Photo By Chief Petty Officer Michael Lindsey | Brandon Elliot, contractor for the St. Jude’s Dream Home construction project in...... read more read more
BILOXI, Miss. –A group of 15 Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 74 volunteered their off-duty time to help with the construction of a St. Jude’s Dream Home charity project in Biloxi, Miss. on Jan. 21, 2012.
The $384,000 project has been made possible entirely through donations and volunteer labor from more than 20 local businesses and citizens within the community. Brandon Elliot, the owner of Elliot Homes and lead contractor for the project said he was grateful to have the Seabee’s skilled labor for the day and dubbed the occasion “Seabee Day” in honor of their contribution.
“They (Seabees) are amazing workers,” said Elliot. “They are helping us put the siding on and also plumbing and electrical,” said Elliot. “We are happy to have them and we are hoping they stay along to help us get closer to our goal.”
Seabees are deployed all over the world supporting military and humanitarian missions abroad with their construction engineering capabilities. Builder 3rd Class Lauralie Gutschmidt has seen different types of construction after two deployments with NMCB 74 and said she loves to see community projects come together and often volunteers to expand her skills.
“It’s fun to come and work a project like this because it’s not what we normally do,” said Gudtschmidt. “I do a lot of framing construction, block work, concrete, but it’s not often that we get to do some of the detailed stuff... it’s always fun to get away and build outside of the Seabees and give back to the community.”
Senior Chief Utilitiesman Andrew Detwiler, the leader of the Seabee group who organized and recruited the volunteers, said that each Seabee came on their own free will without coercion or incentive and hopes to do more work for project in the near future.
“I am impressed with the turnout of volunteers from my battalion,” said Detwiler. “It really shows a lot of character for these young Seabees to spend their Saturday volunteering for a project like this, I’m proud of each of them.”
According to Elliot Home’s webpage: http://www.myelliotthome.com/Visit-DreamHome.aspx, there will a raffle drawing for a 1 in 7500 chance at winning the Dream Home for $100.00 (per ticket). The goal is to raise one million dollars in tickets sales and donations all of which will go directly to the St.Jude Children's Research Hospital where no patient is turned down and all services are free of charge.
| Date Taken: | 01.21.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 01.25.2012 20:50 |
| Story ID: | 82840 |
| Location: | BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Gulfport Seabee volunteers build for charity, by CPO Michael Lindsey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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