VOLUNTEERS
Campers undertake home makeovers
LOCKPORT — They may only be visitors, but Annie Shisler has a different view.
“They’re my angels,” she said.
Six teenagers and two adults have been working at Annie’s Corinthia Street home this week, installing a new roof, painting the kitchen and trimming the hedges.
They were sent by the Reach Work Camp, a Kentucky-based organization that sends church groups from all over the country for week-long summer work experiences.
James Haid, director of the St. John the Baptist Outreach Center in Lockport, said this is the fifth time the city has received a delegation, after a year without one in 2007. However, a different group set up the previous visits.
In all, about 310 young people from around the country came to Lockport last week, sleeping on air mattresses and other contrivances on classroom floors in Lockport High School and carrying out home improvements for low-income residents at 27 homes in Niagara County.
“We’re in Lockport, Newfane, Gasport, the Tuscarora Nation; we’re in Sanborn, Hartland,” Haid said.
The teens are from New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, Delaware, Michigan and Minnesota.
There was heavy demand for their services locally. “This year we had approximately 120 families apply,” Haid said.
Some applicants were ruled out because the work needed on their houses was too complex or dangerous for the young people. For example, “We don’t do second-story roofs,” Haid said.
But the work can’t be too easy, either, because the plan doesn’t call for a crew to move from one place to another during the week. “We want a whole week’s worth of work,” Haid said.
Besides roof repair and painting, other crews have handled porch repairs and installing wheelchair ramps.
“I’m low-income,” said Shisler, 79. “I heard that Jim Haid is the one to go to.”
The teens have to pay their own way to camp or raise funds.
“Our church does a lot of fundraisers,” said Savannah Putnam, 14, of Fairport, who attends Fairport United Methodist Church.
There were lots of willing campers in some places.
“The only way I got to go was when somebody dropped out,” said John Lang, 18, of Corbin, Ky., which sent 41 kids to Lockport this week.
When a reporter stopped by, Lang was on the roofing crew, which wasn’t his favorite thing. “I’m scared of heights,” he said.
Some of the girls on the crew couldn’t wait to get their turn on the roof. Hannah Roberts, 18, of Austintown, Ohio, was among them.
“My dad has never let me roof before,” she said.
Although several members of the crew at Shisler’s house were new to work camp, Josh Hardy, 17, of Pembroke, N. H., said, “This is my fourth year. I was driven to come by God and wanting to help people.”
The adult leaders at the Corinthia Street site were Dan Costello, a member of Lockport Alliance Church, and Randy Lawrence of Stirling.
“These guys really are hard workers and very eager,” Lawrence said.
Costello said Newfane Lumber and Standish-Jones Hardware provided building materials at a discount.
The campers are awakened at the school at about 6:30 a. m. After breakfast, there’s a morning meeting. After work, which lasts until about 3:30 p. m., there’s dinner.
“A lot of people donated food and care packages, so there’s totally too much food,” Roberts said.
There’s a nightly program of faith-sharing and a dramatic production.
“It’s prayer, it’s music,” Haid said. “It’s a chance to celebrate and share their faith.”
Annie Shisler is overjoyed at the tangible evidence on her roof and in her kitchen.
“I have a wonderful crew,” she said. I call them my angels.”
