It's a Small COA World

 

By Allison Furbish COA class of '04

 

At the beginning of September, three employee owners at King Arthur Flour participated in a volunteer opportunity organized by Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, of which our company is a member. Along with staff at VBSR, we worked with employees at a local organization called COVER (learn more at http://www.coverhomerepair.org/), which helps people in need in the community by completing critical home repair projects. That day we were putting the finishing touches on a new roof for a local family whose ceiling had been leaking and was not going to make it through another winter.

 

It was a chilly morning and I wore my COA sweatshirt for good measure. When we showed up at COVER to have lunch and get our marching orders before heading to the job site, the project manager, Hugh MacArthur, said, "That's a familiar sweatshirt!" Turns out Hugh graduated from COA in 1977, and his daughter is now attending the school. Small world!

 

Hugh and I spent the afternoon hanging T-111 on the gable ends of the house - I managed the circular saw, he managed the measuring and most of the actual work up high. Hugh not only does the construction work, with his carpentry background, but also has an amazing grasp of the human side of the COVER program - some of the first things he talked with us about were how hard it is for many people to ask for help, and how tender the relationship can be when volunteers help someone in need. I could tell he was a COA kind of person.

 

It was a really fun day of learning new skills and making a tangible, positive difference in the lives of someone in need in my community. In fact, I think Shawn (my husband) and I might become regular volunteers for COVER.