Workcamp for Lincoln VIP tour
Part three – Tour guests enjoy meeting Karen E. Laine at a home in Lincoln

 

[July 31, 2021] 

The last stop of the VIP tour on Thursday was at the Eichel home in Lincoln. Tim and Laura Eichel had applied for a wheelchair ramp to be built on their property. Laura Eichel said that they had a friend at Community Action and had asked about money for ramps. They then learned that the Workcamp was coming and that they could apply to be one of the projects.

Eichel said when they were contacted that they had been selected it was an answer to prayer for the couple. Tim noted that the ramp is being built by the youth group and attached to a wall with no door. The door he said was already on the premises and that part of the project he and Laura would complete on their own.

Laura said that her mother is unable to come to her home because of the steps into the house. In addition, she has two other family members, one severely handicapped, who has not been able to come inside the house in the more than two years the Eichels have lived there. The ramp will improve the quality of life for her and Tim as well as their family members because they will all be able to be together again in social family settings.

Laura Eichel said she was astounded by the group of youth that were at her home. She said when she learned about Workcamp for Lincoln, she didn’t fully understand the magnitude of the program or that they would be blessed with a large number of workers completing the ramp project and other home improvement projects around the exterior of the home in just a few days.

Also, the Eichels gained some notoriety because at their building site Karen E. Laine was the mentor for the all-girl group of carpenters on the job.

Laine stars with her daughter Mina Starsiak on HGTV’s Good Bones. The show is set in the ladies hometown of Indianapolis. In the show they purchase derelict houses and transform them into not just livable but lovely, comfortable, high quality homes.

State Representative Tim Butler is a fan of the show, telling Laine that he watches it all the time. He also couldn’t resist the opportunity to take a selfie with someone he respects and admires.

Laine is an attorney turned carpenter answering what she knows in her heart is a call from God to do something more impactful with her life. She explained that in Indianapolis there are a lot of houses that need to be transformed into homes. In the selection process for homes to purchase and remodel, the strength of the community comes into play. The show looks specifically for houses in areas where there is a movement toward revitalization and growth. They look for strong neighborhood groups who are already trying to make a difference in their town, and do what they can to make that task easier by providing good homes for good people.

Asked how she ended up coming to Lincoln this week, she said that Todd Henry had reached out to her via social media. She said that she gets requests similar to this all the time, and she does what she can to do some type of background check on the group or organization before responding. She said the Workcamp projects struck a chord for her. She felt that God was putting her in the right place at the right time to go out and do something that would make a difference outside of Indianapolis.

The all-girl group working on the Eichel home comes from Lincoln Christian Church. The group consists of Lacy Buss, Maura Gowin, Claire Kuhlman, Mattea McFadden, Charlie McFadden and Caitlin Otey. Otey is their youth group leader for the camp.

The girls are not the least bit disappointed that they are ‘camping at home” this week. They are in fact delighted that they are making a difference at home, and that it will be a difference that they will be able to see for years to come.

Claire Kuhlman noted that the week had been very good for her personally because it had opened her eyes to a part of the community that she had not been cognizant of in the past.

Asked about the ‘camp experience” Otey said that the girls were indeed part of the general congregate group. Even though they are at home they were told, “This week you are not at home.” They are staying at LCU with the other campers so as to get the full experience of the camp program.

Though the girls are working together as one group, they say they do have opportunities to interact with kids from other areas, and are making new friendships in their free time at the dorms.

All the Workcamp groups will wrap up their efforts this weekend and on Sunday will head back to their respective hometowns.

What they are leaving behind as they leave our communities is priceless and for those whose lives have been impacted by their work, the Workcamp is a memory that will live on for years. For the kids, we can hope that it was a good experience and one that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives as well.

Thank you to Todd Henry and to the many sponsors and donors who made this week possible in Lincoln. We hope you are motivated to do so again in the future as there are many within our county who need this kind of help and whose lives can be impacted if we are able to keep it going.

[Nila Smith]