In early October I received an email from Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship member, Kathy Stevenson. She was asking if people with building skills would consider joining a group that was working on building Tiny Shelters for unsheltered people in Jefferson County. I had not heard of the Community Build Project but it piqued my interest. Since my husband, my sister and I had varying degrees of experience, I recruited them to help form a QUUF team of six and build a shelter. It was something positive to focus on during an unusually trying year facing Covid-19 and the disheartening ways people were acting during what seemed to be a never-ending election cycle. I believe it did the trick for all of us. We completed our build and we are proud to have been involved in this project. It offered the six of us an opportunity to give back to our community and it gave us a sense of doing something positive even during a time of pandemic (building volunteers have strict protocols to follow related to Covid-19).

Quimper UU Fellowship recently held an online auction to raise finances for many projects and for what we call, “Fund A Need.” Our team is happy to say that the Community Build Project is one of those endeavors that will receive funds from Fund A Need.

I would like to encourage everyone who reads this to search their hearts deeply to see how you may volunteer to help make this project a reality. Can you use a hammer, do you know how to paint? Then you have needed skills.

There have been six shelters built to date but six more are still needed. I know there are many people in our community that have skills that are needed to complete this project. If you are involved in a faith community, organization, or you are a community supporter, please, consider joining the Community Build Project.

Team QUUF would also like to thank the Evangelical Bible Church for its generous gift of allowing 5 or 6 tiny shelters, including ours, to be built on their grounds.

Team QUUF: Sandy Tweed, Dean Carr, Jan Ellis, Kip DeWees, Share DeWees and Jeff Mather