St. John Builders continue long tradition

EDITOR'S NOTE: In honor of National Volunteer Week, The Daily Standard is running a series of stories saluting the efforts of local volunteers of all stripes.

CELINA - Robert Chaney has spent 26 years working with St. John Builders on building projects throughout the area.

He serves as project coordinator with the organization based at St. John Lutheran Church, Celina. That task includes a lot of communicating with volunteers and other workers involved in building several projects each year, he said.

"It's a rolling list during any given project," he said. "There may be 10 or 15 people show up, but they may be a different 10 or 15 than they were last week."

Volunteers are found by word of mouth, direct contact and sometimes through social media. They also are found through the six Mercer County churches involved in St. John Builders. Workers can be easy to find because experience isn't necessary.

"We can use anyone's skills or talents, any skill level. It doesn't take much training or skill to hold one end of a 12-foot board so somebody can saw the other end off. That doesn't require much, so we have a place for everyone," he said.

Chaney himself didn't have a construction background when he first volunteered.

"I was a 32-year UPS driver," he said, smiling.

Volunteers include farmers, retired military members and retired engineers.

"They just come from all fields, and some of them, you wouldn't believe have never done any of this work in their lives. But they are eager to learn, and that's all that matters," he said.

St. John Builders does not pay anyone, except when contract work must be done by professionals. Last week, the group started its annual project to build a house as part of its effort to provide low-income housing.

RCS was hired to pour the footers for the house. Company officials have agreed to do the work at cost.

"That's their donation to Builders, they forfeit any form of profit, and we have other organizations that do the same thing," Chaney said. He has similar arrangements with contractors to do roofing; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; crane services; and setting rafters. "We cover their expenses, but they do what they can do for us."

The area offers plenty of building projects each year for the organization. Chaney said the group must turn down many requests because they cannot complete them all. Funding for materials comes from donations from churches, individuals and other organizations.

The volunteers construct a house every summer, which takes much of their time during warm months. Various other projects are built and completed when the schedule allows, at least one project a month, but Chaney said having workers, money and materials has never stopped the work.

"Sometimes it gets scary, and workers that are close to me think we're never going to be able to do this next project because we don't have enough workers, but we all work for the Lord, and the Lord supplies workers," Chaney said. "So I calm their nerves whenever I can and say, 'when the Lord quits providing the workers, we'll know we're on the wrong track, that we're not doing what he wants done.' So far, we've never run out of workers, and to this date we've never run out of funds. He provides the workers and he provides the finances."