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Carthage, Jasper County

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September 1, 2008

Volunteers chip in to help renovate Carthage center

By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Volunteers traded their fishing poles and barbecue tongs for brooms and paintbrushes on Labor Day to help get the Carthage Crisis Center’s new building ready to open by the end of the year.

Sherry Pettey, for one, was excited to pitch in to help on Monday.

“I’m crazy,” Pettey said as she took a break from touching up the paint in what will be the women’s living quarters. “I just like to work.”

Pettey was among about 25 volunteers who donated time during the holiday, according to Marilyn Bisbee, operations director for the Crisis Center.

“We’ve had a good turnout,” Bisbee said. “The volunteer labor has been absolutely essential.”

Renovations started last year on Leggett & Platt Inc.’s former national research center, which was donated by the company. The building will allow the center’s operations to move from a 3,100-square-foot former filling station at 420 Lyon St. to the 42,000-square-foot building at 100 S. Main St.

Bisbee said the goal is to have the new center opened by the end of the year.

The center will have five family rooms, and room to house 15 men and eight women, with space for seven men and four women who are in transition to independence, plus room for staff members.

Residents of the Crisis Center also were on hand Monday, helping to clean up, paint and do other jobs.

“We believe in laboring on Labor Day,” Bisbee said. “The community has given to our residents by giving this place, so we encourage them to give back.”

Volunteer workers were asked to do some painting, plumbing fixture installation and other work on the first floor, and cleanup and painting on the second floor.

“With construction comes a lot of mess,” Bisbee said. “So we’ve had people helping to pick up, and use the Shop-Vac. We had a couple of families come in that just did pickup of scrap Sheetrock and filled up our Dumpster.”

Another volunteer, Eric Ferrell, helped hang drywall in what will be a staff conference room on the second floor.

“It was a choice of this or doing my yardwork,” he said. “Fortunately, I can do my yardwork at 5 or 6 o’clock tonight, but I can only help out here from 8 to 4.”

Bisbee said the Crisis Center will continue to solicit volunteers until the project is completed.

“We have somebody here from 7 a.m. until 3 or 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and basically from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday,” she said. “We’re open to volunteers.”

Staff writer Susan Redden contributed to this report.

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Carthage, Jasper County
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