Two More Weeks at FUMCH and Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Today’s blog post covers our weeks 2 and 3 of our NOMADS project at Florida United Methodist Children’s Home. Week two was much like week one. Mary, Phil, and the two of us continued painting the same cottage – mostly second coating the rooms that were started by another group and painting closets. We finished that on Wednesday and started installing new blinds in all the windows. We also scraped and painted some exterior window sills and doors. We were so glad to be finished with the painting. Then on Thursday morning we learned that one of the staff members who had an office in that cottage wanted her office painted and the request was approved. So, out came all the clean paint brushes and all four of us concentrated our efforts on that last room and had two coats on the walls and trim by the end of the day. While we worked in the cottage Jack, Frank, Donna and Bill worked on other projects around campus.

Phil and Max got to take a break from painting to hang blinds

Every day of week 2, just like week 1, ended with brush cleaning.

Donna, Frank and Bill were assigned the task of replacing the wooden porches for the bathhouse …

Donna and Bill (and sometimes Frank) got to spend most of week 2 scraping and painting these trams the Children’s home uses for tours.

We did the tourist thing that weekend and drove to Ponce Inlet near Daytona Beach to visit the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum. We postponed this adventure last weekend when we learned that it was race weekend at Daytona. So glad we found that out before getting caught up in all that traffic. We really enjoyed learning the history of that lighthouse and recommend you visit it. There are also several buildings on site furnished as they would have been back in the day. It’s one of the best we have visited and a nice beachfront drive on a a beautiful day, too.

These bracelets gave us all day access to the lighthouse and museum.

Climbing the 203 steps to the viewing platform

This distorted view from the top is the result of using the panorama setting on our camera.

This is more what it actually looked like

Going back down the stairs was a little easier.

One building on the property houses a large collection of lighthouse fresnel lenses.

One of many interesting history lessons in the museum

There is also a display of Cuban rafts that have washed ashore at Ponce Inlet.

We met this little fellow wandering the grounds.

For week three we (Max, Anne, Phil and Mary) were assigned a new task – to rip up the wooden patio between the volunteer bunkhouse and the bathhouse and build a new one. It was harder and hotter than painting but we were pleasantly surprised with the final product. At the end of the week the maintenance staff provided us with a delicious lunch to thank us for our efforts. We were really blessed to work with such a great team and hope to see them all again soon.