The house that UB built
Crew from Facilities steps up to finish Day-of-Caring projec

By CHRISTINE VIDAL
News Services Editor

This is the house that Jack built. And Fred and Ken and Craig and Don and Kevin.

And this is the story of how they and 11 others built that house, which now sits on the South Campus at the UB Child Care Center.

It all started as part of the United Way/Day of Caring, said Dave Ballard, associate director for student life and team leader for the project that eventually would turn into an eight-by-10-foot wood children's playhouse.

Ballard and his Day of Caring team-Dawn Whited, Johnny Garcia, Cindy Halm, Phyllis Florio and Fran Ciccia, all of the Student Unions; Matt Deck of Dental Medicine; Rob Suglia of Athletics; Joe Halfer of Physics, and Julie Smith and Ed Brodka of the Leadership Center-were assigned as one of 10 teams that each would build a playhouse.

But when they got downtown to Lafayette Square at 9 a.m. on Aug. 16, Ballard said, it was apparent that this wasn't quite going to be what they anticipated. Instead of finding the construction kit they expected and the tools needed to put it together, the crew found two-by-fours, roofing materials and sheets of wood. Worse yet, the nine other teams had arrived very early, scavenged materials from the UB pile and had brought tools such as generators, power saws and scaffolding that the UB team didn't have, but needed, to complete its playhouse.

To add insult to injury, eight of the teams were professional builders from Home Depot, which had provided materials for the playhouses.

Undeterred, the UB team dug in, and by 11:30 a.m., they had constructed the base and two and a half walls of their playhouse-and run out of lumber. Around noon, since no plans had been made to provide the crew with lunch on-site, Ballard sent them to grab a bite to eat, he said.

Somewhat discouraged, Ballard, who previously served as assistant director of facilities for many years, made a call to Mike Dupre, associate vice president for University Facilities.

"Get some carpenters," Ballard told his former boss. "We can't let the university down."

Dupre contacted Ken Tarbox, Facilities program coordinator, who rounded up five of the university's carpenters-Fred Menth, Jack White, Craig Sautter, Don Jakubczak and Kevin Hayden-who with Tarbox came downtown with power saws, extension cords, ladders, "all the equipment we needed to do the job," Ballard said.

Arriving at 1:30 p.m., "they jumped right in, and had everything together in a couple of hours," he added.

"It was a great team effort. This is really what state-university employees are all about. This is a tremendous group of guys. I can't express how great I felt. The vast majority of Facilities people are like that. The only reason those guys stopped at 5:30 p.m. was because Home Depot said the (playhouse) unit had to go on the truck."

Nearly complete, the playhouse was taken-along with the other nine-to Home Depot's Elmwood Avenue store for safekeeping, Ballard said. The next morning, he and the six facilities employees went to the store to wrap up some of the playhouse's small unfinished details, like trim and a window box.

And last week, the playhouse was delivered to the South Campus. Parents of children at the daycare center plan to gather at some point to stain the playhouse and do a few more small things to it, Ballard said.

In the meantime, he has high praise for everyone who contributed to the effort.

Although inexperienced, his original crew of 10 did a great job of getting things started. But the help he received from University Facilities went above and beyond the call of duty, he said.

"Mike Dupre was the guy who jumped on first" to lend extra support to the effort, Ballard said. "We've got the greatest people around. Our trades people are the best. Look at that thing-it's gorgeous."

And how about next year?

"If they want to do it next year, we're prepared. And I'll recruit the same six, and they're all more than willing to do it."