The Fastest NeighborLink Moving Project Ever

Not that I keep track of things like that…yes I do. 

I still get nervous about NeighborLink projects I take on as a Coach. I roll the usual questions around in my head, like…

Do I really want to give my time to this project?

Will I know how to do the project? 

Will the recipient be ready for my team? 

Will I have done enough preparation in order to ensure the project will go well? 

Will this recipient’s situation overwhelm me for some reason?

Will anyone join me or will I be stuck doing this project alone? 

If you’ve ever asked these questions before volunteering for a NeighborLink project or anything else, I think you’re pretty normal. What sets us apart is obviously how we answer these questions and whether or not we let them stop us. 

On Friday May 4th, I chose to lead a moving project for a guy who desparately needed help moving from one apartment to another just a couple of miles down the road. The apartment environment he was in was not a good one and he decided to move away from it. Good choice even if he knew he didn’t have the resources to get moved on his own. 

This guy only had a small one-bedroom apartment and not a lot of belongings. I prepped him to make sure he was packed and ready to go for when we’d show up that evening. I had a few members of the team show up 45 minutes before the truck arrived to make sure we were ready to load once the truck got there. He had done such a great job, we ended up standing around and talking to him, which was great. 

Once the truck arrived, we had the truck loaded in under 10 minutes due to the fact that we ended up having 12 people show up! From there it took about 10 minutes to drive to his new place and only another 20 minutes to get him unloaded and situated in his apartment. We did the whole move and setup in about 45 minutes. 

In the 5 years I’ve been doing NeighborLink moving projects, I’ve never had this smooth of a project take place. It was a combo of preparation by the recipient, short travel, and a group of 12 incredible volunteers (including a couple of young girls who helped their dad). 

The best part is that they gave up a couple of hours on a Friday night, which is probably some of the most sacred time we hold onto. The time we get to unwind from a busy week and slip into the weekend. 

This was a significant project for me this year. I think I was blessed as much as the guy we moved that night.