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By Tim Schaal
The self-named Holy Rollers Paint Company, a group of “seasoned” volunteers from California, traveled to Alaska in mid-August to give the Anchorage Booth Home a much needed exterior facelift.
The Booth Home serves as a temporary residence for up to 20 at-risk young women—who receive meals, counseling and nurturing—and as a place for The Salvation Army to oversee legally mandated parent-child visitation sessions.
When Tom Nottle, program director at the facility, found out that it would cost over $17,000 to have the building professionally painted, he organized and put into action a team of volunteers to do the job.
The team included retired officers Majors Chet and Vicki Danielson and Majors Ken and Betty Gibson, who slept “dorm room” style at the facility during the project so they could get started early each morning after a devotion.
Over 550 linear feet of the one-story building were prepped, primed and painted by the seven-member team with the help of two members of the Booth staff. The average age of the volunteer group, who personally paid for their travel costs to the 49th state, was over 70. Yet, this spry unit of painters completed the job in four days.
