Raising walls—and volunteer numbers

There’s a house—and a lot of hope—going up at the local 4-H Hall in Wichita, Kansas. Groups of volunteers from Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), in town for a special 75th anniversary celebration being held at the Ridgepoint Church, were building the walls to a home that will be trucked to Damascus, Virginia, for a couple who barely survived a flood.

As she watched the volunteers meeting each other, working together, and making progress on the walls, Lana Tieszen, Region 3 Vice Chair and a member or the MDS National Board of Delegates, reflected that, these days, many volunteers can’t leave work for a week a time for traditional volunteer projects, so the opportunity to come work for an hour or a day on a home is appealing.

“Young people are often busy with jobs, children, and other responsibilities, so when we can offer an opportunity to work on a home with some flexible time options, that could really be attractive to people.”

MDS projects in which homes are built in large halls, warehouses, or even church parking lots, then trucked to disaster survivors, are rising in number.

Putting together a project like this means first finding someone to lead it, explained Manny Flaud, Jr., who oversees Storm Aid, an MDS volunteer group in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

“We found two people from Storm Aid to lead this house build, and we got supplies locally in Wichita,” he said. Groups of 10 to 30 volunteers are working in the 4-H Hall, in two-hour shifts, over two days.

Storm Aid is also on the scene to coach a new Amish group, called “Hope,” based in Missouri, on how such projects work.

Young yearlong volunteers who began their MDS service in September, were also part of the pool of helpers in Wichita. Maik Hinz, originally from Germany, traveled from an MDS response in Puerto Rico to Wichita to help with the house build and attend the celebration.

As he worked on the walls, Hinz said, “I really enjoy working with MDS. Every day is different.”

Flaud said that deep connections and relationships between volunteers are an important part of a home build like this one. “We realize it’s not the most practical way to build a home,” he said, but when he tells the story of the homeowners who will receive it, he tears up.

“They were rescued,” he said. “They both held on for 12 or 16 hours and thought they were gone. This house means a lot to them—but what means the most is that they still have each other today.”