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Group gears up for Valley home projects
By LINDA M. LINONIS
CANFIELD
Need some interior or exterior painting done? Wishing a handrail could be installed?
You’re in luck. A group of youths and adults under the umbrella of the Mill Creek Workcamp is ready, willing and able to help.
Carrie Boyer is chairwoman of Mill Creek Workcamp, which is co-sponsored by Western Reserve United Methodist Church, 4580 Canfield Road, and Group Workcamps Foundation.
She said applications are being accepted from homeowners in Youngs-town who need interior or exterior painting done, a handrail or wheelchair ramp installed, small woodworking projects and decking to be built. Applications will be accepted until March 1 by calling 330-398-0311 or downloading an application from the website www.millcreekworkcamp.org.
Boyer said a representative of Mill Creek Workcamp will visit applicants’ homes to assess the work requested.
Though anyone may apply, the target group is low-income, elderly and disabled who need home improvements. Boyer said some 80 homes will be on the work list.
When Mill Creek Workcamp took place for the first time in 2008, the group worked on 70 homes.
“The project was well-received by the city and residents,” Boyer said. “Youngstown is one of the most-popular sites. They were made to feel so welcome, and there was a lot of community support.”
The 494 work-camp participants will arrive June 26 and stay at Chaney High School through July 1. They come from all over the country. The age range for youths is 14 to 21, and there are adult volunteers. At each worksite, there are four to five youths with one to two adults.
They will work on homes from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 27, 28, 30 and July 1 and from 8:30 a.m. to noon June 29. During free time, the young people and adults will visit various sites including Mill Creek MetroParks, Nelson Ledges State Park and the Butler Institute of American Art.
“They like to experience the area and do some shopping,” Boyer said.
They’ll have breakfast and dinner at Chaney, where they also will stay overnight. They bring air mattresses and sleeping bags. They take sack lunches to the worksites.
Boyer said work-camp participants pay a $400 fee for the experience.
“It’s a life lesson,” Boyer said of the faith-based program.
The Rev. Russ Adams, pastor of Western Reserve UMC, said the work camp is a “spinoff of youth mission trips.”
He said that when he first came to the church, he began youth mission trips that went to New Jersey, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Brian Baldwin, a former youth-group member, was a youth involved in the mission trips.
“Brian saw the value of the trips and has a heart for them,” the Rev. Mr. Adams said.
Now an adult and on the work-camp steering committee, Mr. Adams credited Baldwin with sparking the idea to have a work camp in the Mahoning Valley. “We applied and were accepted for Group Workcamps Foundation.”
Mr. Adams also credited Mayor Jay Williams, the city and Youngstown board of education with being cooperative in the project.