A Warm Place: Apartment group using its skills to turn an old cottage into a shelter for young people

As a teenager in the 1970s, Margo LaFever lived in Stultz Cottage at the Children's Home for six years.

"It was home," LaFever said.

Now she is come back to help make the cottage an inviting home for other young people.

LaFever, who graduated from Reynolds High School in 1979, is one of about 150 volunteers who have been renovating the cottage, which has not been used for 25 years. The work will allow the cottage to serve a residential program that the Children's Home is moving to its campus.

LaFever said she is grateful for what the people at the home provided.

"It was the right place at the right time," said LaFever, whose three brothers also lived there.

The experience taught her a lot about life.

"When you live in this situation, you have to learn to live with everybody," she said. "Whatever life throws at you, you are going to have some experience to fall back on. To me, it was a wonderful teaching experience, among other things."

Over the years, she has kept up with others who lived there through the home's alumni association, and helped out the home in various ways. So when the members of the Triad Apartment Association decided to make renovating the cottage the association's "Labor of Love" project for this year, LaFever, who works for McNeely Pest Control, was happy to join in.

Several weeks ago, volunteers began doing such things as clearing out items that had been stored in the building. The big push began Friday, with 60 volunteers showing up to clean, paint, replace light fixtures and landscape the grounds. LaFever washed down walls, doors and closet shelves in a bedroom she once shared with other girls.

On Saturday, volunteers continued the work, and a second volunteer-intense wave is planned for this Friday and Saturday.

The cottage is needed because last Sept. 1, the Children's Home took over the operation of Opportunity House, a nine-bed emergency shelter for young people on Brookstown Avenue. The shelter had been run by the Youth Opportunities organization.

"The intention from Day One was to move that facility on campus," said George Bryan, the president and chief executive of the Children's Home.

Although Jon Lowder, the association's executive director, said they expect to have almost everything done by the end of the weekend, the shelter won't be able to move in until the state approves the move, which could take another 60 days.

When the Children Home agreed to take over the shelter, Bryan estimated that it could take $150,000 to renovate the 10,000-square-foot Stultz Cottage. With no money available, immediate action wasn't possible.

Along came Marc Crouse, a member of the apartment association who volunteers at the home and is in the process of adopting a young person who has been living there. When he approached Bryan about the association doing something at the home for this year's "Labor of Love" project, Bryan thought that fixing up the cottage for the program would be just the thing.

"From the first, we are considering this a miracle," Bryan said.

The cottage was solidly built and still in good shape structurally, he said. The Children's Home had a new fire-alarm system put in. Association members and the companies that do business with the Children's Home donated many of the materials needed, and association members and their employees had all the skills -- plumbing, electric, painting, landscaping -- to fix up the building and its grounds.

People readily volunteered to participate, Crouse said.

"Everybody wants to be part of something bigger than themselves, and this is that opportunity," he said.

Jeremy Clark, who owns a pressure-washing business, has been one of the project coordinators.

"I feel like it's been a good thing," Clark said. "And it's been a tremendous amount of fun. It's been amazing to me the number of volunteers and their willingness to be involved."

The project also has brought in others not directly connected to the association.

Phillip McBride heard about the project from his neighbor, Dan Gillette. McBride, recently laid off from his job with a wood-flooring company, offered to refinish the parquet floor in cottage's living room.

When he arrived, he discovered that, over the years, many of the pieces of wood had come unglued. He ended up taking up about 40 percent of the wood on the 800-square-foot floor and re-gluing it.

"It has been time-consuming," he said.

Only after that did he get to work sanding and refinishing the floor. Altogether, he spent about five days on the project -- time that he considers well-spent.

"It's a great cause," he said. "It's a great thing for children that need a warm place to be.... It makes me feel good inside to do something for people."

kunderwood@wsjournal.com


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