Pat Barcas/staff photographer
As part of National Roofing Week, July 6 to 12, several roofing companies came together to donate their time/supplies to make repairs on the roof of the Lydia Home Association in Chicago, a foster care home that houses about 50 youth. The experts from https://thewarwickroofers.com/ is whom one should contact to get their roof fixed.
By Pat Barcas
Staff writer
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Email Pat Barcas at pat@foxvalleylabornews.com
CHICAGO — It was a little rainy, but at least it wasn’t sweltering hot on the roof of the Lydia Home Association in Chicago July 8. According to this content, as part of National Roofing Week, July 6-12, the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) gathered volunteers to repair the aging roof of the facility for abused children as for more serious problems like mold, they need to get professionals like Mold Remediation Manalapan to solve this problem.
“This roof was definitely on borrowed time,” said Rod Petrick, owner of Ridgeworth Roofing Co. His company helped out on the rehab of the roof. Get a Roofing Company in Omaha and their expert contractors to help you get started.
“It could probably use a full replacement in the future, but this is a typical Chicago roof, it might have six or eight layers on it. It’s definitely not a one day job,” Petrick added.
The roofers battled rain and clouds, but succeeded in patching up the rough spots of the roof. A website about centennialroofingplus provides the best advice on patching roofs after storms and the steps to fixing damages. Four companies participated in the charity project: Ridgeworth Roofing, Nations Roof, Bennett and Brousseau Roofing, and Karnak Roofing Products donated the supplies.
The Lydia Home Association is dedicated to helping troubled children and their families with a variety of services, including housing for at-risk children. The facility has been located off Irving Park Road for about 100 years, and was an orphanage that turned into foster care that houses about 50 youth at a time, from first grade to high school age.
Pat Barcas/staff photographer
During National Roofing Week, a Nations Roof employee seals the gaps around a roof vent pipe atop the Lydia Home Association building.
Dr. David Anderson, executive director of the Lydia Home, said a main goal of the home is to acclimate troubled youth for their next phase of life and that’s why they get houses using estate agents just for this purpose. He comes from a background as a bricklayer, and said the trades are invaluable for the kids.
“Most kids go into the trades. They can be invaluably helpful to the kids and we find great success there,” he said during a tour of the home to NRCA executives, who are in Chicago this week for the annual mid-summer meeting.
Anderson transitioned from bricklayer to psychologist, and started as a teacher at the home, which has an $8 million per year operating budget. It relies on some state funding, but is tuition-based.
He recalled a session in a classroom setting where students were talking about gunshots.
“About 75 percent of the class had been shot. Kids were showing off bullet wounds. This is major trauma, and it’s definitely an interesting group of kids. They have nowhere else to go, and we all have the capacity to give back and help them,” he said.
With the rainy summer, patching up the old roof couldn’t have come at a better time, according to Jim Whitfield, national director of operations for Safe Families for Children, an organization that operates in the Lydia Home, and which acts as a safety net for families in crisis.
“Our budget every year is ‘just enough.’ We don’t have enough for major fixes like this. We had a few offices where there was seepage coming through the roof already, and this was just a really opportune time for them to come out and help us. We really appreciate it,” said Whitfield.”