Local

Knights alleviate Appalachian poverty one home at a time

Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

Volunteers, many of them Knights from the Father Sikora Council at Church of the Nativity in Burke, place roof trusses and install siding on a house built for a family of four in McCreary County, Ky. COURTESY

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Volunteers raise the back wall of the house. COURTESY

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The $19,000 a year Jonathan Strunk makes to support his family of
four left him unable to buy a home. So he, his wife and their two children
lived in a rented trailer. Strunk takes pride in his work at a lumber company,
and though the minimum wage salary couldn’t support the purchase of a home, the
roof trusses he makes now support the frame of his new three-bedroom house in
McCreary County, Ky.

The Strunks’ house is the 20th home that the Father Sikora Knights
of Columbus Council has built in one of the poorest counties in Appalachia. Knight
Bob Corsi began building homes with the Appalachian Construction Crew Inc. when
he lived in Nebraska. When he moved to Northern Virginia, he joined Nativity
and the Knights, but he couldn’t forget the people of Appalachia. When he
reached out to the Crew, he learned they were struggling financially. So he got
his parish involved. 

“Because of Nativity’s support, the whole organization was able
to continue the mission of one house per year,” said Corsi. “(Without) Nativity,
this would have all stopped in 2005.” 

Every January, the parish holds a special collection, which
garnered $63,000 this year. Then in late spring, a caravan of materials, tools
and Knights drive more than 500 miles and start building with volunteers from
Nebraska. The process takes two to three weeks. The only things they outsource
to local contractors are laying the foundation, the electricity, heating,
cooling and plumbing. 

Each home comes with appliances, such as a washer and dryer, and the
group buys the occupants new beds. Families from Nativity donate household
goods, too. Every year, Good Shepherd Mission in Whitley City, Ky., selects a family to receive the home, and the local priest blesses it once it’s
completed. Then, they present the keys to the family — often an emotional
exchange. 

“When you came here you were strangers, and now you are almost
family,” Strunk told the crew. 

The volunteers take time away from their families and some take
time off from work to build a home every year, but they know it’s important work,
said Corsi. 

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate and this is my way of giving
back. I think that’s the case with every member of the crew,” he said. Other
volunteer groups come into Appalachia to repair homes, but few build homes from
the ground up, he said. There is significant need in this area.

“Not everybody has indoor plumbing in this country,” said Corsi.
“(This) area is our third world. It can be overwhelming but (you have to be)
comfortable helping one family at a time. We take great pride at being able to
do that.”

 

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