Day Four

Today we went to pick apricots at an orchard in Zillah. All that we picked was donated to the food bank. It was amazing! Father Ed helped us. We all thought he was a natural. As we were picking the 23 boxes, almost a whole pallet, we ran into a few snags. There were so many pincher bugs! Most were in attack mode, but once we employed Kristen VanHoomissen’s pick and tap method, the bugs retreated in fear. Another issue was the wheat stickers that constantly snagged on our socks and shoes. Ouch! In the end we each got to try a delicious apricot and all the nutrition that the apricots would give to hungry people made the struggle worth it. Later, when we went back to the warehouse we got to see our packed up apricots. It was great to find that our work produced food that is on its way to people in need.
Leah H.
Northwest Harvest


I am working in White Swan which is about 45 min away from the church that we are staying at. The house that we work at is on a dusty gravel road which in the hot sun doesn’t equal anything good. The owners of the house are a little old man named Clifford and his wife Nettie. When we first drove up they were sitting on there front lawn waiting for our arrival. We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into but we were all up for the challenge. Walking into the house we noticed a huge hole in the laundry room which we knew it would take days to finish. So we started by washing and spackling the walls which took the entire day. The second day we got there we started painting the rooms with Killz and the boys worked on the laundry room. We noticed the Clifford and Nettie seemed kind of stand-offish with us but Rick told us that Clifford wanted to tell us a story so at lunch we all went out and listened. On the side of the house there’s this tree which has all sorts on rags and stuff attached to it. We weren’t sure what it was be Clifford told us that he put all of sweat rags on the tree for spiritual purposes. He said also that you could pray around the tree and all your prayers will come true. We all were fascinated by the story and at the end of the day we went around the tree to pray. The third day we got there and started painting the kitchen and living room. At lunch we went to a park called Fort Simcoe which was fun because it was an old fort and all the buildings are still existing. Back at the house we ripped up all the tile and now we only have one more room to paint. I hope that we can make the house look amazing. It looks so much different then before and I’m so proud. Its only going to get better so I am really excited.

Katie J.
Volunteer Chore Services (White Swan)