Volunteers create new storage for Northampton women's shelter

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JERREY ROBERTS

Wendy McKee, of Sunderland, stains siding for a barn Saturday at Grace House in Northampton.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Volunteers Lindsey Britt of Northampton, left, and Sierra McDonald of Whately stain siding for a storage barn Saturday at Grace House in Northampton. Other voluteers working in ther background are Hannah Morehouse, left, and Gina Baccari, both of Northampton. Below, Shawn Allen, a volunteer who is the owner of Workable Woods in Whately, saws studs for a storage barn Sunday at Grace House in Northampton. Allen was in charge of the construction.

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JERREY ROBERTS

Volunteers Lee Anderson, of Holyoke, from left, Judson Brown, of Northampton, Greg Mcdonald, of Florence, Ed Daniels, of Easthampton, and Hans Teensma, of Williamsburg, nail studs into a window assembly Sunday while constructing a storage barn at Grace House in Northampton. {{Mcdonald is correct. jr}}

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JERREY ROBERTS

Below, Shawn Allen, a volunteer who is the owner of Workable Woods in Whately, saws studs for a storage barn Sunday at Grace House in Northampton. Allen was in charge of the construction.

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JERREY ROBERTS

A group of men from the Hampshire County Trial Court Community Service Program nail down the floor of a storage barn Saturday at Grace House in Northampton.

NORTHAMPTON - Ed Daniels, 84, sat down in the late afternoon sun with a carpenter's tool belt still strapped to his waist. He wiped his brow and exhaled. A long day's barn-raising had come to an end.

Daniels, of Easthampton, was one of many local volunteers who spent this weekend building a large yet simple storage shed at the Grace House on West Street, which is a shelter for women recovering from addiction, along with their children.

Although much work remains to be done, the four walls of the 12-by-24-foot, single-story structure were raised in record time with help from many corners, including workers in the Hampshire Trial Court Community Service Program and from some of the dozen women and nearly two dozen children living at Grace House.

"We definitely want them to have a sense of owning it," said Judson Brown, one of many volunteers from St. John's Episcopal Church spearheading the effort. "They feel good about it."

"I think we made spectacular progress," he said.

With only piers in the ground at the start of the weekend, by Sunday afternoon the structure had been neatly framed and its walls painted, assembled and raised.

Built with the sweat of volunteer workers in an old-fashioned, neighborly way, the barn is designed to help alleviate a storage crunch at the Grace House. It will harbor such items as cooking grills, bicycles and baby carriages as well as household furniture often donated to the women in the recovery program.

Lead carpenter Shawn Allen, owner of Workable Woods in Whately, said it's important that everyone who comes to lend a hand feels they have contributed to the project in a meaningful and positive way. In addition, he said he hopes the barn raising fosters the spirit of volunteerism and community building no matter where participants go in life.

Work on the barn is expected to continue over the next several weekends and volunteers have their eye on raising the peaked roof later this week. The structure is being built on property owned by the Northampton Housing Authority, which contributed $2,500 toward the project. The Center for Human Development, which oversees Grace House, provided $2,000 for materials, while other businesses such as R.K. Miles in Hatfield and Northampton Paint Center have donated materials or provided them at a discount.

Allen and other members of St. John's Episcopal Church received a bounty of help this weekend and volunteers were seen working busily on the project late into the afternoon Sunday.

On Saturday, nine men and two women in the Hampshire Trial Court Community Service Program showed up for a day's work, among many others. One of those men, Bob St. Peters of Leeds, returned Sunday after having worked on the project both Thursday and Saturday. Allen said the core group of volunteers were pleasantly surprised to see St. Peters return for a third day of work and noted they may just dub the structure the Bob St. Peter's Barn.

St. Peters said he's no carpenter, but he has tried to be as helpful on the project as he can, setting nails, driving some nails deeper into the wood, things of that sort. "Little stuff," he said, rather humbly.

Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.