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Union Volunteers Build Roof for Youth Camp

June 13, 2014

Justin Stockton, top, and Steve Flynn are Miami Local 359 members.

Union members recently volunteered to build a roof on the youth archery range at the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area’s Everglades Youth Conservation Camp in West Palm Beach, Fla.

The project was sponsored by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance program Work Boots on the Ground, which mobilizes skilled union members for conservation efforts.

To build the roof, members of IBEW’s Miami Local 359, Sheet Metal Air Rail and Transportation (SMART) Local 32, Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 630 and Carpenters Local 1809 used tools, plywood, metal tin, airguns and compressors.

Lynne Hawk, regional hunter safety coordinator with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the archery range provides year-round hunter safety courses for children and adults, as well as school and community groups. “The archery range is used by kids every day during the facility’s summer camp,” Hawk said of the 84-foot range.

Steve Flynn of Miami Local 359 adjusts roofing nails on the archery range.

Hawk, along with Rick Pazos, training director and member of SMART Local 32, helped facilitate the project.  “Rick did an excellent job. This project wouldn’t have gotten done if it weren’t for him. The guys all worked really hard. I am so thankful for all of them,” Hawk said.

Fred Myers, Executive Director and CEO of USA, said the Work Boots on the Ground program was created to form collaborations all over the country on behalf of conservation, to drive projects faced with narrowing budgets, staffing and materials challenges. 

“The people who volunteer with us to identify projects, raise money to support them and show up in numbers to provide the hands-on labor all have a commitment to conservation and their communities,” Myers said. “They want to give back and find that our Work Boots on the Ground collaborations provide a vehicle to get involved and make a difference for future generations.”

Volunteers were able to finish the roof in two days, May 3-4. “We now have a new roof on the archery range that should last for many, many years to come,” Hawk said.

To learn more about Work Boots on the Ground, click here.