‘Working Towards A Common Goal’

Timber Framers, Students Raise BV Pavilion

A timber frame pavilion was erected in Buena Vista’s town square Tuesday, the culmination of a five-day project that drew nearly 150 volunteers from all across the country.

From Friday, April 5, through Monday, these volunteers prepared the pieces of the structure, which were transported to Buena Vista on Tuesday, where assembly began early in the morning and was expected to be completed by the end of the day.

This pavilion is the latest in a series of projects organized by Grigg Mullen, a former Virginia Military Institute instructor, and built with a network of timber framers, students, instructors and volunteers.

In 1997, Mullen and his students built a trebuchet, a kind of catapult, for hands-on experience in engineering. “I felt like they really needed to know how things were built,” Mullen said.

Since then, the group has come together almost every year, and has built structures for area schools, local nonprofits such as Rockbridge Area Relief Organization and Project Horizon, and others.

“There are a lot of moving parts to this,” said Paul Magann, who has been volunteering since 1998. “It really is a well-oiled machine. We’ve made a lot of progress since we first started.”

He explained that while a minority of positions each year are set aside for instructors, the rest are open to students and to volunteers of all skill levels.

Mullen has also seen progress, with students and volunteers learning enough to become instructors. “All the primary instructors now are people who started in these projects,” he said.

This year, students came from as far an Ontario, Canada, and as close as VMI, with many cadets joining the project to gain hands-on experience.

Other volunteers came from across the country, like Chris Newman, who traveled from Kalamazoo, Mich.

“This is year 10 for me,” he said. “I had heard about this as a kind of thing that cool people got invited to, and so about 10 years ago I invited myself and [Mullen] said sure. I’ve been back every year.”

Newman said he continues to be drawn back by the collective nature of the work, and the chance to make something for the benefit of the community.

“There’s something, hard to put into words. There’s an energy about it, about everybody working towards a common goal and people of all skill levels, people from all over the place,” he said.

“You walk away at the end having been a part of something bigger than yourself, and I can’t think of a better way to spend five days with a better community.”

This year, that community included city employees of Buena Vista, as Kristina Ramsey, director of economic development, explained.

“In the end, really, it’s the community rallying together to bring it to life that really means more than the cost savings,” she said.

“All of these people donate their time, they come here, camp for five days, and all the lumber is donated, the hardware is donated; we fundraised quite a bit to help offset some of the cost.”

Buena Vista provided meals for 145 volunteers for five days, she said.

“All the meals, with the exception of a few, were either donated or heavily discounted, so for our part here is, we as the host are going to provide all of the meals, while we’re here on the Mullen’s property and on Tuesday, when they raise it,” Ramsey explained on Saturday.