Summer Work Camp: 'A true blessing'

Every summer, youth groups from all over the state and country travel to San Marcos — not to vacation or float the river — but to renovate and repair the homes of local families in need.

The Southside Community Center’s Summer Work Camp program has been a well-known staple of the San Marcos community for over 20 years, and is still going strong. Youth groups from all over the country with anywhere between five to 55 volunteers sign up for a week-long trip to San Marcos to work on homes of people who have applied for home renovations through the center.

The Southside Community Center takes new applications for home renovations every year. Applicants have to meet certain criteria to participate in the program, including applicants cannot have received help from any Community Development Block Grant rehab program in the past 5 years; the home can not be a mobile home, rental property or have renters that pay rent living in it; the home cannot have damage to the foundation; homes located in a flood plain must have flood insurance; and homeowners must be considered "low or very-low income," as determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Alexis Pietzsch uses a large knockdown knife to control the spray area of the air hopper spray gun that Nathan Hunt uses to add texture to the walls before painting.

Cade Crowder, an independent contractor for Southside Community Center’s Summer Work Camp, said the applications are awarded on a needs-based point system Southside uses to try to address the needs of homeowners on an individual basis.

“A lot of the people that we try to help are elderly, single mothers, people that can’t afford to go out and spend the money to get their house fixed back up after it’s been flood damaged, hail damaged or just needs to be kept up,” Crowder said.

Crowder has contracted his construction services to the Summer Work Camp through his business Intangible Resources for about three years. He manages the materials being delivered, the volunteer schedule, what work needs to be completed by hired professionals versus volunteers and just generally oversees the work done at the homes that are being repaired through the Community Development Block Grant the Southside Community Center uses to fund its home renovation program. All the repairs, supplies, time and work that go into the home comes at no expense to the owners. It is all covered by the grant or donations. But the Summer Work Camp supplies perhaps one of the most valuable assets to the program, lots of helping hands.

Volunteer Jacob Muzik checks the patch on the wall he just sanded down.

Each week during the summer, a youth group volunteers for five days to come to San Marcos and work on homes. The volunteers spend Monday, Wednesday and Thursday working full days of 8-10 hours at the job sites. But it's not all work and no play. Campers also enjoy floating the San Marcos River, devotional and a day at New Braunfels' Schlitterbahn Waterpark.

Volunteers work alongside contractors to learn the fundamental skills of construction and renovation. On job sites, they repair roofs and gutters, paint, build handrails and ramps, install flooring and windows, replace walls and appliances, and more.

“Any work that’s done that requires a licensed professional to do it, we hire a licensed professional to do it,” Crowder said. “But the volunteers come in and do demolition, drywall, painting, a bit of carpentry — and you wouldn’t believe how good and how fast these young men and women, anywhere between 10 and 18 years old, can work. You wouldn’t believe how much work they can get done.”

The volunteers from this week, Keller United Methodist Church, worked on two houses installing new floors, new tub surrounds, siding, putting up sheetrock, taping, floating, texturing and painting the walls.

Volunteer Maddie Smith applies blue painters tape to the door frames of the living room before the walls are painted.

Berry Turner, a volunteer from Keller United Methodist Church, has volunteered with his sons for the Summer Work Program since 2012.

“At our church, we try to spread God’s love by volunteering and serving and improving other people’s situations so they can live a better life and have a better situation to live in — we just try to help out wherever we can,” Turner said. “Every year there is something different that we do and it’s good for our kids to get some construction skills so that maybe when they go back home, they’ll have confidence to work on their own houses. But it’s also so they understand what it means to sacrifice and give of their time to help others, and hopefully, our kids learn that lesson so that when they leave us and become adults they volunteer in their communities wherever they end up and make the world a better place.”

Crowder said that after three years working with the Summer Work Camp, he’s noticed how the work uplifts everyone involved — homeowners, volunteers and the community.

“This program has been here for years, and I see the opportunity it brings for people in need and what it does for the community overall, and it’s nice to know that this kind of thing is happening and that it will keep going for a long while,” he said. “It’s a true blessing.”