Raleigh District United Methodist Men are building at Rockfish, both teams and relationships, but also four new cabins. The journey began at Fuquay-Varina UMC, when Pastor Richard Stone, layman Charlie Gray, and a group of men who had done a lot of Katrina work decided they wanted to do a “Make Over” project at Rockfish.

 As a result, in one weekend, they renovated the staff quarters with new roofing, siding, exterior trim, doors, fans and lighting, toilets, and a fresh coat of paint. Rockfish staff gladly provided housing and meals for the weekend.

Before the paint was dry, these men were asking, “What is next?” Recent growth of summer camp and youth group retreats at Rockfish made a new cabin the logical choice. The Board of Directors had recently approved master plans for the expansion of all of the Conference camps, and four replacement cabins were included for Rockfish. Richard Stone, Charlie Gray and Executive Director Wray Stephens began to meet regularly to pray and plan for the project.

Hosting “Operation Purple”, a program sponsored by the National Military Families Association, to provide a free week of summer camp to children of military personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, had brought over 800 additional campers to Rockfish, straining its capacity. The four “replacement” cabins in the master plan had become “additional” cabins and their construction had become a ministry for United Methodist Men.

The Fuquay-Varina UM Men agreed to adopt the first cabin; Board approval was obtained; architectural plans were drawn and approved; and sites for all four cabins were identified. The cabins were design to endure, to be easy to maintain, and to be energy efficient using many “green” building techniques. Another requirement was that the design be volunteer construction friendly.

Meanwhile, the need for cabins at Rockfish and the plans of the FVUMC men spread to other UMM groups. Soon Bill Shuler, President of the Raleigh District United Methodist Men, joined the planning team, and the project became a Raleigh District UMM project to build not one but all four cabins in the coming months.

As a result, concrete slabs for all four cabins were poured the second week of September and the first cabin was “dried in” the weekend of September 21-22. Unique to the construction of the first cabin is that the exterior walls were pre-fabricated by the Fuquay-Varina team at a facility offered by one of the team members, so the walls went up in minutes.

During a second work weekend in October, a team of volunteers installed exterior doors and windows, siding and trim. Another team, including some women from Fuquay-Varina UMC handled the caulking and exterior paint. Meanwhile, other volunteers were installing the heating and air-conditioning ducts and system. Once the HVAC was in place, volunteers began installing interior paneling.

One more weekend before the end of the year was needed to complete the first of four cabins. The remaining three cabins are scheduled to be constructed during the first quarter of 2008. Each cabin will house 16 campers and two counselors. Each will have a large 12 x 22 screened porch. Campers arriving at Rockfish in the summer of 2008 will find four new cabins; gifts of the Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Men and of other Raleigh District United Methodist Men.