Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290010
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLYNE H. McWILLIAMS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: PILOT LENGTH: Long
Residents of Serenity House do it - by making church pews and pulpits.
"We're sort of repaying our debt to society," said founder David Francis. "Churches do the most in the community."
Perhaps even more surprising is the recent success of the enterprise. While the recession has taken a toll of businesses and other non-profit groups, Serenity House's enterprise has prospered.
Since it started building oak furniture in 1981, sales have grown about 20 percent every year, Francis said.
It takes 30 to 60 days for the men to complete an order. A recent example, for a church in Waco, N.C., included a pulpit and pulpit chairs, a communion table and 28 pews, each 12 or 14 feet long. It cost the church $12,000, delivery and installation included.
Francis said the furniture enterprise produces 60 percent of the income needed to run the facility. He refused to disclose how much the self-supporting facility makes a year producing the furniture.
The Internal Revenue Service was unable to quote immediately from the tax form nonprofit organizations file, saying it would take four to six weeks to provide the information. Francis was unable to produce his copy of the form that non-profits are required to keep.
During the last year, Francis said the business has increased about 20 percent. Despite the economic downturn, he said, the increase doesn't surprise him.
"Normally, in times of trouble, people turn to religion," he said. "Because of this, churches need to make improvements."
During the recession, while the amount individuals have given to churches has declined, the number of givers has grown, according to the National Council of Churches, a New York organization. As an example of the conflicting trends, the council said the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ reported its 8.9-person membership is at a 22-year-low, forcing budget cuts, but that attendance at services was up by 30,000 people last year.
Serenity House started producing church furnishings in 1981. Residents are taught to make furniture as part of work rehabilitation.
Besides church furnishings, they make tables for schools and pews for courtrooms, and volunteer as farm labor for residents in the area.
"I'm a firm believer that work therapy is the best therapy for substance abusers," Francis said.
The property also provides plenty of therapy. Francis' 200 acres has many things to keep the men busy - 30 cows, a few horses and several cats and dogs. Tending grounds around the three-building facility alone could take five men a day and a half of work.
From about 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. the men work in the massive, cinder-block building making institutional furniture. Using about five or six machines, they sand, cut, glue, seal and polish the oak from Northern Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. For pews, another man adds foam and material to the wood. Two other man staple the material in place and a third sprays lacquer on ends of the pews.
When the men aren't making furniture, Francis keeps them busy with household chores, painting or general cleaning.
Francis, a recovering alcoholic, started the facility in 1974 after being fired in 1973 as district sales manager with Bell & Howell Co.
"This is a skill we can use later, after we recover," he said, while walking through the building where the furniture is made. Many don't have skills when they come to the facility and if they do, have a hard time going back to former jobs after recovery.
Don Beverly Sr., owner of Virginia Church Furniture Inc., helped Francis start the company before starting his own in Pulaski nine years ago.
Although his company is larger and is a for-profit venture, Beverly said he still considers Francis a competitor. But he doesn't think the facility ever will be a major threat.
"They don't have the sales force we do," he said. Virginia Church has 30 salesmen in all the states it services from Maine to Florida. Virginia Church Furniture last year had profit of $100,000 and $2 million in sales. That compares with its first year's business of $200,000 in sales and no profit, Beverly said.
Serenity House, in contrast, doesn't have representatives in other states trying to drum up business. It doesn't even advertise. People find out about its products through word of mouth.
The Rev. Arlie Green of Sandhill Freewill Baptist Church in Laurel Hill, N.C., said his church found out about the non-profit work of Serenity House from members of another church.
"We can't say enough good about them," said Green. His church paid $6,500 for 21 pews ranging from 8 to 20 feet long. And Francis was understanding and patient when the church didn't have the money by the time its order was completed, he said. It paid him a few weeks later.
Francis said he isn't interested in becoming a furniture manufacturer.
"I wouldn't call it a business," he said. Pausing to find the right description for the 26-resident facility he and his wife, Lillian, have devoted their time and money to: "It's an investment in humanity.
"The only thing that is going to live after you're gone is what you've done for your fellow man.
"We're trying to build people as well as furniture."
by CNB