Pine Hills Adventist Academy, in Auburn, California, recently hosted a group of 42 volunteers from Maranatha Volunteers International. The team spent ten days renovating the school’s kitchen, tearing down a dilapidated picnic structure, and painting multiple interior walls. Pine Hills, a K-12 Christian school, has needed these upgrades for years but lacked funds for the renovations.
The free labor provided by Maranatha volunteers made all the difference. “We’ve been doing this fundraising project to be able to redo our kitchen, and we were actually ready to pull the trigger on this last summer at the expense of about $70,000,” recalled Principal David Carreon. But someone suggested reaching out to Maranatha first–a plan that would allow the school to invest labor costs into higher quality materials. “The overall impact on the kitchen, because of how much we were able to save using volunteer labor through Maranatha, has just been incredible,” said Carreon.
Kevin Longo has two daughters who attended Pine Hills years ago and a granddaughter who just started kindergarten there. Because of his connections to the school, Longo was happy to volunteer as the project’s construction superintendent, but he was nervous he wouldn’t get enough volunteers to participate. “Two weeks before the project was to start, we only had eight people signed up,” he recalled. “So we didn’t know how many people locally would really show up … and figured that we’ll do what we can with what we’ve got.” But the Pine Hills community rallied to its aid. At project’s close, more than 40 people had given their time and talents to help make it a success.
Carreon believes that the project met the school’s physical needs and also a need for reconnection. “To have a way to re-engage these past families back into the current life of the school, that’s valuable. We couldn’t put a dollar value on that. To keep them connected and giving them a sense of purpose and a way to contribute to the school and to bless the current students and their families. It’s been awesome.”
Each year, Maranatha works with organizations in the United States and Canada to provide volunteer labor for various construction or renovation projects at summer camps and retreat centers, schools, and churches. Work ranges from renovations of existing buildings to new construction, and saves thousands of dollars in labor costs.