey he discovered a ton of technological shortcuts which help him in his quest. Thus he has one of the most cutting edge ADA homes in the world. It struck our team with awe how cool his house was and how "normal" a life he could actually live. For instance, his home was one of the first to install a ceiling rail system which allows a care giver unbelievably easy to carry him around his residence with minimal effort. I'm pumped to see how his progress goes because his recently has gained minor feeling in his lower body.

The weekend went well at Kansas City at the Kansas State School for the Deaf. Our accommodations were great; air conditioning and a bathroom for every two people was awesome and by far the best on the trip thus far. Our work on Saturday morning involved clearing the school attic of two construction dumpsters worth of 1940's steel bed frames and building a small brick retaining wall back in the shade somewhere. I however was not fortunate enough to the wall assignment. We finished everything by lunchtime and went to a sponsored meal hosted by last years Build America Project Manager. We went to Arthur Bryant's House of Barbeque which is claimed to be the best in the world; the team and I definitely enjoyed it. The rest of our afternoon was down at a community pool waiting for dinner which was much needed down time. Our dinner was provided by a Pi Alpha Alumnus (His has completed a Push America event before) who lived in Kansas City and attend Kansas State. In the evening we went into town to play laser tag. One of our teammates ran into the businesses owner and he offered us a couple of games for the guys to get out and shoot each other; it was blast (no pun intended).

Sunday involved more driving to our next camp in Purdy Missouri but with an awesome pit stop: BASS PRO. A member of the team was able to get his home church in Springfield, MO to sponsor our lunch for Sunday and we detoured our tip a bit to go down to Springfield. This was convenient because the original Bass Pro Shop is located in Springfield. I have never heard of Bass Pro before I came to the south but it is nothing short of the largest redneck/outdoor/hunting/starbucks/national wildlife museum facility I have ever seen; comparable to the Tacoma Mall but just one store.

This was great because I had somehow lost my work pants belt while doing laundry in Iowa which made for awkward times at the jobsite. I also probably made the best investment of my summer by picking up a pair of carhartt work shorts.

We continued our trip to Purdy to Camp Barnabas. This camp was exciting to go to because it was featured on Extreme Home Makeover last year and won an award for their particular episode. Surprisingly this national featurette of the camp skyrocketed volunteer and camper enrollment to a whopping 250 camper capacity that each have their own volunteer buddy.

Our original project for the camp had change from building a large 20"x30" ADA accessible fishing pier to new ADA accessible horse stages for the campers. We would have built a dock but apparently a bad run off from the local farms contaminated the river with ecoli. The ramps we're building allow campers in wheelchairs to get 36" above the ground and letting the horse wranglers easily put a camper on a horse for their riding program (I had no idea that people with wheelchairs could ride a horse).

The Camp looks great and all the staff and volunteers seem awesome. The week we are here is exclusively teenagers with Autism and Down syndrome. Groups of two of us on the team "adopt" a cabin and tag along with them for their evening programs and eat with them at meals. Mike Roche from Georgia Tech and I have a cabin of kids with autism and I met this really cool camper named Trevor who has a memory like a computer. The only negative to my experience thus at this camp is the 80% humidity and 93 degree heat to the likes which I have never experienced in any natural environment. So much more to write...