No job too tall: Area roofing crews volunteer at Behalt
With a new roof in high demand at Behalt, three area roofing crews volunteered their services to come for a day and replace the aging roof that was causing leaking issues. It didn’t take a day. Arriving around 6 a.m., the men tore into their work and had the old roof off and the new one on by lunch.
Once again, the people of Holmes County have proven there is no job too tall to tackle.
When the board at Behalt realized they were having some issues with their roof recently, it didn’t take long for a trio of roofing companies to come to the rescue and provide their expertise in solving the issue at hand.
Approximately 28 volunteer roofers showed up the morning of Thursday, April 18 and attacked the roof and fashioned a new one in what seemed like no time at all, solving the issue and giving Behalt a roof that should last for many decades.
According to Marcus Yoder, executive director of Behalt, the old shingles were from the original build back in 1991. They had experienced a roof leak and discovered the shingles needed replaced.
Kline Lumber provided the shingles, and Mahlon Raber of Charm Builders agreed to oversee the project. He has a vested interest because he will soon become a Behalt board member.
He contacted Twin Creek Roofing and Troyer Roofing, and their owners quickly and happily agreed to send their teams to lend a hand.
By early afternoon the expertise of the crews saw them put the wraps on a successful project.
“All of this is donated labor,” Yoder said. “This is our community at work in the name of service to one another. When you think about how tight this community is, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than living and working here, where people respond to help meet the needs of others. People here take care of each other.”
The call for roofers went out amid Behalt’s Amish Youth Baptismal event, where they announced the need for roofers.
“Some of these young guys went to their bosses and said, ‘We’d like to go and help. We’ll give our day,’ and they showed up,” Yoder said. “It’s been amazing to watch all of them just dive in and go at it. These roofers stopped their regular work and gave us a day.”
Raber, who served as the foreman on the project, said the response to the call was immediate and with glad hearts as the three roofing companies sent myriad workers to swarm Behalt’s roof.
Beginning early in the morning, the teams went to work, quickly tearing off the old, worn shingles, a project Yoder said was completed almost before it began, the team completing that task by 8:15 a.m.
“It was pretty inspiring to see them go to work and get that done so quickly,” Yoder said.
Raber said seeing so many individuals and local businesses show their support for an organization that needed a hand wasn’t surprising for this community.
“That’s pretty much our community. Everyone around here would have done the same thing. Marcus just happened to come to us first, and we were glad to do it,” Raber said. “We didn’t have any problems finding more roofers in the other companies either. Everyone was so willing to jump right in and work on the project.”
The trio of businesses sent their teams into three different groups that worked on different portions of the roof. Raber said there was some friendly competition as the teams raced to tear off the old roofing material, but he said it was all in good spirit, and the event served to bring the companies closer together.
“It’s always good to fellowship and mingle and to see other guys and see how they do their work,” Raber said.
He said there were no surprises in the roofing, outside of a small leaking area near the rear of the Behalt building, but it was taken care of with ease.
He said God must have known they were coming, sandwiching the workday between a violent storm on Wednesday evening and projected rain on Friday.
“It turned out to be a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold and overcast,” Raber said. “It’s ideal conditions.”
The workers were greeted by an early morning breakfast of doughnuts, coffee and cold drinks, and after several hours of hard work, they halted the process and enjoyed a dozen pizzas courtesy of Charm Pizza.
Yoder said all of those expenses were covered by local community members who wanted to do their share in the roofing process despite not having the skills to climb up onto a roof and work.
“It’s just community coming together with a purpose,” Yoder said.
Yoder said he asked the volunteers if they had been inside to see and hear the story of Heinz Gaugel’s “Behalt” cyclorama mural that depicts the history of the Amish and Mennonite people, and many of them had not.
“We’re giving them free tickets to check it out,” Yoder said. “That’s the least we can do.”
Yoder said seeing this type of commitment to serving is exactly what the story of Behalt is meant to share, and this type of commitment is living out the words and deeds of the people of the Amish and Mennonite faith.