Grace College's 'Day of Caring' Gives Area Homes A New Look
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
PIERCETON - Three houses seemed more like home after more than 60 volunteers scraped and taped, painted and hammered on them Wednesday.
Grace College students, several members of the Walnut Creek home repair ministry and Housing Opportunities of Warsaw staff focused on lead paint "abatement" or removal during the Day of Caring project.
The students participate through the college's Center for Character and Leadership Development, headed by Scott Feathers.
Don Laughlin of Warsaw coordinates the Walnut Creek volunteers. Many are semi-retired or retired guys who will help out at any owner occupied property. The homeowner buys the materials and the members provide the labor.
"I would work five days a week," Laughlin said. He retired from Zimmer several years ago and he and his wife find projects in Mexico during the winter months.
"I had to turn guys away today, there would have been too many. The problem is, people won't ask for help."
The full porch in front of Alberta Mast's house, 601 N. First St., was torn down first thing in the morning. The attached porch leaned and its floor had holes. It was covered in lead paint.
Town public works superintendent Chip Hill, operating a backhoe claw, tore down the old porch. The debris was hauled to a nearby trash bin.
Wood doors were taken down, moved outside and painted. A new, smaller porch was added.
The Mast house has received some rehabilitation from an owner-occupied state grant administered by HOW for the town. New windows and a new electrical system were recently installed through an owner-occupied grant, administered for the town by HOW.
Since funding was recently capped at $15,000 per property grand scale repairs are few - unless creative thinking is applied to the problem to make up funding shortfalls, HOW executive director Pam Kennedy said
On Pine Street homeowner Carus Shaffer worked along with the volunteers, overseeing the painting and residing project at his 1860's-era house and newer garage.
"I paid a really low price for the house," he said of the old two-story, "because of the extensive renovation. I didn't see any problem getting it all done until I got started. I took the back porch off and put a new one on."
Carus and wife Erica have three children under the age of four. He and Erica managed to complete other projects to make the house livable, but the children were surrounded by lead-based paint.
The painted wooden floors are in good condition - except for the pesky lead-based paint. While Carus suspected most of the native wood had been painted over, he wasn't taking any chances with the youngsters crawling around.
Inside the house Grace students taped off window glass and applied paint to the frames and the house's wood work in three rooms. Two wooden floors were repainted, too.
Other students scaled ladders and removed nails left when old siding was removed.
By the end of the day most of the garage was resided. The front of the house was prepared for a vinyl siding cover.
At Dick Alexander's house, 408 W. Third St., plastic was laid on the ground to catch paint chips.
Wet sanding or wet scraping lead-based paint is not hazardous. The students at Alexander's house sprayed down the foundation and steps on the front and back porches and scraped away loose paint.
The porches and the foundation were repainted gray with an exterior house paint.
Alexander has lived in the house 15 years and has a neighbor who mows and rakes the leaves for him.
"That lead-based paint is a mess," Alexander said, watching the progress from the shade of an oak tree.
"They're going to put in new windows and a new roof, with contractors, later this year," Alexander said.
Grace College chaplain James Joyner said the student group spent part of last week in West Virginia on a white-water rafting trip. They then returned to campus to work.
The students wore brown t-shirts with the slogan "Incarnate - love made visible."
The students come from all walks of campus life - involved in student government, as small group leaders in each hall, as chapel leaders or student organization members, Joyner said.
"Scott Feather's department is 'serve.' And groups of students do just that throughout the year. All the students here volunteer their time."
Joyner said some of the students work for Grace's "Heart for the Holidays," "Grace Fest," and the annual Halloween extravaganza.
Prior to lunch Kennedy told the group they were serving the working poor.
"If the adults in the family have jobs and they're paying 30 percent of their income toward housing they're considered 'working poor.' The working poor is strapped for other things, or pressed to work so hard they neglect the house."
She said often homeowners become depressed by the state of their homes or shunned by the neighbors.
"They'll buy little pretties and put them on the television set so they don't have to look at the walls. Buying a can of paint and applying it is simply too overwhelming."
"What you're doing today," she told the group, "is building walls of security and tearing down walls of fear."
Posters were stationed at each house and the workers wrote notes for the homeowners to read later.
Other projects in the county were coordinated for general cleaning and repair, landscaping and more painting. Work groups were stationed at the Cardinal Center, Housing Opportunities of Warsaw, Beaman Home, Combined Community Services, Warsaw Meadows, Iglesia Biblica Hispana Church, The Salvation Army, Our Father's House, and at seven other individual homes projects in Warsaw and Syracuse.
The steering committee members for this event were: Scott Feather, Grace College; Jack Felger, Kosciusko Community Senior Services; Pam Kennedy, Housing Opportunities of Warsaw; and Trinia Klinefelter and Patricia Coy, from United Way. This committee received applications from seniors and non-profit organizations who needed odd jobs completed.
Companies and organizations which assisted with the projects were: Arby's Restaurant and Wal-Mart are providing lunch for everyone, Raab Water and Lowe's furnished supplies and Kosciusko Community Senior Services and KABS transported the students.
Greentree Environmental and Walnut Creek Church Men's group will provide assistance at the Pierceton sites due to the complexity of those projects.
Winona Restoration donated the amphitheater for the closing function. [[In-content Ad]]
PIERCETON - Three houses seemed more like home after more than 60 volunteers scraped and taped, painted and hammered on them Wednesday.
Grace College students, several members of the Walnut Creek home repair ministry and Housing Opportunities of Warsaw staff focused on lead paint "abatement" or removal during the Day of Caring project.
The students participate through the college's Center for Character and Leadership Development, headed by Scott Feathers.
Don Laughlin of Warsaw coordinates the Walnut Creek volunteers. Many are semi-retired or retired guys who will help out at any owner occupied property. The homeowner buys the materials and the members provide the labor.
"I would work five days a week," Laughlin said. He retired from Zimmer several years ago and he and his wife find projects in Mexico during the winter months.
"I had to turn guys away today, there would have been too many. The problem is, people won't ask for help."
The full porch in front of Alberta Mast's house, 601 N. First St., was torn down first thing in the morning. The attached porch leaned and its floor had holes. It was covered in lead paint.
Town public works superintendent Chip Hill, operating a backhoe claw, tore down the old porch. The debris was hauled to a nearby trash bin.
Wood doors were taken down, moved outside and painted. A new, smaller porch was added.
The Mast house has received some rehabilitation from an owner-occupied state grant administered by HOW for the town. New windows and a new electrical system were recently installed through an owner-occupied grant, administered for the town by HOW.
Since funding was recently capped at $15,000 per property grand scale repairs are few - unless creative thinking is applied to the problem to make up funding shortfalls, HOW executive director Pam Kennedy said
On Pine Street homeowner Carus Shaffer worked along with the volunteers, overseeing the painting and residing project at his 1860's-era house and newer garage.
"I paid a really low price for the house," he said of the old two-story, "because of the extensive renovation. I didn't see any problem getting it all done until I got started. I took the back porch off and put a new one on."
Carus and wife Erica have three children under the age of four. He and Erica managed to complete other projects to make the house livable, but the children were surrounded by lead-based paint.
The painted wooden floors are in good condition - except for the pesky lead-based paint. While Carus suspected most of the native wood had been painted over, he wasn't taking any chances with the youngsters crawling around.
Inside the house Grace students taped off window glass and applied paint to the frames and the house's wood work in three rooms. Two wooden floors were repainted, too.
Other students scaled ladders and removed nails left when old siding was removed.
By the end of the day most of the garage was resided. The front of the house was prepared for a vinyl siding cover.
At Dick Alexander's house, 408 W. Third St., plastic was laid on the ground to catch paint chips.
Wet sanding or wet scraping lead-based paint is not hazardous. The students at Alexander's house sprayed down the foundation and steps on the front and back porches and scraped away loose paint.
The porches and the foundation were repainted gray with an exterior house paint.
Alexander has lived in the house 15 years and has a neighbor who mows and rakes the leaves for him.
"That lead-based paint is a mess," Alexander said, watching the progress from the shade of an oak tree.
"They're going to put in new windows and a new roof, with contractors, later this year," Alexander said.
Grace College chaplain James Joyner said the student group spent part of last week in West Virginia on a white-water rafting trip. They then returned to campus to work.
The students wore brown t-shirts with the slogan "Incarnate - love made visible."
The students come from all walks of campus life - involved in student government, as small group leaders in each hall, as chapel leaders or student organization members, Joyner said.
"Scott Feather's department is 'serve.' And groups of students do just that throughout the year. All the students here volunteer their time."
Joyner said some of the students work for Grace's "Heart for the Holidays," "Grace Fest," and the annual Halloween extravaganza.
Prior to lunch Kennedy told the group they were serving the working poor.
"If the adults in the family have jobs and they're paying 30 percent of their income toward housing they're considered 'working poor.' The working poor is strapped for other things, or pressed to work so hard they neglect the house."
She said often homeowners become depressed by the state of their homes or shunned by the neighbors.
"They'll buy little pretties and put them on the television set so they don't have to look at the walls. Buying a can of paint and applying it is simply too overwhelming."
"What you're doing today," she told the group, "is building walls of security and tearing down walls of fear."
Posters were stationed at each house and the workers wrote notes for the homeowners to read later.
Other projects in the county were coordinated for general cleaning and repair, landscaping and more painting. Work groups were stationed at the Cardinal Center, Housing Opportunities of Warsaw, Beaman Home, Combined Community Services, Warsaw Meadows, Iglesia Biblica Hispana Church, The Salvation Army, Our Father's House, and at seven other individual homes projects in Warsaw and Syracuse.
The steering committee members for this event were: Scott Feather, Grace College; Jack Felger, Kosciusko Community Senior Services; Pam Kennedy, Housing Opportunities of Warsaw; and Trinia Klinefelter and Patricia Coy, from United Way. This committee received applications from seniors and non-profit organizations who needed odd jobs completed.
Companies and organizations which assisted with the projects were: Arby's Restaurant and Wal-Mart are providing lunch for everyone, Raab Water and Lowe's furnished supplies and Kosciusko Community Senior Services and KABS transported the students.
Greentree Environmental and Walnut Creek Church Men's group will provide assistance at the Pierceton sites due to the complexity of those projects.
Winona Restoration donated the amphitheater for the closing function. [[In-content Ad]]