Volunteers Build 202 Sheds for Fire Survivors

December 7, 2019 | California, United States | Julie Z. Lee, Maranatha Volunteers International

In November 2019, Maranatha Volunteers International and the Paradise Seventh-day Adventist Church celebrated the completion of an ambitious community outreach project. In just three weeks of intense activity, volunteers constructed 202 storage sheds — surpassing the initial goal of 200 — for survivors of the Camp Fire, a devastating wildfire that destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.

“It is a real sense of blessing to see what so many dedicated volunteers were able to accomplish in less than the original time allotted for this project,” said David Woods, director of North America Projects for Maranatha and construction coordinator for the project in Paradise. “Each shed represents hope and a measure of love delivered to people that have experienced so much loss this past year.”

The shed project, as it came to be called, was a joint effort between Maranatha and Love Paradise, an outreach organization of the Paradise Adventist church. The idea came about in early September, when Joelle Chinnock, director of development and disaster recovery for Love Paradise, heard about the need for safe, dry storage sheds for the 2,000 or more people who had moved back onto their properties in Paradise. Most of the residents are living in trailers, with no place to store their personal belongings. In one situation, a woman on dialysis was having to store her medical supplies outside in cardboard boxes.

“I was thinking, let’s build a couple [sheds] in our parking lot, and get our local contractors, and some church members, and we’ll be done. But Garrison [Chaffee] remembered that Maranatha had stepped out right after the fire and called our church and said, ‘What can we come up and do?’” Chinnock said. Chaffee is the associate and youth pastor for the Paradise Adventist church and director of Love Paradise. “So he put two and two together and made the call, and Maranatha was on board. They came up within a day or two of that phone call, and we met in the parking lot. And it was all thumbs-up from there.”

The two organizations set the goal at 200 sheds, with a project scheduled to begin in November in hopes of providing the sheds before the start of the rainy season. Over the next eight weeks, Love Paradise rushed to secure funding from a variety of charities, corporations, and local businesses. They also worked with local leadership in Paradise to create an application process for recipients of the sheds. In the meantime, Maranatha designed a shed, developed a construction plan, and recruited volunteers. Leaders also determined lodging for the volunteers — no easy feat given that Paradise is still essentially a disaster zone. Few places have running water or electricity. An attitude of flexibility would be a must, along with quite a few generators.

On November 5, 2019, volunteers from all over the United States began arriving in Paradise. Participants parked their trailers at Paradise Adventist Academy — which has been closed since the fire after suffering partial damage — or camped out on cots in the classrooms. The Northern California Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church lent the project a portable shower trailer. Two classrooms were converted into a kitchen and dining hall. Multiple generators were borrowed or purchased to power construction tools, kitchen appliances, and lights for the volunteers.

Across the street from the school campus, Maranatha established a construction site in the parking lot of the Paradise church, which had been destroyed in the Camp Fire, setting up an assembly line with stations for the base, walls, roof, and paint for each 10-by-12-foot (3-by-3.5-meter) shed.

The following day, the project launched with approximately 80 volunteers and less than 100 applicants for sheds. Thanks to several reports on the project from local newspapers and news outlets, more than 100 volunteers arrived by the weekend. The number of applicants also began to soar.

“Shortly after the first shed was built, the word spread through town immediately,” said Kyle Fiess, vice president of projects for Maranatha. “Everybody was aware that the Paradise Seventh-day Adventist Church was building sheds and giving them away. The media attention spread the news throughout Northern California, and pretty soon, we had volunteers showing up to help from two to three hours away. Some of these people had never heard of Maranatha or were not familiar with the Adventist Church. And we used that opportunity to make friends with a large group of people that we would have never met otherwise.”

In total, 377 volunteers participated in the project, including several survivors of the Camp Fire who also lost their homes. Americorps, a federal service organization for 18- to 24-year-olds, sent a team of volunteers. Several members of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) spent a few days at the project. A large local home improvement store not only offered discounts for materials, but also employees visited the site on several days with gifts of pastries, warm drinks, and gratitude for the volunteers.

By the end of the second week of the project, Love Paradise began to deliver the first batch of sheds, thanks to the generosity of several organizations. With each shed weighing 2,500 pounds, delivery was not a quick process. The shed building phase was completed on November 25.

“This shed means space, a little bit of freedom inside of my little trailer, a little bit of normalcy,” said shed recipient Andrea Hitt, a Paradise resident who lost her home in the fire. “I’ve been thinking all night long about what I’m going to put in it, stock in it. It really does mean a lot, and I’m really grateful to everybody who’s helped put this together — the volunteers that have come from far and wide, out of state, that have helped build them and the volunteers that are bringing them and delivering them. We’re very grateful to Seventh-day Adventists and everybody that’s helped put this together.”

“This project was unique for [Maranatha] in many ways, but ultimately it was special because we had an opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives of more than 200 families who are hurting,” Fiess said. “At every delivery, we hear a story of why the shed is so important to the recipient. And every story makes you realize how desperately needed these sheds were. So we are grateful that we were able to help make this project a reality.”

To date, more than 700 people have applied to receive the sheds. By early December, nearly 90 sheds had been delivered to individual properties. Deliveries were scheduled to continue throughout the month, thanks to local organizations and individuals volunteering their time.

Maranatha Volunteers International, based in Roseville, California, is a non-profit, Christian organization that organizes volunteers to build churches, schools, and waters wells around the world. Established in 1969, Maranatha has constructed more than 11,000 structures in nearly 90 countries and mobilized more than 85,000 volunteers.