The mission of the Fuller Center is to provide simple affordable housing for those who can't afford a typical mortgage. The new home owners put in sweat equity hours and help with the construction as much as they are able. Once the home is completed, the owners pay back the cost of the materials at terms they can afford and that money goes to help someone else in their area who has a similar need. The Bike Adventure stops to help these local chapters of the Fuller Center to work on whatever projects they have going on. Thirty-seven sets of hands can get a lot of work done and 37 orange shirts descending on a community also brings some publicity with the hope that more local people volunteer their time and/or give to help meet the housing needs in their community. This week we had two build days.
Wednesday we helped the Kellogg Fuller Center covenant partner. Our main project was helping a family with 10 children put some siding on their home. They had taken 2 trailer homes, one of which was double wide, and put them together. The Fuller Center had helped them put a roof over the whole thing. The family had worked hard to finish the interior of their new home. It may sound like a great idea to have 37 people come help with a work project, but I learned this week that it is a lot of work to organize that many people so they can work efficiently. A big reason for that is that lots of tools are needed. Even with three crews working on three sides of the house, quite a few of us were standing around. Some of the group helped clean out a shed and then 11 people went to help on another project. Two of the ladies went inside the house and helped the teenagers clean out pet cages and catch up on the mountain of laundry that had built up. In the end, all of the available siding was put up. We could have done more, but the second load of siding had not yet arrived at the lumber yard.
Saturday we helped the Lewiston Fuller Center and Interlink with some projects they had. This was by far the best organized build day I was a part of and other riders who have been a part of many build days agreed. From my perspective there were two main reasons for that. 1) One of the churches in town works on projects like wheelchair ramps every 2nd Saturday of the month. They have done this numerous times before. 2) One of our riders from the area works at the school and had access to enough tools that every crew had exactly what they needed. The 37 riders were divided into numerous teams. Most of us either built or repaired wheelchair ramps. There was one paint crew that went from one site to another and another group went to the local food bank to do some labor intensive projects for them. I was with Mark, Susan, Lindsey, Arron, Molly, and Brett. Our project was to put in a wheelchair ramp for a woman whose daughter has MS. While the daughter doesn't live in Lewiston, it is virtually impossible for her to get into the house when she comes to visit. After our day of work, she will be able to enjoy a visit with her mother.
Bob was our local supervisor and it was obvious this wasn't his first wheelchair ramp. I learned that construction workers have their own language. He would rattle something off about how he wanted wood cut or how to put the pieces together. Mark, Susan and Brett would all nod their heads and go to work while I asked for a translation. It was fun to work on a project that didn't require being super exact so I was able to use some of the power tools. It was a hot day in Lewiston (close to 100˚) but we were blessed to work under a carport and to have some cloud cover in the afternoon as the sun shifted over Mark set up his camera to do a time lapse video so you can watch our 7 hour project happen in 1:24.
No comments:
Post a Comment