By David Slone
Times-Union
WARSAW — Panels for Kimber Boyd’s future Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County home in Mentone were constructed Friday at Wildman in Warsaw by about four dozen Wildman volunteers.
It’s the first time Habitat for Humanity has had a “Panel Build” in this county, but it’s hoped it won’t be the last.
Ben Logan, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County, explained, “This is what we call a Panel Build. This is where we build wall panels — the interior and exterior walls – in a company’s parking lot. We brought the lumber here, we brought all of our tools and the employees just literally walk out from where they’re working and they frame up the house in that company’s parking lot.”
After the panels were finished, they were stood up and put together to frame the house. Boyd, who is a Wildman employee, was able to walk through the frame of the house she will share with her four daughters and mother.
Afterward, the frame was broken back down into panels and a semi-truck from Metzger Trucking took them to the home site in Mentone.
Boyd said working on her home with her co-workers at work left her “speechless” and it was “amazing.”
“The support I get from the company, they’re like no other,” she said. “I’m going to cry. I’ll probably cry. It’s been a rough summer, so it’s anxiously awaiting.”
Her daughters aren’t too happy about switching schools, but they’re excited about the house, Boyd said. “They’re excited for this space and I think once they actually see it, and once it’s more visual, it’ll be more reality and I think they’ll be more excited and switching schools won’t mean nothing. They’ll have a home,” she said.
Logan said next week the panels will be put up on the house.
“Wildman is one of our leading sponsors, and this is something that we offer with our sponsorships. This is a great opportunity, especially for those companies who logistically it’s just hard to get people to site but they want to engage their employees, they want a volunteer experience, they want to get close to a mission,” Logan said. “We can bring the build site to you.”
Audrey Russell, Wildman’s director of dream management, explained Wildman wanted to try a Panel Build because, “We really just wanted to help see Kimber’s dream come true, and being able to do a Panel Build and have all of our employees participate because we’re all about helping to change lives, and to see that actually here on our site was one of the most amazing things that could happen.”
Habitat for Humanity provided five workers on the construction side of Friday’s Panel Build. There were two shifts of Wildman employees, with one shift being 8 to 10 a.m. and the other being 10 to noon. Russell said they had about 26 Wildman employees in the first session Friday morning and 20 in the second.
“We really want to encourage other employers to take the challenge and do this as well because when you help your employees get better, then they help you get better as well. So we want to make sure, first and foremost, is the health of our employees so that’s the reason we did this,” Russell said.
Wildman’s vision is to change the lives of their employees.
“That could be in the physical aspect of their life, the emotional aspect, the intellectual aspect or the spiritual aspect of their lives. And this is just one that’s going to not only touch an employee but also their family members because this is a game changer for Kimber,” Russell said. “She’s worked very hard to make this happen, and we’re very proud of the work she’s doing to make this happen as well.”
As the build progresses, she said Wildman looks forward to going on-site to help more.
While Friday’s Panel Build was a first for Kosciusko County, Logan said they’re really common in the Habitat for Humanity world and have taken place in Elkhart, Fort Wayne and all over.
“We were excited to bring this opportunity to this affiliate, especially as we build more homes, trying to engage more businesses in this. So this is a huge thing for us. We’re really happy with how it’s going,” Logan said.
Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko has always offered Panel Builds, but never had the chance to do before now.
“Obviously, you want a business to do it, and Wildman said, ‘no, let’s try it, let’s try it for the first time,’ and we’re really happy with how it’s gone. We’re hoping that this encourages more businesses to sponsor Habitat and hopefully bring the Panel Build to their parking lots, especially since it doesn’t really matter where we’re building because we will bring the build site to you, and we’re hoping that this really encourages more businesses because we need to build more houses and it takes both money and hands of volunteers to put these houses together, and Wildman is doing both right now,” Logan said.
There were 40 panels for Boyd’s home, from the longest exterior wall to a side of a closet.
“It’s every flat wall surface that you would in the house, and we frame all the windows and doors into that, so all the headers are put in already,” Logan said.
Dennis Judy, Habitat construction manager, said the Panel Build encourages a lot more volunteer participation and it’s a good fundraising activity.
“We’re hoping to get more like this because, obviously, the full house right now, all the walls are done. We just have to put them together and they’ve been at it for three hours. So, this is normally four to five days of work on site. But it incorporates more volunteers and … there’s about 50 people involved today. My guess is probably 10 to 12 of them will become some of our semi-regular volunteers on site, just because now they know and understand what we do. It’s pretty cool,” Judy said.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Boyd home was May 30 at 405 N. Franklin St., Mentone. Logan said there was a slight weather delay, but the foundation is ready. A group from Lake City Bank is setting the floors on Tuesday, and then the walls will go up after that sometime next week. He said they have groups lined up for the home build thanks to great sponsors.
“We always encourage businesses to jump on with sponsorships because that gets you first dibs, first in the gate to the priority build dates, and that’s what we’re doing in July and August,” Logan said.
Dates for the Women Build will be announced next week. Those dates will be in August, so Logan said people should watch out for that information.
“We’ve had a lot of demand, so we’re trying to manage how we get as many people to the site as possible, so if they’re interested in bringing a team or if business wants to sponsor and bring some teams, then they should definitely check it out on our website,” he stated.
The website is kosciuskohabitat.org/.
