Monday, September 30, 2013

Welcome to the Tool Bank

Wow, what a week it has been! I officially started my new volunteer site this week at the Atlanta Tool Bank!  It is a really awesome non-profit organization that provides all kinds of different tools to other local non-profits and even for profit companies non-profit sectors that are doing volunteer work (ex. Home Depot Foundation) for their projects. Here are some ideas of what you can do with tools from the Tool Bank. Do you need to bust down a wall rent a sledge hammer, do you have some wood that needs to be cut rent a circular saw, do you need to sweep up your mess from cutting the wood rent a push broom or a sweeping broom with a few dust pans, does your project require you to mow grass rent a lawn mower. There are a ton of other tools that are available. This is just an idea of what the Tool Bank does.

This is Shirley. The Tool Bank mascot.
My job will be multifaceted. The Tool Bank just recently moved to a new location, and they will be doing construction over the next year tearing down walls and preparing their new warehouse. So I will be helping with that project, and I can't tell you how pumped I am to bust down some walls! I will also be doing paper work and working closely with their computer system called the Elephant. I will also be helping fill the orders that come in which means that I will be meeting a lot of local organization leaders and their employees. I'm really excited about this opportunity! My first week  was amazing I enjoyed meeting folks, and filling a ton of tool orders.

So, just a little about the staff. The Tool Bank Atlanta is ran by three awesome women, Gina, C.J., and Patty! They have welcomed me with open arms, and have been very helpful in teaching me about what I will be doing over the year. I have to mention Super Volunteer Brock as well, and he is there 4 days a week. We worked together this week filling the orders, and he was a great help in my learning the tools and how to fill the orders. I'm very excited about my partnership with the Tool Bank, and ask that you continue to pray for me in the building of relationships and in the work that the Tool Bank is doing.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Back to the City

Wow it is hard to believe that it has been over a year since I moved to Atlanta for Mission Year! After a month back in Tennessee I moved back to the ATL for another year of service as an alum intern for Mission Year. I'm very excited about this opportunity. I moved in to Glencastle apartments last Wednesday after a week long orientation in Houston, TX. I'm living with six folks from all over the world, and we are hoping that we will have one more person join the team if they can get their visa worked out. To find out more about the team check out my Facebook page for my first newsletter as an alum. 

A couple Friday's ago we had a scavenger hunt on the MARTA transit system. You may remember reading about it last year. I had a lot of fun this year. It was really cool to actually know where most everything was on the hunt, and it was great seeing my team work together to find all the different places. Now this is a competition with the two other teams in Atlanta, so I'm hoping that we made it to more places so we can win, but even if we didn't make it to the most places we still have a chance to win with the presentation of MARTA day! I look forward to telling y'all how we choose to present our day.

Here are a few pics from MARTA day...
Krispy Kreme at the West End
Zoo Atlanta in Grant Park


Turner Field: home of the best team in the MLB

MLK Historic Site

First African-American Firehouse in ATL
 Thanks for reading,
Shalom,
Adam Q