ON THE WALL of Harold Kalve's office is a painting of his first boat. Harold built this and three smaller ones using skills that he had learned as a child. This spring he contributed his talent and over 200 volunteer hours toward a new endeavor: the banister of Allen Hall.

Harold came to the U.S. from Norway in 1953. His father found work as a shipwright on the minesweepers in demand after WWII. Harold began his own professional life as an accountant, but he later built his own boat in Anchorage in 1982 and proceeded to make his living as a fisherman. In 2004, he moved to Sitka and settled into the quiet industries of retirement: gardening and only going to town for groceries or building supplies. Harold read about the activity on the Sheldon Jackson Campus in the Sitka Sentinel, but he had no connection to the project. This changed last January when his friend Nancy Behnken invited him to tour Allen Hall. Nancy split her time last winter between readying her fishing boat and volunteering for campus restoration. I would often find her with spatula in hand as she mudded over newly hung drywall. Harold credits this visit to his revelation that "this campus is a very valuable property and an enormously important facility for the town." He was inspired to put his own hand to the project by undertaking the challenge of the curved banister.

Harold constructed the banister out of 48 pieces, each of which took 3 hours and at least 25 clamps to glue and set. Over 200 hours later, he had taken the project from start to finish. He described the pleasure of such self-reliant and independent work, and how rewarding such a project is in a world that is increasingly interconnected and interdependent. He alluded to writer Kevin D. Williamson's recent National Review article "iPencil" which draws upon economist Leonard Read's story "I, Pencil" to argue the extent to which solutions to our health-care challenges or unemployment  cannot be the work of one coordinating authority or knowledge base. Social change is like the production of a No. 2 pencil. It is the product of thousands of contributions in the form of "tiny, discrete pieces of knowledge." Even the most superficially simple and mundane product is the result of "incomprehensible complexity." 

Campus restoration proceeds as a similarly interconnected system. However, one of the most compelling aspects of the revitalization of the Sheldon Jackson Campus is how it retains the familiarity of a cohesive community even as the connections between projects and individuals become more complex.

Construction is not an assembly line. Individuals, like Harold Kalve, can contribute their own integral piece to the puzzle, and also feel connected to the other contributors and the larger whole. Saturday work parties exemplify this. Jerry Fleming used to own a paint shop. He became a regular volunteer at this winter's work parties, and last Saturday he could be found applying his expertise in the form of neatly painted campus doors. This knowledge is passed to other community members, who in turn contribute their own talents to the mix. Volunteer Coordinator Connie Kreiss said that prior to January, "I didn't even know how to clean a paintbrush." Connie has since volunteered hundreds of hours deftly organizing Saturday work parties, and engaging hands on with other community members in a wide array of restoration activities.

Our volunteers demonstrate that even as we prepare the facilities for programs, the revitalization process is in itself rewarding. Harold remarked on the valuable lessons learned by children participating in last month's 100 Volunteer Day. In addition to fostering concrete skills, there are the intangibles. Harold said, "The more you give to the community, the more value the community has to you." Jerry said that the primary reason he continues to come out is the "camaraderie." Tom Conley is another volunteer who became a regular this year. Neither he nor Jerry nor Harold had strong personal connections with the other volunteers prior to joining, but by forming these connections, they reinforce and deepen ties into the larger community. Volunteers are carpenters and fishermen, students and retirees. And whether they are motivated by the mission of arts education, or the history of the campus, or the general camaraderie of the labor, they can find their place in the effort. As Connie said, "This is Sitka creating what seems to work well for Sitka." With the support of locals and those farther afield, we continue to build both a campus and a community.