The concrete trucks

will be rolling onto the site multiple times in the coming two days.  We've been told that Thursday and Friday will be very busy with concrete pouring and that by mid-way through the first full week of May the excavation portion of the project will be complete.

Over the weekend, May 3, the fencing on 7th Avenue will be removed to make room for the repositioning of the Yellowridge trailer onto the edge of the sidewalk.  This move is necessitated by the steps necessary to complete the entire excavation of the north side of the site.  For a number of hours Saturday morning, the traffic along Arbutus and 7th Avenue will be blocked to accomodate this movement of equipment.

Also, as of May 1, parking alongside the site on 7th Avenue will be discontinued till November, 2014.  Signage was posted by the City of Vancouver yesterday.  We know that this change will create some difficulty for our neighbours.  We are grateful for the support that we are receiving from the broader community - and like everyone around us, we are so looking forward to all that is to come!

So much going on ...

that posting on our BLOG has taken a back seat for a little while.  Of course, this is not a reflection on what is happening on our site!

Now there are 2 diggers on site, most of the old foundation is out of the ground and being disposed of, framing for the installation of the side walls and the laying of gravel on the central and easternly segment of the site is progressing.  We had lots of excitement last Friday with the arrival of a flatbed truck brim-filled with rebar which was removed  from the truck with the use of a BIG crane.  All that was contasted with the loss of yet more playground space to make room for the growing materials needed to be stored on site for upcoming concrete pouring.  Wednesday, Thursday and perhaps Friday this week many, many cement trucks will again be on site with the pump to pour literally tonnes of concrete into the foundation.

(This past weekend, we hosted our annual Pass the Torch dinner and auction - and the Carnival theme was evident as you can see from accompanying photos which will accompany this post tomorrow.  We are grateful beyond measure for the show of support that our Parish received, and for the amazing work done by the organizing committee for our 381 guests.)  Watch the website for a story later this week to share some of the events highlights...)

Thank you everyone - for your prayers, your support, your encouragement and your faithfulness…

Piles and piles...

of rubble, sifted rocks, old broken bricks and big foundation pieces will soon be removed from our site - and further excavation will then be able to commence on the east end of the site. 

The 20 cement trucks today delivered tonnes of cement --- and we had lots of children, parents and neighbours watching from outside the fences that surround our site.

Big and noisy

cement trucks will drive onto and exit our site for many hours on Monday, April 14th, beginning at 7:30 in the morning.  We've been told that as many as 20 such trucks will come and go - and have their contents shot through a huge cement pump directly into the BIG hole on the west side of the site.  It should be quite the day!  It's been encouraging to see our neighbours, passers-by and little children stop and watch through the fence as we continue to build our new school. 

Sorting, screening and preparing our site... these three pictures capture the 'screening' that is taking place to sort out the bricks, rocks, soil, pieces of metal and rubble from our 103 year old school which was buried under our upper field.

Our deep WEST end hole is soon to be filled with tonnes of concrete to be pumped onto the prepared surfaces on Monday, April 14th. It should be quite the day for us!

One day's work resulted in some visually big changes: the installation of the rebar that was dropped off today, the work of sifting the excavation materials through the screener and the first phase of the sorting of the materials at the EAST end of the site for systematic disposal of the debris.

Thanks to the Yellowridge supervisor for providing these 'insider' photos.

Digging as deep as...

needed at the WEST end of the site is completed. And now forms are being laid, some concrete is being poured and the EAST end of the site is being excavated. 

Soon we'll see and hear the working sifter - a large orange rectangular box on the site that will sift and sort the excavated materials being pulled up from the EAST end of the site so that they can be disposed of appropriately.  (We will salvage a small collection of the 'Anvil Island' bricks to be used in a memorial garden on our new site.)

And yesterday, again, a sweet young girl presented some her birthday money with a broad smile on her face. She said that she'd asked her friends to bring 2 toonies to her party instead of a present for her. She planned to give half to Faith and Foundation and keep some for herself, which she was going to use to buy raffle tickets, hoping to win the American doll, one of the prizes for this year's raffle, being drawn at Pass the Torch, April 26. Be sure to join us for this wonderful event and support our new building project!

The next two weeks will see the following changes on our site:

1. Bulk excavation of the EAST end of the site
2. Detailed excavatioin of the WEST end of the site
3. Forms in place for the basement excavation
4. Starting to form the basement walls.

I was delighted to learn that two of the men working on the site yesterday, April 2, were former students of our school!   I'm hoping to have an opportunity to meet them in person - and I look forward to other 'alumni' students who are helping our new school literally "come out of the ground".

Thank you everyone for what you are doing:  working on the site, coming to our Pass the Torch event, donating to our new school through Faith and Foundation... and praying for us each day. It is taking all this good work to create our new school - and we are immensely grateful to everyone.

On this glorious spring day in Vancouver...
We are all so grateful and excited about the work that is happening on our school's construction site.  As the hole grows deeper, we continue to be awed that we are at such an amazing time in our school's 103 year history.

A little insider story... in the past four weeks, I have had 6 young children bring me envelopes with money that represents what they are giving up from their birthday gifts.  These precious little ones present themselves at my door, hand me their envelopes, smile and then tell me the story of how they made the choice to make their own 'contributions'. Such simplicity, such generosity and such pride in their good work most often brings me to tears.
Thank you one and all... and to the parents of these little ones.  You are teaching them that it just takes making a choice which connects us all to great things.