It's a beautiful day!

Preparing to take 30 homeschoolers kayaking over for an island clean-up adventure!

YESSSS!!! WE'VE GOT PADDLEBOARDS!!! ...GTD ACQUIRES 20 PADDLEBOARDS!!! ....THANKS TO OUR AMAZING DONORS!!!

 

 

This is one of my happiest updates of all time! Thanks to our phenomenal donors from our Annual Fundraiser this past December (and continued donations thereafter) GTD now owns 20 new recreational paddleboards!! We are thrilled beyond words to now be able to add this incredible activity to our list of local adventure options!!! Literally thousands of people will use these paddleboards over the next few years as we venture into God's amazing playground. We believe this is a gamechanger type of addition into our ministry... to our Day Trip Program... to our Retreat Program... to our future Birthday Bash Program... to our future local Summer Adventure Day Camp Program (coming this July)... and so much more!!

  

Thank you soooooo much to our faithful GTD supporters and donors for making this acquisition possible!! We thank God for you, and we are blown away by your faithful generosity!

  

Yayyy for GTD! Many thanks to our amazing supporters!! Aaaaaand all glory to God!!!

 

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STOP THE THEIVERY... ...SECURE THE PERIMETER... ....HERE'S OUR NEXT VOLUNTEER WORK DAYS!

 

 

Last week someone stole one of GTD's retired EZ-UP 10 x 10 portable canopies from my backyard. They also tried to steal one of our kayaks. Thankfully I keep all of the kayaks locked with metal cables so he/she could only pull the kayak out about 4 or 5 feet. Then they picked up the retired canopy and took off with it. 

  

I don't have fencing set-up at either end of my property so access in & out of the backyard is very easy. One of my neighbors down the street found the canopy the next day along with 2 stolen bikes (not mine) stashed near her house. 

  

Soooooooo guess what the next work project is!! You got it - SECURE THE PERIMETER! The yellow dashed lines in the picture represents the remaining portions of the property that needs fencing.

  

I've already had most of the fencing and security lights for a couple of years... so now is the time to tackle this project. I've also got security cameras on the way. 

  

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS!! ...Here's our next Volunteer Work Schedule:

 THIS WEEK:

  <> Wed April 28 (Noon-4p) @ my house

  <> Thur April 29 (Noon-4p) @ my house

  ** Fri April 30 (9a-4p) Kayak Day Trip (Seminole, FL)

  ** Sat May 1 (9a-5p) Kayak Day Trip (Seminole, FL)

 NEXT WEEK:

  <> Mon May 3 (Noon-4p) @ my house

  <> Wed May 5 (Noon-4p) @ my house

  <> Thur May 6 (Noon-4p) @ my house

  <> Fri May 7 (Noon-4p) @ my house

  

If you're interested in helping, volunteering, and serving we would love your help! If you're available & want to help then let me know however you can... Leave a comment below or private message me or email info@goingthedistance.org or call the GTD Adventure Hotline and leave a voicemail (this is an office phone so it doesn't receive text messages... 727-394-9483) or text me if you have my cellphone number... or build a fire and send me a smoke signal =) 

  

Thank you in advance for your partnership and help in this ministry... many hands make for light work =) 

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17 AWESOME PEOPLE SHOWED UP TO HELP TURN PROJECTS N2 PROGRESS!!

My profound thanks to the 17: Kyle, Aldon, Lisa, Camrun, Tammy, Heather, Kari, Lindsay, Dennis, Tom, Dani, Stephen, Justine, Logan, Carson, Mom, & Dad!!

  

WOW! I'll say it backwards, "WOW"! Last weekend I was blessed to have 17 awesome people come over and help me / GTD tackle some overdue projects and turn them into overwhelming PROGRESS! I can't even begin to express my gratitude to this awesome army of people that came out and did more in 2 days than I could have done in 2 months! From the bottom of my heart: Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!! Soooooo! Muuuuch! God bless you all!!!

  

THE MAIN PROJECTS:

  <> RECLAIM THE GARAGE

  <> RESTORE THE SHIPPING CONTAINER

  <> REVAMP THE SHED

  <> REMOVE THE TURPENTINE 

  <> AND ANYTHING ELSE WE COULD DO

  

The GTD Homebase (AKA: my house) had become an episode of "Hoarders". Over the past 3 years I've accumulated:

  <> A lot of materials & tools for my home renovations. 

  <> During that same time we moved all of the GTD gear & equipment out of rental storage and into my garage, inside my house, and throughout the yard. 

  <> A few months ago a shipping container that held more of our equipment was generously donated to GTD. (Side story: The problem was that the shipping container and the equipment inside had all been contaminated with turpentine several years ago when I didn't fully tighten the cap on the turpentine can and it all evaporated into the sealed up shipping container. It got into everything! A few months ago we threw away about 75% of the outdated & overly contaminated equipment that was inside the shipping container and tried to salvage the remaining 25% that was still useable. For the past 4 months that 25% has been sitting outside airing out and the shipping container has been wide open airing out. We applied vinegar to everything including the shipping container over the past month. And praise God, it worked! The turpentine beast was vanquished!!)

  <> And in addition to all the items mentioned above, this has been a season of wonderful growth and GTD has acquired a lot of new equipment (GLORY TO GOD & THANK YOU AMAZING DONORS!!!). That new equipment had to be stored somewhere so it was added to the garage, the house, and the yard. 

  

ALL ADDED TOGETHER I was drowning in stuff!! Paralyzed by too much and too many as well as not enough time. Hello Hoarders! You can call me Lemont from Sanford & Son!! With our recent influx of Caregiving hours I was completely paralyzed from making any significant progress. The mountain of stuff and countless projects was a bit overwhelming. So I asked for help. Aaaaaand WOW!! I got more than I could have hoped for or imagined!! 3 awesome people showed up for 2 days (Wed & Thur) to get the ball rolling. And then 17 more awesome people came out over 2 more days last Saturday & Sunday!! Aaaaaand WOW, they were highly motivated nonstop hard working beautiful souls!!! The impact they made left this wordy guy nearly speechless!

  

The results speak for themselves! The garage has been reclaimed as a fitness area, workshop, laundry area, and lite storage area. No more narrow hoarder aisles to walk thru! The shipping container has been restored to our main equipment storage area! The shed has been revamped to a consolidated storage area! All the turpentine has been removed from contaminated items! 20 sleeping bags were picked up, washed, dried, and returned! Lunches were served! And 6 garbage cans worth of leaves have been sucked up and removed from around our kayaks & other equipment! THEY GOT SOOOOOOOO MUCH DONE!!! And with fun-loving attitudes!! It was a lot of hard work, but they made it feel like a few days of fun! I'm beyond grateful to these awesome and amazing people for all their hard work, help, support, encouragement, and love (in both words and in deeds)!!

   

Everything is "rough draft" organized... the next step is the "fine tune" organizing =) 

  

It's a new season of getting things done! More volunteer work days coming next week =) 

   

QUICK UPDATE! ...CRAMMED IS SCHEDULED FOR June 2-6, 2021

 

We sold out on SLAMMED so we invented CRAMMED so that 50 more people could go on a God-awesome GTD adventure this summer! 
  
It's the same Adventure Trip as SLAMMED, but with a different name so you can tell them apart easier. SLAMMED is scheduled for June 30 - July 4, but CRAMMED is scheduled for June 2-6. Both events will be in the same city (Brevard, NC), but at different campgrounds. And both events will be for the same unheard of price of ONLY $25 to celebrate 25 years of ministry!! 
    
Currently we have about 25 people on the SLAMMED Waiting List. This is how it will work. The 50 SLAMMED participants that have already registered will be given a few days to decide if they want to stay with their reservation for SLAMMED or transfer over to CRAMMED. Once that offer expires then we will open up CRAMMED (and any newly available spots for SLAMMED if anyone transferred their trip) to those signed up on the SLAMMED Waiting List in the order that they signed up. After that (around April 25th) we will open any remaining spots up to the general public. Soooooooo the best way to get in line for CRAMMED is to sign up on the SLAMMED Waiting List on this link
  
We hope everyone who wants to go gets to go! It's the first time we've ever run 2 of these public events in one summer... and for a total of 100 people. 
  
It's a great way to celebrate 25 years!!
  
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Going The Distance Adventure Ministry
God-awesome adventures since 1996!
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2 DAYS DOWN AND OFF TO A GOOD START!

Thank you to our most recent volunteers - Josh, his daughter Mia, and our good friend Tom - who put in a lot of hard work & sweat on Wednesday & Thursday as we kicked off 6 weeks of volunteer work efforts over at GTD Central Command (aka: my house) =) 

  

I can't express how much of a blessing this middle-of-the-week crew was! They took time out of their personal lives (and Mia from her spring break) to help get the ball rolling, get the momentum started, and get tasks completed as we prepare for our summer camps in 6 weeks!!

  

As many of you know our family is in the middle of Caregiving for my awesome Mom and I haven't had any time to work on several important projects. So I've got a lot of GTD projects & home improvement work to get done before our summer camps begin. I posted a request on social media for volunteers and we got a good response! (Thank you awesome people!) Each Monday I hope to get the volunteer work schedule posted for the week ahead. There are so many moving parts and layers that we usually can't plan beyond 1 week.

  

Thanks to Josh, Mia, & Tom we were able to remove everything from the GTD storage container (we call it The Green Monster) and seal the floor with EpoxyShield. 

  

Unfortunately, about 12 years ago I left a can of turpentine inside The Green Monster and failed to fully tighten the cap. All of the turpentine evaporated out of the can and into The Green Monster and soaked into anything & everything that was inside the storage container - including the wood floor. Everything was contaminated! I have not been looking forward to this project!!!!

  

Back in November I threw out about 75% of the contaminated and unsalvageable items, but kept the remaining bit hoping to salvage it. I then pressure washed every inch of the interior, especially the wood floor. A little research revealed that vinegar and aeration was all I needed to remove the remaining turpentine. 

  

Everything has been airing out for 4 months. A few weeks ago Carson and Logan began pressure washing some of the plastic storage bins and wiping them down with vinegar. And it worked! The vinegar and airing out neutralized the turpentine!! The smell ("the beast") was defeated!! So I mopped The Green Monster floor with vinegar and let it air out for a couple more weeks. 

  

On Wednesday the crew sealed the floor and then we began the monotonous task of wiping down a ton of storage bins, inflatables, and the remaining contaminated gear with vinegar. And I'm happy to say it worked again!! Vinegar is like a cure-all for many things! 

  

It took several hours to wipe everything down and keep flipping them so they could fully air out & dry out. But it worked great and now we have 50+ plastic storage bins ready to be used. That means we are ready to start moving a ton of GTD gear out of the garage and my house which overflows with GTD stuff to the point that I look like an episode of Hoarders.

  

And, if that wasn't enough, the crew also had time to help me construct another rack to hold kayaks & canoes. We got so much done! Aaaaaand they put us in a great position to build on their progress this weekend. We are assembling another crew of workers for this weekend to pick up where they left off. Let me know if you want to help keep the momentum going!! We will be working 9a - 6p on Saturday & Sunday.

  

Thank you again Josh, Mia, Tom, Dad, Carson, & Logan for getting this ball rolling!! I is forever grateful!!!! God bless you guys!!!!