Photo by Sarah Foster

After a two-year break, Church of Christ Congregational resumed its tradition of Work Camp trips. This year, 16 volunteers loaded into cars and headed back to Camden, N.Y. to resume their partnership with Cluster 13 Ministries.  

Under the leadership of Pastor Erick Olsen and his wife Tina, seven adults and nine youth spent the last week of June together repairing houses for two families. About half of the crew were Norfolk residents, with others hailing from Colebrook, Goshen, Canton, West Hartford, and Plainville. Two Norfolk natives even drove from Georgia and Pennsylvania to join the effort.

Cluster 13 is a 501(c)(3) organization originally formed by thirteen churches along Route 13 in the impoverished region about 30 minutes northeast of Syracuse. Cluster 13 serves their community “by providing a safe, warm and dry place to call home,” by offering basic home repair and renovations. 

The Camden area receives an average of 23 feet of snow annually, and many residents live in mobile homes with roofs that leak. “Lake effect snow, combined with many homes having flat roofs, means that families must find creative, usually risky solutions for clearing off the snow,” said long-time Work Camp participant Reg Denny. “Many of the people we met, including several with disabilities, were forced to climb ladders and get on top of their homes to shovel each time it snowed.”

During this year’s trip, the group replaced a leaking asphalt shingle roof on one home with a metal roof, where they also power-washed the exterior and painted the foundation. At the second location there were two building sites. One had burned to the ground a few months earlier and another had its siding melted by the heat of the blaze. Work campers at this location spent the week hauling the burned debris into dumpsters, removing and replacing the melted siding and installing several replacement windows.

“The work our group did was absolutely transformative in both locations,” said Tina Olsen. “The owners of the first house, Roy and Sally, were overjoyed at the thought of no more leaks in their roof. They spoiled us throughout the week with dozens of fresh-baked cookies and a scrumptious Wednesday lunch of sloppy joes, macaroni salad, deviled eggs, watermelon and pies.” 

The work completed at the second site included filling three multi-ton dumpsters with ash, rubble and metal, and putting vinyl siding on the house, which will protect and insulate from the elements. “Melvin and Trudy were pleasantly surprised at the progress we made,” said Pastor Olsen. “Trudy was teary-eyed on more than one occasion, recalling the inferno and marveling at the improvements our group had made.”

“I am regularly asked why we travel to other places for these Work Camp trips, since need exists everywhere, including here in Norfolk,” said Pastor Olsen. “I consider these trips to be some of my most meaningful work in ministry, in part because they give us a chance to share our love with a part of the world we might not otherwise see. Taking folks away from the assumptions and expectations of ‘home’ is powerfully freeing, especially when your focus is shifted to the needs of a stranger. Getting out of town in order to make the world a better place – while learning to do something pretty amazing, like putting on a new roof – is blessed work.” 

Pastor Olsen explained that issues of pride and privacy can make it more challenging to complete such projects closer to home. “But if a group of people in and around Norfolk wanted to form an organization like Cluster 13 to serve friends in need closer to home, I would be among the first to get on board.”