: Volunteers for Antioch Maintenance Projects :

The Continuing Story of Antioch Alumni Work Projects

Antioch alumni have a long history of volunteering to work for the College. Besides donating money, alumni have given their time and energy in work projects that accompanied the annual alumni reunions. In 2009, after the College was purchased from the University, a group of alumni again performed a variety of volunteer work projects on campus. After a year they formed Volunteers for Antioch Maintenance Projects (VAMP). This is their story.

A History of Volunteerism

E. Macdougall “Mac” Palmer enrolled in Antioch in November 1955. He was uncertain about being in college. Before coming to Antioch, Mac had been a heavy equipment diesel mechanic. When drafted into the Army he worked as a locomotive and marine diesel mechanic. As he described it, “Physical work, machinery, tools, and construction were things I knew and enjoyed. I wasn't sure about classes, books, and papers.”

One of the things that helped Mac get comfortable at Antioch was participating in a freshman orientation work project. Using recycled materials from former campus barracks buildings, Antioch freshman constructed Cedar Center, the first building in what was then called the “School Camp” and is now the Outdoor Education Center in Glen Helen. Looking back on this, Mac said, “I think the original freshman orientation work project had such a strong and lasting impression on me because ever after, I believed that I had had a part in building Antioch.”

In 1985, the 25th anniversary of the year Mac was supposed to graduate (he actually graduated in 1961), Mac was involved in a “bull session” with five or six other alumni. Out of that discussion came the idea of having a work project as a regular part of the annual alumni reunion.

The first alumni work project took place in 1986. Rice Hall in Birch was repainted, broken windows were replaced and a roof leak repaired. The volunteers took pride in completing more work than was originally planned. Mac recalled that, “within a couple of years it was clear that the alumni work project crew had established the reputation of finishing whatever we started.” As a result, they took on increasingly complex tasks. Looking back on his experience, Mac said that “for those of us involved, the fellowship was a wonderful benefit of the work projects.”

By the fourth year of work projects the pattern of several planned tasks evolved. Gardening, painting, and "skilled work" became part of the projects, enabling alums with different skill levels and/or physical capabilities to participate.

Penny Storm participated in her first work project in 1996. A small but enthusiastic group painted the dorms in Presidents. She returned for the work project the following year, during which the amphitheater was repainted, its seats repaired and the area landscaped. At the time, Robin Rice Lichtig was the work project leader. The 1998 work project also worked on the Presidents. That year Penny became the project coordinator.

Penny recalled a variety of repairs that were performed by alums on their work projects over the years - replacing damaged bricks in Red Square, painting hallways and replacing windows in the gym, building the storage shed behind the gym and fixed a fence, wiring Cory (Spalt) for computers, painting dorm rooms and covering graffiti, building and repairing picnic tables, exterior and interior painting and repairing windows in the theater building, repairing the sculpture annex, painting North Hall’s interior, painting the Science Building’s interior, and several jobs at the Outdoor Education Center. Grounds maintenance work included gardening, planting, weeding and removing poison ivy. Work in the Library, Antiochiana and the alumni office was added so those who could not do strenuous physical labor could also participate.

Volunteer Maintenance Work

Thanks to Mac, and under the continuing leadership of Robin and Penny, alumni work projects continued as part of each annual reunion. In October 2009, with the first reunion after the College was purchased, the work project handled a number of tasks, concentrating on the Library, the only functioning building at the time. Ceilings and walls were repaired and painted, floor were scrubbed, lights were rewired and more.

For those doing the work, it quickly and painfully became clear how the prior trustees had neglected the campus. Much work was needed if the College was going to reopen by the fall of 2011. The new Antioch established a “Department of Work” and Julian Sharp, a 2008 graduate, became the manager of volunteer work. Under Julian’s direction, alumni volunteered for a variety of work projects. The roof rafters in South Hall were in need of reinforcement. In December 2009, a crew of volunteers spent three days in the attic nailing new wood to the 160 year old rafters.

Pennell House, located next to Birch Hall, had been rehabbed some years ago but was again in need of work. In five separate projects, volunteers stripped, patched and painted walls, repaired moldings and made extensive repairs to the interior of the building. The work project that accompanied the June, 2010 reunion saw more work done on Pennell and extensive structural repairs to the exterior door thresholds in the Units.

The last work project of 2010 took advantage of warm weather in November to clean and paint Pennell’s porch railings and paint the lattice work under the porch. As the work project drew to a close, Jon Baker, Evelyn LaMers, Tom LaMers and Jim Spangler, among other alumni working on Pennell, discussed organizing alumni volunteer work into an ongoing structure. A second “bull session,” echoing the one Mac Palmer had participated in 35 years ago, resulted in a presentation to architect John Feinberg and the College’s administration. With their approval, Volunteers for Antioch Maintenance Projects (VAMP) was born.

VAMP

The goal of VAMP was to recruit alumni and friends of the College to work on various building maintenance projects on campus. Work would be set up on a scheduled basis so that alumni, especially those coming from out of town, could plan ahead on when they could participate. With the commitment to performing maintenance work on an on-going basis, the first order of business was to find or build a maintenance shop in which to work. Looking over the campus buildings, the decision was made to use the old Maples Fire Station garage.

The Workshop Project

Maples was the College’s volunteer fire department. Dating from 1888, when a group of men from a campus cottage formed a bucket brigade to douse flames of a neighboring cottage, campus firefighting was staffed by student volunteers. The department was formally organized in 1934 after a fire destroyed a women’s dormitory.

In 1950 the department was mechanized and reorganized in a two-story house on the corner of Livermore and Center College Streets. The Antioch College Fire Department remained there until 1965 when it moved into the President’s dormitory complex. Part of Maples was the two bay fire engine garage. Although the Presidents dormitory complex had been torn down, the Maples garage remained.

With the closing of Antioch the Maples garage was used as dead storage. The College’s facility staff, under the direction of Ron Hampton, moved out all of the stored desks, chairs and miscellaneous items. VAMP members found saws, a drill press, welders, and other equipment in the Theater Building, Art Annex and campus maintenance shops. The facility crew moved this equipment into Maples.

For ten days in January 2011, VAMP members cleaned Maples, painted its walls, patched the ceiling, built work tables, repaired equipment and performed hundreds of other tasks in order to turn the garage into a workshop. The following page shows some examples of the work performed.

The end result was a functioning workshop, complete with four saws, a drill press, sander, welder, bench grinder, air compressor and many work tables. Lockers were installed so alumni could store their personal tools. And, just to make sure that the building’s heritage was retained, the original Maples Fire Department sign is now on display in the workshop.

With the workshop completed, plans were drawn up for VAMP projects through the June 2011 alumni reunion. The alumni and friends of VAMP look forward to the fall of 2011 when Antioch will again have students on campus. We know that our work will help make that happen.