Sierra Service Project Staff
Sierra Service Project (SSP) is a non-profit organization that goes to different marginalized communities and does construction work for them. For more information about the program visit: https://www.sierraserviceproject.org/
I spent my summer of 2022 in Tsaile, Arizona. While in charge of 6 projects of my own, my group completed 13 total projects in the span of 5 weeks!
Job Description
There were four main roles at the camp, and mine was Construction Coordinator. This role’s job description is to work with the community to set-up projects and leading youth teams in safely using power tools to complete home repairs. As an engineer, just overseeing the projects was not enough. I had to help work on them using my 6 years of going to SSP as a youth volunteer.
For each project I:
hand sketched designs for the projects using safety guides provided by SSP
created a materials list
budget estimated
supervised projects until completion
Project 1 - Gale’s Ramp and Awning
Gale, due to health reasons, needed to be wheelchair bound for about a year before being able to walk again. As you can see from the before photo, he had resorted to using stones and a piece of plywood to get down from his house.
As you can see, this ramp is really steep and unsafe. So we put in a railing and created less of a slope. An awning was added to the final project because the snow pack would destroy the ramp in a few years without.
Project 2 - Mae’s Roof
Mae is an elder in the community, and her house has had a leaky roof for a while. The nails in her roof were rusty and the high winds in the area were pulling up the shingles. As a preventative measure, tires were put on her roof.
After the project was completed, there was no more need for tires. The new shingles were chosen to be white to reflect the summer sun off of the house and keep it cooler.
Project 3 - Bennie’s Roof
Bennie is a Vietnam War veteran who has always repaired his house himself. That i, until he had to have back surgery. His roof was starting to weather and had issues similar to Mae’s roof. He also had a chimney issue that needed to be fixed, and even though it was not in the SSP handbook, I did research and figured out how to replace it.
There were two complications with this project. First, the octagonal shape of the house was very difficult and more time consuming than initially thought to roof. Secondly, there was one volunteer that ended up stepping through the roof on accident and took out some drywall. So we also had to budget money and time to complete that project.
