Connecting with the community

Heritage High School teacher Jerry Dudley says he’s always had a heart for children.

So he was quick to agree when Jane Francis, CASA of Central Virginia’s executive director, approached him about using his building trades class to help raise money for the organization, which trains volunteers to advocate for children in the judicial process. (CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates.)

Dudley says the cause of abused and neglected children hit home with him.

“Some of my (students) have lived through some of that stuff,” he says. “If they’d had a CASA, maybe things would have turned out differently (for them).”

The result of Heritage and CASA’s collaboration is a playhouse that Dudley’s Intro to Building Trades students began building in January and completed last week during the final days of the school year.

The playhouse, as well as two child-sized picnic tables, will be raffled off in December, and all of the proceeds will benefit CASA.

Francis hopes the project will not only raise funds but also awareness of what the organization does.

“We know CASA isn’t a program that’s on the tip of people’s tongues (all the time),” she says.

“We’re trying to connect with the community. It’s a program that helps children, and this is a playhouse. We liked the idea of the students being involved.”

Raffle tickets for the playhouse and picnic tables will go on sale June 20, with a kickoff event scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at New London Trailers in Forest, where the playhouse will be on display (see box for more information).

Francis came up with the playhouse idea last year, after realizing that CASA would experience a $25,000 shortfall in funding for the 2009-2010 budget year. Their annual operating budget is $330,000, with funding coming from the Department of Criminal Justice Services, local government, grants, fundraisers like their annual shoe sale and donations from private citizens, businesses and organizations like the United Way.

“We began to realize we couldn’t expect (that) money to come,” Francis says. “We had to step it up a notch and look for creative ways to raise money. The playhouse was absolutely the way we totally went out on a limb and said, ‘Let’s try.’”

Their goal is to sell 1,500 raffle tickets, which — at $4 a pop, or three for $10 — would raise approximately $6,000. If all goes well, Francis says they’d like to make it into an annual raffle.

The drawing won’t be held until after the Lynchburg Christmas Parade and, in the meantime, the playhouse will be put on display at various locations and events in the community through the rest of the summer and during the fall.

“We were kind of hoping it would give us time to get it out in the community and get the chance to sell more tickets,” Francis says of the lag between now and the parade.

“It’s got to be out there on display. If this isn’t on display, people aren’t going to see how awesome it is.”

The 8-foot by 8-foot playhouse is modeled on a set of Georgia Pacific plans Dudley found online and printed out to show Francis during one of their first meetings.

“Then she comes over with the same set of plans,” he says, laughing.

Adds Francis, “Talk about feeling like we were of like minds.”

Dudley and his students put their own touches on the house, which he describes as a “high-priced shed.”

They added gray vinyl siding, a small front porch and a 40-inch-wide door that’s built into the side of the building, so it can be used as a storage shed once the raffle winners no longer need it as a playhouse.

The structure is actually just a more elaborate version of what Dudley would’ve had his Intro to Building Trades students do anyway. In the past, most of his Intro classes have built a much smaller, more basic shed that was then sold.

“We sell them before we even get them finished,” Dudley says. “As a matter of fact, I could go into business selling sheds with these guys. They’re solid, built to last.”

When the idea for the playhouse came up, Dudley just went ahead and used the supplies he’d already pulled for that more basic shed, and CASA is now in the process of replenishing those supplies.

“We’re knocking on doors and getting materials donated,” Francis says.

The Intro class is designed to give students a taste of what to expect in Building Trades 1 and 2, dual enrollment courses that allow them to obtain college credit through CVCC.

“Not everybody’s cut out to do this kind of stuff,” Dudley says.

“Most of these guys have never even picked up a hammer before,” he says. “I tell them this is the last place they’ll be able to make a mistake and laugh about it. (But) the guys who want to get up there and work, they want to know how to do it right.”

A core group of students has really taken the project on, coming in to work on it during study hall and after school.

The result, he says, is “as good as the construction you’ll see on a house.”

During the last full day of classes, the playhouse looked complete to the naked eye. But the students still used their final class period to put on a few finishing touches.

Senior Jason Manwarren wasted no time climbing on top of the house, where he started putting on the roof tiles.

Some of his fellow students finished hanging white trim around the top of the porch, while others repaired some damage that occurred when they moved the house closer to the docking area.

“This is stuff they’re interested in. They get a grade for getting up and doing stuff, and it’s something different every day,” Dudley says. “It’s not a ho-hum class.”
Those students are certainly dedicated, but, as is probably typical of teenage boys, they don’t exactly like waxing poetic about it.

Junior Tyler Richardson says he’s proud that the money will go to kids who need it.

Sophomore Daniel Clements was surprised at how nice the final product turned out, and junior Daniel Dunn says the project really taught him the value of teamwork.

“It’s been a slow but learning process,” he says. “I’m pretty sure if we hadn’t had teamwork, we wouldn’t have gotten it done so fast.

“It looks good for a bunch of Intro students.”

if you’re going
WHAT: CASA for Kids Playhouse Raffle Kick-Off
WHEN: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 20
WHERE: New London Trailers, 13001 E. Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike (U.S. 460 West) in Forest
TICKETS: Raffle tickets are $4 a piece, or three for $10. Currently, they can be purchased at New London Trailers or from CASA of Central Virginia. The winning tickets will be drawn after the Lynchburg Christmas Parade on Dec. 5.
INFO: (434) 528-2552 or http://www.cvcasa.org
OTHER PLAYHOUSE APPEARANCES: The Horse and Hound Wine Festival at the Peaks of Otter on July 11; Sam’s Club in Lynchburg on July 25 and 26 and Aug. 8 and 9; River Ridge Mall from Sept. 14 to 19; and the Bedford Centerfest on Sept. 25 and 26.