Group Responds to SOS From Homeowners in Need
LEDYARD, Conn. – For Laurie Gorham, karma may have just come calling in the form of Service on the Sound.
Gorham, 46, is a job coach at New London High School, where she helps seniors in the Special Services Department gain work experience at businesses. This full-time job helping others means she has little time left to tend to the needs of her own home.
”I found out about this program by e-mail through a friend,” Gorham said. “I hesitated to apply because I didn’t want to feel like a charity case. But I just don’t have the means to do the work myself.”
Service on the Sound, or SOS, is a project initiated by St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Groton that specializes in charitable home-repair projects for elderly, low-income and disabled families. SOS is an offshoot of the Group Workcamps Foundation, based in Loveland, Colo.
Sam Eisenbeiser, SOS co-chairman, is working with St. Andrew’s and St. Luke’s Lutheran in Gales Ferry and hopes to include more area churches as plans progress.
He said the inspiration for the program came from local students that had attended camps in other locations and brought the idea back to their local parishes.
SOS has generated significant interest and was the first Group Workcamp in the country to sell out, but is still looking for homes to work on.
”Students volunteer their time and pay to attend the camps,” Eisenbeiser said. “Many times, youth groups will raise funds for them to attend.”
More than 400 teenagers, most from the northeastern U.S., will stay at Ledyard Middle School from July 19 to 25 during the camp. Their days will include scheduled faith-based activities in addition to their home-improvement efforts, except for a free Wednesday afternoon that Eisenbeiser imagines will be spent at local beaches or the Six Flags amusement Park in Agawam, Mass.
SOS continues to encourage applications for repairs and has extended its deadline to Feb. 28 in hopes to more than double the 50 or so applicants it has. Applications can be found on the group’s Web site, www.serviceonthesound.org, and are accepted on the basis of need and feasibility of the work. Homes must be within a 30-minute drive of Ledyard.
Gorham seems a worthy applicant and would be glad to have help repairing her shaky deck and some damaged skirting around her mobile home. She hopes to be one of those selected in March or April.
”I was embarrassed to even ask about the deck because it’s so bad,” Gorham said. “But, the fact they can do it and seem so happy and excited is just wonderful.”
This article ran in the New London Day on 2/2/09 and can be found in its native environment here: http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=82591284-39bd-494d-8c68-4210e6f25b5c
