By Alice Little Caldwell
The FCBA crew gathered for a build day today in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, a beautiful town adjacent to numerous lakes. Sonny, the homeowner of our project home, lost his mother to cancer two years ago. He and his partner had moved into his mother’s home to take care of her prior to her death.
Sonny had grown up in North Dakota on an Indian reservation, where his father and his grandfather had been Episcopalian priests. His mother, a Native American, moved back to her home state of Minnesota after her husband’s (Sonny’s father) death to be with the rest of her extended family.
When she died, Sonny inherited the house, where her family had come to celebrate holidays. He plans to continue living in the house, which he has refurbished, and continue family holiday traditions with the next generation. Amidst all these events, Sonny will be starting seminary this fall to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.
A while back, Sonny ran into his old friend Dina, who works at the local Fuller Center. As they were catching up, he said he needed to replace the roof on his mother’s house soon but would start on the garage, then eventually replace the whole roof. She told him about the work of the Fuller Center; he applied for a roof replacement, and today the FCBA crew arrived to remove the old roof and replace the entire roof!
The weather was cool and completely cloudless – the perfect day for roof work. Fuller center bikers began ascending the roof to tear old shingles away while others worked on the ground.
Over the next eight hours, Fuller bikers and support people worked tirelessly under a hot sun to remove old shingles, felt and nails, repair the plywood on the roof, lay sheathing, and apply shingles. By the end of the afternoon, the house roof was complete (1400 square feet) and the garage roof still a work roof in progress (600 more square feet left to finish).
As one FCBA biker noted, the work was like an old-fashioned barn raising. A community came together to get one big job done. There were experienced roofers in the group who gave instruction to a group of quick learners. People on the ground disposed of waste, handed supplies to the roofers, and worked on the yard. Everyone was productive.
Sonny was very grateful, along with his canine friends in the house. Tomorrow, we will return to finish the work and celebrate with Sonny, who will grill out for the group.
As Ryan, Connor, and Neil would say, the whole team desired a loud “Oyèe!”
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