Volunteers help put new roof on Superior's Kingdom Hall
Naomi Kovarik, waving, along with about three dozen volunteers tackle the roof of the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Superior on Thursday. Kovarik and teams go from this project to a Kingdom Hall in Glendive for work that needs to be done, but they might not find out what it is until they arrive. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
Wearing her purple hard hat and matching safety glasses, a high visibility shirt and work boots, Naomi Kovarik will temporarily leave behind her regular job as a window washer and bookkeeper to help put a new roof on the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Superior.
Kovarik, a Superior resident, is skilled in several trades including roofing, boom lift operation, and erecting parapets and scaffolding. She has received this training by volunteering on many Kingdom Hall building projects over the past 14 years.
“I have been taught many skills by being a part of these construction projects,” said Kovarik. “With each new project, I learn more.”
Women represent only 3.9% of tradespeople working in construction nationally, according to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research report that cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. By contrast, the Witnesses’ construction projects regularly see large percentages of female volunteers, both skilled and unskilled.
“We would be lost without our vast number of women volunteers,” said Robert Hendriks, U.S. spokesperson for Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Their attention to detail, high quality of work, and infectious enthusiasm is all vital to the success of our building projects.”
When the Witnesses moved their headquarters from Brooklyn, New York, upstate to the town of Warwick in recent years, the construction project drew some 27,000 volunteers from around the country — 25% of whom were women, like Kierstin Golec of Huntington, Massachusetts.
Golec and fellow female volunteers were assigned to site excavation efforts within days of arriving on the project. They received intensive training to operate heavy equipment right alongside the men on the crew.
Golec vividly recalls the first time she came face to face with the dump truck she’d soon be driving.
“I approached the vehicle, and the tires were taller than me!” she said. “It was a surreal, humbling, and exciting experience.”
Reflecting on the three years she spent volunteering on the build, Golec says she won’t forget the confidence shown in her and other female volunteers. “All of us, men and women, were trained so we could be involved to the fullest extent possible,” she said. “They displayed a lot of trust in us equally, and I’m forever grateful to have been treated with such dignity.”
Kovarik expressed a similar sentiment about recently working on the Kingdom Hall in Ketchikan, Alaska.
“Working on the Alaska project was an incredible experience! No matter your skill level or gender we were all working side by side,” said Kovarik. “It was a very positive environment!”
Alaska is not the only state Kovarik has traveled to as a construction volunteer, she has worked on projects in Wyoming, Idaho, and Washington. But the project in Superior is different for her.
“I am especially excited to work on the Superior project because this is the Kingdom Hall where I personally attend meetings for worship,” said Kovarik.
Construction began June 21st, and Witness volunteers, young and old, skilled and unskilled came from western Montana as well as Idaho and Oregon. The project was completed on June 24.