Hammerin' for a cause

The Salvation Army building in Palmer got a facelift during the last two weeks, thanks to a group of men from California who return to Alaska every summer.

While they enjoy the fishing and seeing the state, the real reason the group from Tustin, Calif., comes to Alaska is service. They are members of the Tustin Ranch Salvation Army Church, and for 14 years, a group from that church has come to Alaska to do work at Salvation Army locations around the state. This year, it was Palmer's turn to receive the service.

"My father was a building contractor and he wanted to see a little bit of Alaska, so he came up here 14 years ago and got it started," said Dick Davenport, the foreman of the eight-man group.

"That first year we went to Hoonah and Angoon. In the small villages, help is really needed," he said.

Since then, Davenport has been back every summer. Some of his crew in Palmer has been coming to Alaska for most of those trips, although he said not everyone comes every year.

"We try to get at least one person who has never been to Alaska to come," Davenport said. "We look at the project and then pick our crew based on who can do that particular type of work the best. If it is a carpentry-oriented project, we'll bring more carpenters."

In Palmer, just about everything needed done. The Salvation Army building has slowly deteriorated through the years, and a small house the Army has in downtown Palmer that it uses for emergency housing was also run down. For two weeks, Davenport and his group went to work.

"We remodeled two bathrooms, put a new ceiling in the kitchen, went through the entire electrical system, put up gutters, repaired a sink cabinet -- just about everything," Davenport said.

The eight men -- Davenport, Don Scroggin, Jim Olson, Ace Wright, Bill Harwell, Kerry Saxon, Jason Thomson and Pete Slack -- participate for a number of personal reasons. At the top of the list, though, is service to a higher calling.

"My service to the Lord and the advancement of the Salvation Army in Alaska is why I come," Slack said. "It's our gift to God. It's that simple."

Davenport said for the men, using their talents to provide a Christian mission is a big reason why they keep coming back.

"In a lot of these places, the buildings are in really bad shape. We come in and clean them up. It is such an encouragement to the local pastors -- they can go into their own community and show them the positive things they have done with the Salvation Army," Davenport said.

Davenport has led construction groups to Homer, Kake, Wrangell, Angoon and Hoonah, among other places.

Each summer, the construction crew fishes in the evenings, and then takes that fish home for a large fish fry, which helps raise money for future trips.

"I think the neat thing is that they pay for their trips themselves, outside of the Salvation Army funds," said Capt. Bill Bearchell, the interim officer at the Palmer corps. "They do it all on their own."

Davenport said the Army does help financially, but most of the money is raised by the men who come to Alaska.

"Our deal is that we pay our way up here, and the local Salvation Army corps provides us a place to stay and feeds the team," Davenport said. "The team is pretty self-contained. We can do our own cooking if we have to."

They haven't had to do much cooking in Palmer, Bearchell said, because of the support of several people. At the top of his list is Janet Kincaid, who Bearchell said has been one of the biggest supporters.

"She has fed them, housed them and even went to bat for them on a couple of orders," Bearchell said. "She has really helped out."

During the winter, Davenport talks with Salvation Army officials from Alaska and gets an idea of a few projects that need done.

He picks a location based on what his team can best accomplish, and starts ordering materials and picking his team. By the spring, the project is ready to begin.

Davenport said he believes his team is the only of its kind, at least in the Western U.S. territory of the Salvation Army. There is a youth mission organization within the Salvation Army that does similar work, as well as international outreach groups. Davenport once worked for a month in India on a similar construction project.

Coming to Alaska is something all the workers enjoys, and for that reason, Davenport said he will continue bringing a team of workers to Alaska every summer as long as possible.

"As long as the money is there and our health is there, we'll be coming back," he said.