Foundation for Goodness

By David Maurer

Published: October 6, 2008

For two days the elderly Haitian woman watched what she perceived as the hands of God at work.

The awe-inspiring spectacle

took the form of dozens of people literally working shoulder to shoulder to build a concrete stairway up the side of a steep mountain. It was sweat-soaking work that strained muscles and tendons called upon to pass heavy buckets of wet concrete hand to hand.

Part of the miracle, as the woman saw it, was the arrival of a handful of Americans with the construction skills needed to build the stairs, which would provide access to a fish pond. They were members of the Charlottesville-based Building Goodness Foundation and, by the time the project was complete, they were as emotionally moved by the experience as was the woman.

“When we finished this huge staircase, the elderly lady said she had been praying to God to provide her with a way to get up and down the mountain so she could bring water and food to her house,” said Michael Cernik, treasurer for BGF.

“When we were asked to build this set of concrete steps in the mountains, we all looked at each other. We had a hard time understanding why this was something worth doing.

“But our partners had asked us to do the project, so we put our questions aside and did what they asked. What we got to see was

how right they were to ask.”

For nearly a decade, BGF quietly has been organizing people with building skills to help improve lives of people from Charlottesville to Guatemala. The incalculable good they’ve done, not to mention the goodwill they’ve generated, started with a single request in 1997.

Lawson Drinkard asked his friend Jack Stoner, founder of Alexander Nicholson Construction, to travel to Haiti and lend his knowledge and expertise to the creation of a community center. Stoner accepted, and the experience had a profound impact on him.

When Stoner returned home he shared his experience with some of his construction friends. One of the first was Cernik, his business partner.

“The foundation came about as a result of us getting drawn into this community in Haiti where we had been invited to help build a guest compound for an agriculture mission,” Cernik said.

“Out of that experience we started sending our carpenters and subcontractors down there. When they came back, they understood there was something that was bigger than just the project.

“There was such a good feeling about what we were doing that we decided we needed to continue doing it. We then started inviting more of the community to participate.”

For a few years the effort was as informal as meeting over greasy breakfasts with fellow construction workers to talk about and plan what should be done next. Many local carpenters, engineers, architects, plumbers and electricians quickly proved their hearts were as big as their tool boxes.

One of them was Howard Pape, owner of Central Virginia Waterproofing. He learned about the effort from Stoner during breakfast at Mono Loco.

“I hadn’t seen Howard for a while and I said, ‘Howard, let’s go to Haiti,’ ” Stoner said with a grin as he shot a glance at his long-time friend. “He was like, ‘My life is so full of questions right now. I’m at this pivotal place. So, yeah, I’ll go.’

“So there was a lot of this ‘let’s go do this without a bigger intention.’ It was more of an inclination of hearts in some way. A group of us started having breakfast once a week. Then some more people would go, and we started to feel responsible for getting this project completed.

“We started meeting other builders in Charlottesville, and for a couple years it just revolved around those relationships and skills. Then we saw the necessity of creating BGF so people could have some tax deductibility.”

Those who traveled to Haiti would invariably return with a different outlook on life. They’d be changed by the warmth of the people whose gratitude reflected in their eyes and in their endless thanks.

“Going to Haiti was something bigger than just participating in a build project,” said Pape, vice president of BGF. “We’d all been doing what we do for a living for a long time.

“At a certain point, you start asking yourself, ‘Is this all there is, and what am I doing here?’ There are these questions you ask, and there is a search for meaning that occurs in all thoughtful people in all walks of life.

“All of a sudden we were in Haiti doing what we do anyway, but it was different. It was different because of the experience we were having, because of the people we were doing it for. It was inescapable that there was something there worth pursuing.”

Many local people have benefited as well from the generous builders. On a recent Saturday a number of BGF volunteers descended on Camp Holiday Trails just south of Charlottesville to work some of their construction magic.

For many years CHT has given children with chronic illnesses the chance to enjoy a camp experience. The first cabins were built in 1973 and were in need of repair and updating.

Before the “Cabin Fever” project is complete, 10 of the cabin bathrooms will have been remodeled and made wheelchair accessible. The roof on the medical clinic also will have been replaced.

Better Living and Ferguson donated significant amounts of materials to the project. CHT contributed about $25,000 to buy other needed materials.

BGF’s role was bringing together volunteers and coordinated the work effort. Alexander Nicholson, Martin Horn, Greer and Associates, R.E. Lee and Wheatley Construction each took the responsibility of remodeling individual cabins and provided the skilled craftsmen to do it.

What is happening at the camp illustrates how BGF manages to wring several dollars of worth out of every dollar it gets in donations. The nonprofit organization has only two full-time and two part-time employees, which enables it to put 90 percent of its income into projects.

“It took 350 to 400 labor hours to do each cabin,” said Stoner, president of BGF. “If you translate that into current economics, it would have cost Camp Holiday Trails $150,000 to have done this project.

“Working in partnership with us, it cost them $25,000. What we try to do is facilitate the ability for construction companies to provide assistance. It’s like we’re the grease for those wheels.

“The companies themselves are such an integral part of what we do, that we can’t say Building Goodness did this. It was Building Goodness working in conjunction with all these other companies and volunteers.”

BGF has also teamed up with the University of Virginia’s Darden School in a project called Building Goodness in April. Darden students and BGF made needed repairs to as many as 12 houses in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County area.

The foundation provides logistical support and professional contractors and the school provides the manpower. Materials and funding come from donations from the community.

The program addresses some of the poorest housing stock in the city and county. It might replace a kitchen floor that’s falling in or make needed repairs an elderly resident couldn’t afford.

Within a month of Hurricane Katrina laying waste to the Gulf Coast, BGF was helping the people of Pearlington, Miss., start rebuilding their lives. Most of the town’s structures had been destroyed, so teams of volunteers started building what eventually became more than 140 sturdy shelters.

The one-room, wooden structures are the same design as the houses BGF builds in Haiti. They have only a door, two windows and an electrical outlet, but they were a vast improvement from the blue tarps people had been living under after the hurricane destroyed their homes.

“The shelters were the first thing that gave people hope,” Stoner said. “We’re now within a couple months of finishing a 6,000-square-foot community center there.

“We got a $600,000 grant to build it, and it’s beautiful. We’re still $100,000 short, but we’re going to complete it regardless.”

On April 25, the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service presented BGF with the 2008 GIVE Award for Achievement by a Community Partner. A few months later, when two more hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast, all the small shelters survived, and the community center, although not finished, was used as the staging point for the National Guard.

BGF not only builds stout structures, it builds hope. When one’s life has been devastated by natural calamities or simply fate, an extended hand and a kept promise to help can be uplifting.

In 2004 BGF’s help was sought by Dr. Narinder S. Arora, director of the Healing Eagle Clinic on the Mattaponi Indian reservation in King William County. The medical clinic was housed in the community center, which had a rotted floor.

As dire as the need for help was, the Mattaponi tribal leaders were skeptical when BGF offered its help. They had grown weary of outsiders promising things and never following through.

After much deliberation the tribal leaders finally decided to give BGF a chance. The first thing the volunteers built was a wheelchair ramp, and then they began replacing the floor.

“The chief told us we were the only white people who ever did what they said they were going to do,” Pape said. “We’ve made about 30 trips to the reservation, and that project is complete, except for painting of the roof.

“But we have established an ongoing relationship with that community. They determine what their needs are and we help them. We’re now looking into helping them improve their housing stock, which is owned by the tribe.”

At the core of BGF are people skilled in construction trades. It also welcomes unskilled volunteers who can serve as helpers.

From 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 17 in CitySpace on the mezzanine level of the Market Street Parking Garage, BGF will hold a volunteer appreciation celebration. Everyone who has been a BGF volunteer or donor, as well as people interested in learning more about the organization, are invited.

Like it did for the elderly woman in Haiti, BGF can change lives for the better. That’s true for the people it helps, as well as the volunteers who give of themselves.

“We find that when people come back from working on a project, be it local or in a foreign country, they often feel their lives have been transformed,” Cernik said. “When you serve other people you discover something about yourself that gives you a higher calling and a purpose in life.”

Those wishing to donate to BGF can send checks to Building Goodness Foundation, P.O. Box 4325, Charlottesville, Va., 22905-4325. For information, call 973-0993 or visit www. buildinggoodness.org.