By: Kathryn Fenstermacher

What does it take to tear down a house? One word: teamwork. That’s what the Taylor CrossFit Club demonstrated when they partnered with Build a Better Blackford to tear down a dilapidated house on N Cherry Street last Saturday morning.

Build a Better Blackford (BBB) is a local non-profit organization that coordinates development projects to improve quality of life for Blackford county residents. Their primary task is removing blighted houses, replacing them with either new homes or build-ready lots that attract prospective buyers. BBB acquires blighted properties through tax sales, according to director Jon Creek. He added that most buyers are turned off by a property that has a dilapidated home because of the liability that comes with it. This is usually why these unlivable homes sit vacant, continuing to deteriorate year after year.

The quickest way to take down a home is using heavy-duty machinery – which can also be expensive. Creek estimates that the market cost to remove a junk home is around $7,000. Since BBB is a non-profit entity, they rely on volunteer labor to complete many of their projects. Creek said that their number of volunteers has been low in recent years, which has limited the number of homes they have been able to remove. 

This has started to change as BBB forges connections with a new source of volunteers: Taylor University. The Taylor Women’s Basketball Team served the county earlier this spring by participating in a property cleanup and invasive plant removal in the Wilderness Park. Last fall, a group from Taylor’s Annual Community Plunge was assigned to a Hartford City location. These student groups coming in to serve the community have been connected by one key local point person, Dr. Scott Fenstermacher.

Fenstermacher is a Hartford City resident and regular volunteer with BBB, helping with their property clean-up and demolition projects. Creek said that Fenstermacher’s connections with Taylor has changed the trajectory for BBB, providing the “people power that we need to do those kinds of projects.”

Last weekend, they had enough student volunteers to demolish a home the old-fashioned way: using only hand tools and good old sweat equity. A steady ruckus could be heard up and down Cherry Street as approximately a dozen members of the Taylor University CrossFit Club took to the home with sledgehammers and crowbars. They peeled off siding, moved heavy appliances, smashed drywall, and filled a dumpster with bucket after bucket of insulation. Piece by piece, layer by layer, they dismantled a large portion of the home by hand from the inside out. 

Fenstermacher is not only a member of the kinesiology faculty at Taylor University – he is also an avid member of the Taylor CrossFit Club. When he asked the club leadership about organizing a service project in Blackford County, they jumped at the chance. “Part of our mission statement . . . is to glorify God with our physical bodies,” said club general manager Greta Buckenburger. “I think this [project] is a big way to showcase that, like, let’s use the muscles we’ve built to tear down a house and have fun while doing it.”

One of the hallmarks of the Taylor community is demonstrating servant leadership: being the first one to step in and lend a hand, modeling how Jesus served others even when it’s costly. Buckenburger said that this type of project fits into that nicely. “It’s been fun to . . . just watch people do their thing and be really excited about helping and getting to break a sweat,” she said.

CrossFit is an internationally-recognized fitness regimen that involves functional movements performed at high intensity: think pushups, squats, burpees, and short bursts of running. Local CrossFit clubs attract individuals from all walks of life, regardless of their athletic abilities. The Taylor CrossFit Club includes students, faculty, and staff. “It’s a random mix of people who love to be in community and move our bodies in really hard and intentional ways,” Buckenburger said.

But there’s more to it than movement. One of the things that both Fenstermacher and Buckenburger appreciate about the CrossFit Club is the feeling that it’s a family and a team. That close-knit dynamic was evident while they put their hard-earned muscles to use on Saturday. Their shared smiles, laughter, and positive attitudes prevailed throughout the back-breaking work.

Creek said he picked up on this, too. “One of the things that impressed me was the spirit that they brought to it,” he said. “It’s the first time we’ve worked with the CrossFit group, and of course they are very physically oriented. Hard work was just like candy to them, it seemed like.”

Of course, BBB welcomes volunteers of all abilities. Creek said they are looking for other local partners, like Fenstermacher, who can be catalysts to motivate and organize teams to volunteer on a project now and then. “We would welcome more participation by a group like that,” Creek said. “They showed a lot of team spirit in what they were doing and supported each other . . . and that reflects the values of Build a Better Blackford.”

If you or your team would like to get involved with BBB, you can contact Jon Creek at jckreek34@yahoo.com or (765) 499-3670. You can follow the work they are doing in the county by visiting their Facebook page.