By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
managing editor
KEYSER — Room by room, board by board, the former Alkire Mansion in Keyser is beginning to take shape as the home of Allegheny Mountain House, and much of the transformation is due to the members of a church-based work team from Medina, Ohio.
“I don't know what we'd have done without them,” Allegheny Mountain House representative Bill Burt said Wednesday afternoon, as he joined the members of the team in removing wallpaper, plastering walls, and otherwise working to rehabilitate the historic structure.
According to team leader John Ferut, this is the second year the group from the Medina United Methodist Church has spent a week in Keyser helping with the facility, which will soon house a recovery center for substance abusers.
“We spent three days here last year. We put in a ceiling, stripped floors, and hung dry wall,” he said, noting that they also spent two days of that week working at The Winery, a facility for developmentally disabled adults located near Purgitsville.
This year, they started their week by splitting the group of five adults and 14 youths into two groups, with each group taking the task of working at a mobile home in the area.
“We rebuilt a porch roof on one, and scraped and painted the other one,” Ferut said.
They will finish their week Friday morning at Allegheny Mountain House, then spend the afternoon relaxing at Jennings Randolph Lake.
Ferut said the work teams are an important way for the members — ranging in age from seventh graders though adults — to reach out to others who are less fortunate.
“First and foremost, we're here to spread God's word,” he said. “We hope to touch some lives; we hope to leave them smiling.”
Touching those lives by helping repair someone's home or by otherwise completing little tasks that the recipient would not normally be able to do or to afford is a great experience for all involved, points out Ellen Azotea, one of the work team coordinators.
“Somewhere in scripture it says we are blessed to be a blessing,” she said, noting that, in a world where the media is rife with bad news, it is wonderful for the team members to be able to reach out and positively touch the lives of others, and in turn have their lives touched, as well.
And Ferut points out that the congregations of several area churches are touching the lives of the work team by hosting them each evening for dinner.
The members are staying in the Fellowshop Hall of Grace United Methodist's Fellowship Hall, which incidentally has a work team of its own in a small town in West Virginia this week.
The Medina work team, and other teams scheduled to be in Mineral County over the next couple of weeks, are brought to the area through Helping Hands of the Potomac Highlands.
Keyser, W.Va. —
