There is a time for every season, and October falls in the middle of our “offseason” at Camp Restore. We continue to welcome volunteer groups, but since it’s our least-busy time of year we’re able to get most of our big projects around Camp done before the next big rush.
Plenty of action occurs behind the scenes as we make improvements, including suggestions our volunteers share with us throughout the year. Here’s a quick look at what we’ve been up to lately:
LED Lighting
We’ve replaced nearly all of our exterior lighting with energy-efficient LED and CF lights that cumulatively use less than one tenth the electricity. And they look sharp, too!
Recycling
This summer we entered an agreement with Phoenix Recycling to introduce plastic and aluminum recycling at Camp. Thus far we’ve recycled nearly 20 96-gallon bins worth of material.
Air Conditioning
We are systematically phasing out our oldest A/C units, some of which actually went through Katrina, and have managed to continue running into 2013. We’ve also introduced new smart thermostats that not only anticipate when rooms will be in use but also alert us the instant any units aren’t functioning at an optimal level. They’ve also more energy-efficient.
New Kitchen
We’re building a permanent kitchen at Camp that will allow Mrs. Lorraine to comfortably cook up her scrumptious New Orleans recipes for volunteer groups of any size. If you’ve been to Camp before, you might recall the mobile cooking trailers we once had on site. Mrs. Lorraine is very, very excited.
Expanding Capacity
We’re finalizing permitting that will allow us to expand our volunteer housing to additional rooms, allowing for greater capacity and more space for groups to comfortably spread out when we aren’t at full capacity.
Refinishing Flooring
As we have thousands of volunteers returning from worksites throughout the year, there’s a good amount of dirt, sawdust, gravel, etc. that comes back with them. Though we work hard to keep the floors clean, they still receive a significant amount of wear and tear and require refinishing from time to time. We last completed a major refinishing project in 2011; we hope to do so again this November.
New Sign
We’ve added Camp Restore to the main sign out front, in place of the temporary wood sign (so look for this when you arrive!).
That’s a snapshot on some of what’s going on this Fall – we hope to see you soon!
-Kurt