Couple organizes volunteer home repair crew
Lynn and Tom Bond
PLAINFIELD — What do you get when you add two math teachers and about 150 more volunteers? A lot of help for needy people.
Tom and Lynn Bond, who both teach math at Plainfield Central High School, are among about 150 people from across the country, including some Plainfield students, who will use Central as a home base Sunday through June 23 as they repair houses in the area through the “Reach Workcamps” organization.
Reach Workcamps is a weeklong service mission to low-income communities. Since 1992 the Galeton, Colo.-based organization has worked with local agencies and/or local churches to do a wide range of home repairs in towns around the country.
The workcamp is staffed by students and adult sponsors and chaperones.
The Bonds got involved with Reach about 10 years ago through their church, Messiah Lutheran in Joliet. Their kids volunteered for several excursions, Tom Bond said.
“Finally, they (our kids) let us go on one,” he joked.
Now, he and his wife have helped fix up homes in Alaska, Georgia, West Virginia, New York State, North Carolina and others.
This year, the Bonds and Messiah’s youth minister, Dave Stier, helped organize a visit to the Joliet area.
The group will sleep, eat, and shower at the school. During the day, they will work on houses in Lockport, Crest Hill and Joliet for people who cannot afford to do the repairs themselves.
Tom Bond said one of the projects being done in Joliet is to build a 60-foot wheelchair access ramp to a house.
For more information, visit www.reachwc.org.