Volunteers give ‘Days of Caring’

Lt. Barri Farnes knows exactly what brought him to a low-income housing development on the edge of Spokane on a stormy Friday.

It was to help construct a playground, but it was also to return a favor to the people of the area.

“Spokane,” said Farnes, 39, the commanding officer of the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center of Spokane, “it’s the most supportive community to the military I’ve ever lived in. This gives us an opportunity to pay back for some support the community gives us.”

The work was part of the Spokane County United Way’s “Days of Caring,” two days of coordinated volunteer landscaping, painting, renovation and cleaning. The event, which pairs local businesses and organizations with nonprofit organizations, began in 1994. For Friday and today, 30 businesses were matched with 21 organizations to work on 27 different projects.

Farnes came to Riverwalk Park housing complex, which is owned by the Spokane Neighborhood Action Program, with some 15 other volunteers from the Navy office.

Mary Mapes, spokeswoman for Spokane County United Way, said the first day’s gray weather had been a boon to the project.

“I think it went very well. Usually we have the two hottest days of the year, but people were saying they enjoyed the cooler weather. It allowed them to get the bigger projects done,” she said.

More than 400 people volunteered between the two days, Mapes said.

As part of “Days of Caring,” the reserve center has been building up the same playground for the last three years. Cathy Grenier, an active petty officer of the Navy, said the play structures that now stand in the middle of the brightly painted development had been a continuing project over the years.

“It’s turned out to be quite the project,” she said.

The group dug post holes Friday, chipping through the rocky soil with hand tools and brawn, but the mood was light and jokes flew through the air.

“They have such a good time they come back year after year,” Mapes said.

Whittaker Green, 31, is in charge of this year’s project; building a retaining wall and bench to help corral the gravel they laid out on the playground last year, painting a boat they sunk into the ground, and sprucing-up a playhouse.

Green said the group worked with Habitat for Humanity last month, rotating people onto the construction site for a week.

Grenier said in her experience this kind of community service is not uncommon for members of the armed services. One can actually earn a medal for volunteer service, she said.

Sean Moss, 24, grew up in Spokane, which he said had made it improbable that he had been stationed back in town.

“In the Navy, you don’t get to go back to your hometown very often,” he said, although there was another member of the group from the area.

Bob Propp, 45, born and raised in Spokane, said it was a big bonus living and lending a helping hand in a community that supported the armed forces and where he had deep roots.

Moss, too, was happy to be out of the office, helping people in a different way than he had in his other naval duties.

“Things like this, you’d never get to do on a boat,” he said with a wide grin.