Company leaves behind household items for fire victims

WASILLA -- When the managerial team of the Seattle-based general contractor for the Wasilla Home Depot construction project packed up to head home, they opted to leave their clock radios, dishes and coffee makers out of their luggage.

"When we send our supervisory people out of town, usually they're going to have to get normal day-to-day living effects," said Ferguson Construction Co. CEO Gene Colin. "We like to leave a little something behind to benefit the people that need them."

The managerial team for the company visited Wasilla City Hall on Oct. 29 to transfer a truckload of household items they had used during their stay to the Wasilla Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

The church provides home furnishings and other household items needed by families and individuals displaced by fire.

"I had been talking to the people at the [Greater Wasilla] Chamber of Commerce and said, 'You know, you folks have been really nice … is there something we can do?'" Colin said. "We always try to get involved with the community somehow, in some way."

Ferguson Construction is also the general contractor for the Home Depot just completed in Kenai, and for the remodeling of a Home Depot in Fairbanks. Much of the company's work involves building for Home Depot and Costco, Colin said, in about 13 West Coast states.

Colin said he's never sure how members of his crew will be received, being an Outside contractor, but the experience they had in Wasilla was extremely enjoyable.

"You never know, being an outsider, especially from the Lower 48," Colin said. "But we were made to feel like part of the community as soon as we got there, and that's how it was for Home Depot also. It was a pleasure. I hope to do it again."

Ferguson Construction's managerial team, responsible for hiring local contractors and tradesmen, rented apartments and furnished them for their five-month stay. When the job was finished they wanted to donate the furnishings to a local charity.

The items -- some of which were clock radios, kitchen utensils, dishes, linens, and coffee makers -- were turned over to Jean Poole of the Wasilla Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who coordinates donations of household items for people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by fire.

Wasilla Mayor Dianne M. Keller, in announcing the donation, said, "I am extremely touched by this charitable gesture. I appreciate the way Home Depot has become part of this community and I am also grateful for the work done by the Wasilla Seventh-Day Adventist Church and especially Jean and Tom Poole, in assisting families that have been displaced by fire damage."

Poole said people whose homes have been lost to fire are referred to her by the local branch of the American Red Cross, and she helps provide things to get started anew.

Most of the calls she receives are during the winter months; others are from people who are "far down on their luck," she said, but usually they are primarily looking for food.