Volunteer Project at Boys & Girls Harbor

Ross Roberts, Electrical Manager, and son Chris were a two-man shelf building power team

A small but dedicated crew of Shell employees, family members, and retirees joined forces with community partners to volunteer at the Boys & Girls Harbor.  The Boys & Girls Harbor is a non-profit youth home in the neighboring community of LaPorte that provides a family-style environment with house parents.

For two days last week, the volunteers, which included the Deer Park Junior ROTC and residents from Cenikor, set themselves to the task of transforming several areas at the Boys & Girls Harbor used to store donations, toys, and canned goods. 

Dozens of shelves were built and installed, lighting systems were repaired and replaced, supplies were sorted and cleared out, and trash was removed and hauled away.  These efforts provided a tremendous head start to the hard-working staff of the Harbor whose focus and time is concentrated first and foremost on the needs of the children.  A total of 270 volunteer hours were committed to this project.

Said Russell Adams, the Deer Park SERVE Board member who coordinated the project, "Thanks to our committed volunteers for their generous gift of time and hard work.  What a difference they made to improve the organization, safety, and cleanliness of the Boys & Girls Harbor."

What's possible in two days:

• Assembled 14 shelves in the toy room and organized toys on the shelves
• Assembles 6 shelves in pantry hall and organized supplies
• Assembled 4 shelves in bedding closet and organized the pillows/blankets 
• Assembled 2 short shelves in personal hygiene room
  Assembled 8 shelves, cleaned and organized store room (photo above)
• Filled up dump truck with trash, pallets, and damaged furniture
• Organized and sorted food pantry and paper supplies
• Moved and organized school supply room
• Repaired several doors and installed locksets/deadbolts
• Repaired lights & changed bulbs in toy room, office area, halls, closets & porch
• Replaced old outdated lights with new fixtures in store room. Troubleshot problems with electrical feed to this building.
• Hauled a trailer load of cardboard and old computer monitors to the recycling center