August 30, 2007

Brothers-

The second successful Alumni / Active work party has now come to an end.  This year over 30 alumni descended upon 58 Pinewoods Ave and successfully completed a number of projects in partnership with the active brothers.  This work party was a true show of brotherhood, with the renewal of old bonds and the creation of new ones.  Brother's from the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and '00s came together in an incredible demonstration of the strength of our brotherhood.

The following pictures represent the final product of our hard labor on the painting of the house, the repair of the front porch, and the tiling of the new house bathroom. I encourage all of you to make it out to the Alumni rush dinner or Alumni weekend this year to see it in person. Clicking on the images will bring up a full size photo in your web browser.

Jim "Munger" Banghart '69 led a large team of brothers in painting the entire house.  Munger planned the entire painting effort, determining how much paint we would need, how long it would take, and arranging for the delivery of scaffolding. Munger was able to take an untrained group of brothers with paint brushes and turn them into a successful painting crew.  Under his leadership scaffolding was erected, dismantled, moved, and re-erected numerous times, allowing every corner of the exterior of the house to be painted.  All of the old and rusted gutters have been taken down and the house now gleams with a fresh coat of paint.

Alan "HJ" Hanbury '74 led a team of brothers with varying levels of experience in renovating the front porch.  All of the ceiling slats, which had been damaged from roof leaks, were torn down and replaced with beautiful strips of fir bead board, bringing a long lost glow to the front porch.  Two new light fixtures were also added to the porch ceiling, making it an inviting area at night.  The roof of the porch also needed repair, with new flashing and cedar shakes replacing a poor job previously done by hired handymen.  As if that was not enough work to do, there was structural damage done to the porch by carpenter ants and termites that had to be repaired.  The structural integrity of the porch has now been restored and should last for many years to come.

Jack Belletete '71 made a trip down from Jaffrey, NH with most of the building and painting supplies we needed for the Work Party.  Jack owns and runs a family hardware and lumber store and sold all of the materials to the chapter at cost, he also transported all of the material to the chapter house free of charge.  Jack was also instrumental in securing the high scaffolding and led a team to replace rotten clapboards on the addition.  Jack's experience was also invaluable in making a first assessment of the water and carpenter ant damage to the fire tower and in finding two reputable carpenters that came out to assess damage and produce quotes for the repair.

Larry Heininger '77 led a team of brothers in landscaping the front yard, cleaning up trees, vines, and bushes that had grown up around the house, and laying drainage ditches to help move water away from the foundation.  The overgrown bushes in the front yard were removed and replaced with smaller ones.  Additionally the hedges were also trimmed along the sidewalk in the front of the house.

Jim Manocchi '75 spent his second year leading another tiling project, this time in the upstairs new house bathroom.  This project included removing the stalls, taking up the old floor, and then prepping and laying ceramic tile.  The bathroom now looks better than it probably ever has.

Bob "Barney" Shortle '74 led the effort to feed the army that was encamped at the Chapter House.  Through his leadership the crew of cooks prepared meals that filled the stomach and fueled the spirit.  Each day we were meet with a big breakfast, large lunch, and delicious dinner.  Bob's effort in the kitchen allowed the rest of the work to proceed as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Bob also led the effort to recruit volunteers for the weekend's work, ensuring that there would be enough brothers to successfully complete the goals of the Work Party.  Without Bob's efforts we wouldn't have had the man power necessary to get any of the work done.

Chapter Adviser Chris Gribbin began work on repairing the slate roof on both the Garage and the Chapter House. The work that remains is extensive and Chris will be continuing to work on it.

Grand Consul Bob Jones '73 proved that no matter how high your standing in Sigma Chi you can still get down and dirty at Work Party.  Bob Jones was joined by both of the other living Order of Constantine Sigs, Larry Mentz '68 and Bob Shortle '74. Saturday night the chapter ran an official House Meeting, during which all of the brothers present were re-obligated.  It isn't often that a Grand Consul comes to Delta Psi and we were proud to have Bob there.

Past sweetheart Brei Grinter, assisted by Lisbeth Gerfin, helped by adding a woman's touch to the work party effort. Brei spent Saturday and Sunday sewing all new curtains for the living room and front hallway. The curtains look wonderful and are a welcome replacement to the old gray ones that had been there.

Current sweetheart Becky Button also assisted this weekend, redoing the bulletin board as well as baking some sweets which were the highlight of the afternoon break.

A plumber was also out at the house this past week in order to discuss and review our plumbing problems and begin working on a quote for the work necessary to fix them.  Issues that the plumber looked at were the leaks in the mop closet, a leaking toilet in the upstairs new house bathroom, replacement of a new house urinal, replacement of the leaky old house showers, and replacement of the baseboard radiators in the first floor of the new house.  Based on estimates and available funds the House Corp will be making a decision as to which of these projects can be tackled.

The gutter installers showed up for work on Tuesday and were all set to install new gutters around the old and new house.  They drove all the way from Utica, and saw the house for the first time.  Upon arriving they immediately realized that they would be unable to place gutters effectively around the old house, given the extreme over hang of the slate roof.  Gutter replacement is currently on hold pending discussion of how best to proceed.

Two contractors came by the house on Tuesday in order to review water and carpenter ant damage to the structure of the Fire Tower.  The damage is substantial but the true extent of the damage will be difficult to discern until work begins.  The contractors will be submitting best and worst case scenario estimates and will hopefully be able to begin work shortly.

These projects could not have been started if it were not for the generosity of many of our brothers.  Through the generosity of the 149 donating brothers we were able to raise $25,867 in five weeks.  The '70s were by far the largest donating decade, raising almost double the amount of the next closest decade.  The top 3 donating classes were the classes of '71, '73, and '75. Between them they raised almost $5,000.  I would like to thank every brother that contributed to the raising of funds.

Without the help of the 33 alumni and all of the actives it would not have been possible to complete these projects for anywhere near $25,000.  Bill Wurst, Alan Hanbury, and Jim Banghart all deserve a special thank you for going far above and beyond the call of duty.  Alan and Bill stayed until all of the projects were completed Wednesday night and Jim stayed through most of his 60th birthday on Tuesday, not leaving until the house was fully painted.

Thank you to everyone that donated, with a special thanks to our top 3 donors Bill Pomeroy '66, Bill Wurst '71, and Ben Tashjian '07 (sorted by class year).