Carpenter’s Project Wraps Up Successful Week

Even with some few changes this year, the Carpenter’s Project did not disappoint families in the community who needed some help in their homes.

“Even with less people this year, we were able to help out 14 families who needed help with safety issues in their homes,” said Steven Miller, Director of the Carpenter’s Project. “I’m very happy with success we had this year.”

The Carpenter’s Project started 20 years ago when Chairperson Connie MacDonald noticed that people were getting cited for issues in their homes and didn’t have the means to fix them. Church members of Calvin Presbyterian and members of other churches along with a church couple from Calvin, Chuck and Marsha Timblin decided to take the bull by the horns and get things going.

In the last 20 years, the Carpenter’s Project has been helping people with exterior house projects in the Riverside and Ellwood City School Districts. Typically, there are multiple crews helping such as carpenter crews, brush crews, and paint crews, and over 200 volunteers, but back in March the committee decided it would be best for everyone’s health safety to only have carpenters and only have volunteers who were adults.

“People understood why we made the decision we did. At the time it was the right choice to make. We were still have a lot of success despite our numbers,” said Miller.

The Carpenter’s Projects’ work week ran from July 12th through July 16th. With 35 total volunteers, 6 crews, and only a carpenters crew, the group was able to help 14 families with safety issues in their homes. The main focus of the group was to help put in wood flooring and railings inside of the homes.

Advertising for the Carpenter’s Project will start in April. With things going back to normal, it is expected that things will go back to the way they were in previous years. Volunteers 13 years or older will be permitted to volunteer and full crews will hopefully be back.