By BRADEN LAMMERS
Braden.Lammers@newsandtribune.com
JEFFERSONVILLE —
Each spring when the weather warms up, people open up the windows, air out the house, clear the clutter accumulated over the winter and tackle other chores they have been ignoring through the colder months.
On Friday, Childplace Inc., in Jeffersonville had its own seasonal cleaning called the “spring spruce up.”
But more than tidying up the 22-acre campus or one of the six cottages located along 10th Street in Jeffersonville, the effort put in to give the grounds its annual facelift helps to create a greater sense of home for residents.
“It’s hard to take you out of your home and say Childplace is your home ... [but] maintaining that home is what this effort helps,” said Bill Mendenhall, maintenance coordinator for Childplace.
It is a nonprofit agency that provides housing and treatment options for adolescents and youth often removed from their homes by the court system because of abuse or neglect.
“Everybody needs a home and our children often are very uprooted or have no rooting,” Mendenhall said. “So whatever you could call home, at least for a period, these children can call Childplace home.”
For its revitalization effort Friday, Childplace received a tremendous amount of help.
More than 100 employees from General Electric Co.’s sourcing and supplier quality function departments were on hand volunteering to do everything from building decks and putting down mulch to building a playground and painting a basketball court.
“It’s a day to give back to the community,” said Rory Gillman, GE metals supplier quality leader and an organizer for Friday’s event. “It’s a chance to get outside the office, show some volunteerism [and] give back to the community more than just making refrigerators and dishwashers.”
And the volunteer work being provided is not only helpful to Childplace, it’s a necessity.
“Obviously, it upgrades our facilities,” Mendenhall said. “Without volunteers, it’s just almost impossible to run.”
The amount of work done by the 100 plus volunteers is considerable.
“Usually, we’re not quite as fortunate,” said Childplace Executive Director Nathan Samuel. “We’re usually doing it more ourselves or with smaller groups of volunteers. They are getting accomplished in one-half of a day probably six months of work for our maintenance crew.
“They’re just coming and almost overwhelming us. It’s awesome.”
With the breadth of services and the amount of help provided, the nonprofit organization is getting a head start on work that needs to be completed or in some cases work that had been on the docket for years.
“When you have this much manpower, the accomplishment is so great and it’s so easy,” Mendenhall said. “The man hours is well into the 700 [range] ... that’s a huge amount of accomplishment in a day. Some of the jobs they are completing today have been waiting for a couple years, really.”
Aside from volunteering labor, GE also provided a portion of the supplies, including a dishwasher and refrigerator for one of the cottages.
The total budget for the project was $5,000, which was a combined effort between Childplace and GE, Gillman said.
Samuel said the portion of the money that was used by Childplace was funding already in the budget or donations that had come in, but the affect on all involved is beyond a fiscal measurement.
“The staff that they bring on campus, it’s hard to put a dollar figure on that,” Samuel said. “It gives us an immediate shot in the arm. Everybody around here at Childplace is excited today, we’re encouraged and it kind of validates who we are.”
Another impact that resonates from the volunteers to the residents of Childplace is the example set by helping others.
“The kids that we have on campus, they get to see that other people care,” Samuel said. “They get to see other people putting in sweat equity to help where they live. We try very hard to instill a sense of pride in the kids that you need to keep your house clean, your room clean, [and] seeing folks they don’t even know giving back to them and help out — it’s a learning experience for the kids on our campus.”
The learning experience isn’t limited to the children living at the transitional care center; it also affects the volunteers.
“It exposes [the volunteers] to what we do,” Samuel said. “So there’s 100 to 150 families that can now connect with us, they will feel ownership and they will have a connection to what we do. They’re making an impact on our campus for sure. It winds up being a ripple effect to generate more interest [and] that’s why it’s such a positive thing for us is it just continues to generate goodwill and positive vibes.”
Those vibes were evident in the volunteers, as most were wearing smiles along with their GE shirts, a little dirt and, for others, a little paint.
“For the people at GE, it’s an overwhelming response to come and give back to the community,” Gillman said. “That’s why we’ve easily got 90 percent volunteerism for our function. I think what it does do is spark the interest to just continue to give back to the community whether it is through another GE function or on their own outside of work. It makes you feel good.”
