Gaining as he gives
Unemployed professional finds solace in helping others
Jerry Wick, of New Berlin, digs a hole for a sump pump in the basement of an eight-bedroom home in Brookfield. He is currently working on building the Heaven House, pictured above, the future home of Dan and Lori O'Brien, and their several adopted children. Photo By Katie Derksen
Jerry Wick of New Berlin freely acknowledges that he was afraid for his family when he was downsized last fall out of his job as an architect.
"It was a scary time. I worked for the company for 12 years, I never thought something like that would happen," Wick said.
He and his wife, Kendall, have three children, ages 3 to 13. And they took immediate emergency measures. The two children who attended daycare programs were brought home to save money. And the family undertook other cost-cutting measures.
Although Kendall was still working, the family finances had taken a hit below the water line and it was touch and go in a dark time.
That was in the fall of 2008, early in the country's financial meltdown.
Volunteering, gaining skills
But then a friend shone a light into their dark seas.
The friend said that a big community project was in motion spearheaded by the Hometown Heroes organization. The volunteers aimed at remodeling the home of a mother of two wheelchair-bound children who had cerebral palsy. The family lived in Grafton and the mother had just been diagnosed with cancer.
The architect jumped at the chance to be on the ground-zero side of architecture.
He hammered, he sawed and he learned a lot.
But more than that, Wick found the banging and whizzing of saws eased his troubled mind.
"It was calming and somewhat of a distraction, so I wasn't focused on what was going on," Wick said.
"I was not worrying about money to pay for things," at least for a little while, he said.
Found new job
Committed to his Christian faith, Wick wonders if being a blessing to others in need may have helped him find the blessing of employment.
Wick is working again and in his chosen profession, despite the recession.
"I have a lot of friends still without work," he said of colleagues who also were let go from his company.
Even those without a religious faith might believe in karma or that what goes around comes around, he said.
But in any case, he said, "How can doing good for others hurt?"
The rocky seas that he and his family made their way through actually brought something new and precious to his life, Wick said.
He is now working on another building project involving the Hometown Heroes and several churches. This one is for a family that lives right on the border of New Berlin and Brookfield. He and many others are building a bigger home for a couple who have already raised nine adopted children in addition to their three biological children. And they want to be foster parents to more.
The project is dubbed Heaven House and hundreds of volunteers are building an eight-bedroom home.
Wick is one of them.
And while he is giving, he is experiencing many gifts, he said.
He has learned a lot about construction, he said, and there is a sense of accomplishment for the architect in him to actually build something.
But more than that, he said, it is the experience of giving time and energy to someone else.
"It becomes part of you and you give it away," he said.
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