There was no building at 277 E. 400 North in Tooele on Tuesday. But by the end of the workday on Wednesday, nearly 200 volunteer laborers had already put up four walls and a roof.
This is standard procedure for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who regularly assemble regional teams of volunteers to construct new Kingdom Halls — their name for the buildings where they gather to conduct Bible studies and other religious activities.
The Tooele congregation, which consists of a little over 50 active members, had outgrown its old building, said Jessie Taylor, a member of the congregation who is overseeing the construction process.
The Tooele Jehovah’s Witnesses sold their old building last fall and have been meeting in Magna for months while waiting for their turn for a new building to come around.
After a few months of delays, Tooele finally got its turn this week. Volunteers who would build the new Kingdom Hall in Tooele had just finished a new building in Brigham City and were unable to make it to Tooele last fall as previously planned.
“It’s so amazing,” said Kate Soumbinski, a member of the Tooele congregation who volunteered to help with the construction on Wednesday. “I just can’t stop smiling. It’s just the most awesome feeling, because we’ve helped with other Kingdom Halls, which is fun, but to be a part of our own, to know that this is the building we’re going to meet in, is unreal.”
About 30 congregants from Tooele signed up to help build the new Kingdom Hall, Taylor said. But those who can’t work construction help where they can, donating meals to the workers or opening their homes to those who traveled from as far away as St. George or Cheyenne to assist.
Taylor said he’d have as many as 21 volunteers staying in his home this weekend, and added that his wife baked 14 Dutch oven cakes Tuesday night to help feed the 166 volunteers who signed up to eat lunch at the site on Wednesday.
To cut costs, the manpower that descended on Tooele this week wasn’t just volunteers with hammers. The Jehovah’s Witnesses provided their own equipment and equipment operators, portable offices in the form of camping trailers, and even a semi trailer converted into a mobile kitchen to prepare meals on site.
Some of the volunteers come to these construction crews with little to no experience, said Rick Wolf, a volunteer safety supervisor from Bountiful. Many who head the crews already work in construction or similar trades, but the volunteers boast a variety of backgrounds. They are trained by more experienced members of the crews and learn to help put up the buildings efficiently — usually in just four days.
He said he expected the Tooele Kingdom Hall to be finished by this Sunday, save for a few details, such as water-wise landscaping they plan to install at a later date. The building should be open for use next week, he said.
It will be the last Kingdom Hall most of these volunteers work on for a while, Wolf said. Tooele was the last of a long chain of new buildings that went up throughout the Utah-Wyoming region. Wolf said he has helped build 10 Kingdom Halls in the last 10 years.
Once finished, Soumbinski said the local congregation will meet at the new Kingdom Hall about twice a week for religious functions.
http://tooeleonline.com
