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St. Joe, Freeburg Raises the Roof — for Real

Story by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Paulyn Snyder has stepped forward to aid so many people over the years, but this time, the Holy Angels Shelter social worker needed a hand, herself.

Snyder didn’t ask for it, but she accepted generous donations of time, talent and treasure that permitted her to replace a very leaky roof on her home in Washington Park.

Volunteers from St. Joseph’s Parish in Freeburg capped off the project Oct. 16 when they finished replacing the roof on Snyder’s home and garage, and tidied up a couple of extra projects as well.

Ellie Adams, who volunteers with Snyder on a variety of projects, said she heard Snyder complain often about the leaky roof that she could not afford to fix. Normally, when someone wants to help her, Adams said, she won’t hear of it.

However, this time, Snyder knew it would be virtually impossible for her to come up with the money (estimated at more than $10,000) to make the needed repairs for her home.

Adams began small, collecting donations and hosting a fund raiser, but the money to hire a roofing company to do the repairs just wasn’t there.

Snyder’s take-home pay wouldn’t cover the roofing job, nor would her other activities that assist the homeless in the area through Continuum of Life Care Center, down the street from the Shelter. This is also a non-profit agency for the homeless. No big salary there.

What Snyder and Adams do have is an amazing network of people unafraid of hard work or a project that looks, at first, to be unmanageable.

Enter the St. Joseph’s Community Care ministry’s Helping Hands group. This is where the “networking” came into play.

Members of the core Helping Hands group had made a Cursillo in Christianity retreat, and they wanted to get more involved, ministry member John Tolan said. “We wanted to step out and do more; we wanted to be the hands and feet of Christ.”

Tolan has volunteered with Snyder over the years, driving the St. Vincent de Paul Mobile Kitchen (soup bus), and he has worked on other projects with her as well.

Tolan attended Adams’ fund raiser, and the link was made between Tolan and other members of the group, including Karen Blomenkamp who owns a construction company.

“We can do it.” That’s what Blomenkamp said to the ministry group, and “do it” is exactly what she and about 30 volunteers — 18 from St. Joe’s — did.

Here’s what happened: Oct. 14: power washed entire outside of house and garage, sealed cracks in the foundation. Tore off shingles on back side of house. Trimmed trees around house.

Oct. 15: tore off remaining shingles on roof, braced ceiling rafters, put new plywood over entire roof area, put tar paper over entire roof, primed garage and painted half the foundation blocks, repaired damaged wood on garage and
tore off shingles on garage roof.

Oct. 16: shingled house roof (30 squares), new ridge cap and vent, flashing around chimney, finished painting foundation, second coat of paint on garage.

Oct. 18: put new roof on garage and finished ridge cap on house.

Not only was the job amazing but, according to Snyder, “this was an amazing group of people. It was an awesome experience.”

The roof was definitely needed, Adams said, explaining it was rotten in a number of spots, and ceilings will have to be repaired or replaced.

“It was real ministry,” Snyder said.

This was not the first roof tackled by the St. Joseph’s ministry group. In their more than 18 months of existence, the group helped at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Renault where they put a new roof on the parish center, the rectory, an outdoor pavilion and a garage.

Pastor Father Mark Reyling was involved in that project, “cutting roof cap,” he said.

“I am very proud of my parishioners who are involved in this ministry. They help out on the soup bus once a month in East St. Louis; encourage the parishioners to make soup and casseroles for Cosgrove’s Kitchen; collect quilts, blankets and coats for St. Vincent de Paul; and assist with projects like this one,” Father Reyling said.

Tolan said the group is willing to do other things, but “God seems to like for us to do this.”