Volunteers help maintain village of tiny houses
Kenton Women’s Village, a community of tiny homes operated by Catholic Charities of Oregon, takes a lot of maintenance work.
Volunteers really come through.
Last fall, a team from TaylorSmith Sustainable Construction spent a day rebuilding foundations, adding handrails, repairing decking and replacing siding. The work has held up strong into the winter.
“We love seeing the people we impact,” said Lauren Shumaker, a TaylorSmith co-owner and Director of Operations and Sustainability. “Two things are true: We want to do this in our heart of hearts, but we also feel it’s a duty. It’s the way we were brought up. We need to give back.”
The company dedicates one day per year to service and gladly chose Kenton Women’s Village.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Shumaker said of the village. “I’m grateful it’s here.”
She is impressed at how the Kenton community has embraced the place.
“I wish every neighborhood had one,” she said just as a circular saw fired up at a nearby pod.
Shumaker’s husband took part in the 2019 “pod challenge,” the contest in which firms built the village’s tiny houses.
Shumaker said that TaylorSmith workers love their service day. In addition to furthering a good cause, it allows people to get together in a fun and different way.
Helping the TaylorSmith workers was a crew of youths from a Jewish gap year program called Tivnu. Young people take part in nine months of social justice engagement. At Kenton, the young people have tended the grounds and constructed a sturdy fence that later was covered with a floral mural.