Rob’s final reflection

What a project!  What an amazing team!  Can you believe it?  Have you caught your breath yet?  I’ve never felt such a whirlwind of emotions from a single project.   Poly House proves that amazing things can happen when you bring out the best in people to achieve a common goal.  We renewed hope for the most deserving family and achieved the unthinkable with two months of hard work, a little belief, and a lot of luck.

I am forever grateful for the dozens of people who worked tirelessly to make Poly House a once in a lifetime experience.  The construction team consisted of the hardest working students I have ever met.  Steve Chauvet and Rick Brown must be psychics because the patience and determination they displayed throughout the project makes me wonder how they knew all along that we would achieve the impossible.  Wally Fellman of Fellman Contracting, Mitch Gary of Mitch Gary Construction, and Paul De Alejandro are amongst the finest people I have ever met; superbly skilled and generous craftsmen who made real sacrifices to make Poly House a complete success.  As requested Poly House will be making a generous contribution to Wally’s “Karma Bank.”  Cal Poly Nutrition faculty member Peggy Papathakis is an unsung hero for putting together a project team to remodel the Todd family’s eating habits into a healthy lifestyle that could make a greater impact on Caleb’s life than anything we could have built for him.  Landscape architect Michael Knight of Michael Knight Designs provided much needed artistic flair and elbow grease as he was on site for more twelve+ hour days than any other volunteer.

The days on end we spent at the Poly House site feel like an instant compared to the week it has been since we gave the Todd family their home back.  The memories of making a real difference in the community and the life lessons I carried away from this project will always be fondly remembered.