Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190086
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This year, members of the South Roanoke United Methodist Church youth group spent their spare time selling fruit and flowers to raise money for the project. After they managed to earn $2,000 - more than enough to pay for the materials - they decided to do the labor themselves.
The idea for the project came from a couple of Eagle Scouts, said Tim Dayton, who is the church's youth director. But when funding became a problem and the Scouts decided the site was too far from Roanoke, "we thought: Why don't we do it?" Dayton said.
Donna LaPratt, director of the Henry Fork Service Center, liked the idea, too.
The Henry Fork community lies just off U.S. 220, right outside the town of Rocky Mount. The center, as the name implies, was once a gas station and still looks like one; only now, it's offering a different kind of service.
More than 100 children come to the center for the preschool or after-school program that provides recreational activities and homework tutoring for children up to 16 years of age. All of these services are free, LaPratt said.
There's also a support group and an exercise class for the women of the community and a crafts room where parents and children can make items to sell to help raise money for the center.
The community is a working-class neighborhood with many single-parent families. Residents sometimes depend on the center's small food pantry to get them through tough times, LaPratt said.
The center has been in operation since 1967 and is a mission of the United Methodist Church, she said. Congregations throughout Virginia have participated in various projects at the center, but South Roanoke United Methodist Church always has had a special relationship with the mission, Dayton said. For years, members of the church's youth group have volunteered as tutors there.
The playground is the first large project the youngsters have attempted, he said, and organizing it wasn't easy.
There is a core group of about 20 kids, said member Paul Wallace, 15, a student at Patrick Henry High School.
Although everyone helped with the fund raising, he said, when it came time to do the actual work, other activities such as sports and cheerleading kept most of the members from participating.
Dayton, who supervised the construction along with church member Steve Wilkinson, credited Wallace with being the driving force behind the project. Although other members of the group have helped out, as have several youngsters from the neighborhood and a handful of students from Ferrum College, Wallace "has been the instigator," Dayton said.
Amy Crow, who lives in Ferrum and is helping the Roanoke group, said she has a fairly busy schedule, too, but "being here is more important. Once your heart's into something, you don't stop."
"It's fun," said Andrew Tegenkamp, 16, also a student at Patrick Henry. "I like coming up here and doing this."
"You get a lot out of it," Wallace agreed.
The youth group members began working on the project every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon after school from early September to early October. Some of them had worked on the church's Habitat for Humanity house and other similar projects, so they already had some construction skills, Wallace said.
The hardest part was using a power auger to drill the post holes, he said. "It took two days. We ran into rocks."
The total cost of the project was $700 to $800 Wallace said, so the group is looking for other projects, possibly closer to home, to spend the rest of the money on.
"My personal hope is that they'll like it enough to do it some more," Dayton said.
by CNB