Westfield church offers free home repair this summer
Rev. Dr. Eric Lohe is lead pastor for CrossRoads Church in Westfield. A few years ago, his church decided to shift their focus from mission trips outside the country to helping their neighbors in Hamilton County. As one way to be a good neighbor, CrossRoads is bringing hundreds of young people to Westfield this summer to provide free home repair for those in need.
This program is being offered in partnership with Group Mission Trips, an organization based in Colorado with which Lohe has a long history.
Lohe
“Group Mission Trips goes to 25 to 35 communities in the United States and do a week-long youth mission home repair camp,” Lohe explained. “I have been attending those camps since 2005 working as staff and a volunteer. Our church has sent a number of students and adults to these work camps.”
This program is geared primarily toward older adults, veterans and any low-income families who live in the community and have their own homes.
“To help them stay in their homes we will do home repairs,” Lohe said. “This summer from July 5-11 we are going to have from 175 to 225 high school kids, church kids and their adult leaders come into the Westfield community to live at Westfield Middle School and go out in smaller groups of six people. They will go to 25 to 35 home sites where each of those small groups will spend a week doing repairs for those people in need.”
Applications are available both as an online form and in downloadable PDF format and are due by the end of February.
Young volunteers and adult supervisors from across the country are coming to Westfield this summer to offer free home repair for those in need. Click here if you think you quality for home repairs. (Photo provided)
“The qualification is very simple,” Lohe told The Reporter. “If you are in need of housing repair to be able to live in your house. We are not checking your bank statements or any of that. Once you submit an application, we have some folks from our congregation and the community who will go assess the need and determine if that is a fit. Most of that is really about if we believe the skills of our students can meet the need the homeowner is asking.”
According to the application, the program can provide porch repair or construction, wheelchair ramp repair or construction, step repair, exterior or interior painting, weatherization, mobile home skirting and minor roofing that does not involve tear-offs or full replacements.
Free home repair is only one of many ways CrossRoads is helping the local community. They have four initiatives they are working on to specifically care for their neighbors in the community.
Adopting a local school
“We adopted Washington Woods Elementary School,” Lohe said. “They are receiving a number of things form this community, which is great, but we wanted to find out what extra needs they have that we could meet.”
Over the last three years CrossRoads has provided school supplies, provided athletic shoes for any of the kids who need them, and provided assistance for food-insecure students.
“We have been helping 9 to 12 families on school breaks who do not have enough food,” Lohe said. “We most recently provided two weeks of food to 12 different families of those who attend Washington Woods School.”
Providing free, fun families events
“We have three of those,” Lohe said. “We have a big fall festival. We have a summer event, which last year was a luau. It is held up at our church land. The biggest of the three, which has grown the most, is what we call ‘Pizza and Punchline.’ It is a free comedy event. This year it is on Feb. 22 at Westfield High School. We bring in three nationally-known comedians for a night of fun and pizza.”
Finding people struggling with particular needs
“We have been working on three needs we did not feel were addressed in the community,” Lohe said. “For one we provide free Zumba twice a week for folks to get exercise. Once a month for people who have pets we provide free pet food so hopefully some of the resources they are using paying for their pets they can use for themselves and their families. Third, we started a Celebrate Recovery program every Thursday night.”
Identifying people who have fallen through the gaps
The current focus toward this goal is the free home repair program coming to Westfield, Noblesville and northern Hamilton County this summer.
“Since folks in our church are in Westfield, Noblesville and Sheridan, we decided for this round of doing this camp we were going to focus in those three communities, though we have gotten applications from Cicero and Arcadia that we will be pursuing,” Lohe said. “We are really open at this point,” Lohe said. “This is called, ‘For Our Neighbor.’ We are just trying to meet the needs of our local neighbors.”
Photo provided
CrossRoads wants to both be good neighbors and also involve others in helping community neighbors.
“In addition to seeking work group sites, we are also open to businesses or service organizations to be a part of this,” Lohe said. “If a Rotary Club asks, ‘What can we do?’ I’d say, ‘The kids come back really hungry in the afternoons. Could you cook up some hot dogs and have them available when the kids come back from camp?’ A business could take out popsicles to a group or to a couple work sites during the week to say, ‘Thank you. We’re glad you are here and thanks for what you are doing.’ It is not just about us as a church trying to do something for our neighbor, it’s also about helping people be the best neighbors we can be.”
If you would like to help, email groupworkcamp.crcw@gmail.com or call (317) 804-1073.