We woke up at 7:30 and quickly went over to Tommy's restaurant for breakfast. The breakfast was set up through one of our contacts, Rich, who made sure we had a big hearty meal to get us through the day. The spread included pancakes, sausage, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, and hot coffee. Among all things, this trip has made me appreciate coffee and has helped me through a few days. We took our group picture outside of the restaurant and went to a local middle school to do our puppet show for a group of people with disabilities at a summer program. The kids really liked the show and we got a great reaction from everyone. Everyone then loaded up in the vans and we went over to a local park and had a friendship visit and lunch. Lunch was sponsored by a local restaurant, Runza, which kind of tasted like a Krystal's Hotpocket. We had a blast hanging out at the park with the kids, playing basketball, whiffle ball and swinging. The humidity in Nebraska is really reminding me a lot of Florida and I forgot how much I did not like it.
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| This guys name is Brad. He is the son of one of our sponsors and absolutely loves the team. Its with support from guys like Brad that this trip continues to be successful. He is going to be missed by everyone! |
From lunch the team split up and went to different organizations around Grand Island. My group went to two different locations, both being organizations helping people that are to old to be in school work and make money for themselves. The second organizations we went to, the Mosaic really stuck out to me. First of all a lot of the people that work there were individuals we hung out with last night at the friendship visit so it was really nice seeing them again. Second, the things they do there were really awesome. One of the things they make is a mattress pad out of plastic bags from groceries stores. The workers will cut up the bags, tie them together and then crochet them and it actually makes a pretty comfortable pads. Something else they make are welcome mats out of recycled tires. When I found out they could make them with the University of Tennessee logo on them I quickly called my Mom and ordered four of them on the spot.
Our team left the Mosaic and went back to the hotel for a little bit. I went to the bike shop to pick up my bike and had some time to relax. At 5:30 we went back down to the vans and we went to a local church to enjoy a pot luck and another friendship visit. Dinner was absolutely amazing, and everyone had a blast hanging out with everyone from Grand Island for the last time. One of the best parts of the day was the kickball game we played after dinner. It was a small game but we had an absolute blast interacting with the clients today. The last thing we did was go back to the park to meet up with "The ladies of Grand Island". These three ladies are the reason we are so privileged when we come to Grand Island. Since the early 90's they have been setting up the entire weekend for us, and they showed us some of the great things Push America has done for the area. In 2006, Push granted the city $10,000 which helped pay for a great handicap accessible area in the park which was a lot of fun for everybody. The entire weekend was very touching and it is also so heart warming to meet such welcoming people.
The past two days are going to be hard to beat! We head to Lincoln tomorrow which is going to be a tough ride to make. We have to cycle 105 miles by 12:00 which means we have a 4:45 wake up. I know the entire team is looking forward to it.
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