by Nathan Boddy
Jonathan Stoops, Operations Manager for Dayspring Restoration, says that he and his crews see all ranges of buildings in need. “We are a restoration company first,” says Stoops. “Our primary goal is helping people with their houses.”
To that end, the crews at all statewide Dayspring Restoration locations chose Friday, October 7th as a day to participate in ‘Restoring Kindness,’ a program that was begun by Kent and Lynn Rawhouser, owners of a property restoration company in Madison, Wisconsin. The couple felt strongly about using their position as restoration professionals in a way that would make a positive impact in their area. The program was taken over by C&R (Cleaning and Restoration) Magazine in 2001, whereupon it was taken nationwide within the cleaning and restoration business community.
Dayspring Restoration is in its second year of participating in the Restoring Kindness program, and this year the Victor-based crew found themselves painting and doing drywall patch work at the Linda Massa Youth Home in Hamilton. The crew of seven was well underway with the project by mid-day on Friday, and hoped to have everything wrapped up by the time resident kids were home from school. As far as projects that Dayspring manages, painting would fall on the lighter duty side of the spectrum, but, says Stoops, “We met with (Linda Massa Youth Home) about a month ago to see what needs they had, and then slotted this Friday for us to donate our labor and come help them out.”
Jonna Montelius, Director of Business Development for Dayspring Restoration, was also on site and shared some of the other regional projects that Dayspring was volunteering to accomplish. They included work at other Youth Homes within the state, the Humane Society of Western Montana, as well as the Montana Food Bank Network. The work performed at each location was different, but the intent the same.
“It’s just fun to give back to the communities that support our business, for us to take a day, take our team and support the community,” said Montelius. “It’s been a rough couple of years with Covid and it’s kind of fun to do our part.”
While the cleaning and restoration industry is not one that most people would hope to have to call upon, Stoops says that the need does arise. “Unfortunately, homes need maintenance,” he says, adding that a lot of disastrous outcomes result when people overlook simple things like washing machine or sink supply line failures. Some of the cleanup and restoration jobs they see can be tremendous. For that reason, Stoops feels that the Restoring Kindness program is one that he and his crew enjoy because of what it represents. “It’s nice because in our line of work, it’s nice to give back.”