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While serious yard work is never an easy project for any home owner, Louie Mori's Churchill County High School building trades program and Fallon's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1002 combined to provide some Christmas cheer for a longtime resident this week.
Students from the high school building trades program came out on Tuesday morning to clean up and burn weeds as well as sagebrush at the home of Irene Breen, the widow of a Korean War veteran.
Given the chilly conditions when temperatures hovered in the upper 20s, it was little wonder Mori tried to coax Thaaron Kalt into exchanging his chore of managing the fire.
“You bring the weeds to me, I'll feed the fire,” Mori said, flashing a wide grin as he unloaded a pile of weeds into the fire.
Dick Hurstak, Senior Vice Commander for VFW Post 1002, got the ball rolling after he was contacted by Breen, whose husband of 59 years, William “Bill” Breen passed away in 2008. Bill Breen served with the U.S. Navy, including time during the Korean War, and moved with his family to Fallon 1958. He joined VFW in 1964, served as Post 1002 commander, council member, state commander and was active for more than 30 years, often driving fellow veterans to Reno for medical appointments or various other military-related business.
“We needed some help, and they didn't even hesitate,” Hurstak said of the high school program. “They jumped right on it.”
Hurstak knew exactly where to go to find help with the project. He went to fellow veteran Claude Evans, who then called Mori, one of his former students.
“Claude Evans was my teacher when I took this class,” said Mori, a 1981 Churchill County High graduate. “She (Breen) was worried about weeds, particularly all the tumbleweeds piled up against the fence, being a fire hazard. She can't do the work herself, it's too much.”
Mori said students in his class perform community service projects to benefit the community and to help individuals when they need assistance.
“For about the last 10 years we've been doing community service projects, and this is just one of the things we do,” Mori said. “It works out good for us; most of these kids are seniors and we like them to get community service so when they leave they know there are things they can do for people in the community.
“We've been doing some things for the community rather than individual projects, but we try to do both,” he added. “We've done stuff at school, we've built some gazebos; we helped at the park over at North Maine, we built that playground and we built the covered patio. We could do this the entire year if we wanted; there's always people who need help.”
Mori went on to point out even though the students had already taken their finals, they came out on their own to help with the project at Breen's home.
Class members met at the VFW Post to have pizza for lunch after putting in more than three hours of work.
“That was great. I loved it,” said Hurstak. “I was really proud to see youngsters who were willing to go do that.”
Students from the high school building trades program came out on Tuesday morning to clean up and burn weeds as well as sagebrush at the home of Irene Breen, the widow of a Korean War veteran.
Given the chilly conditions when temperatures hovered in the upper 20s, it was little wonder Mori tried to coax Thaaron Kalt into exchanging his chore of managing the fire.
“You bring the weeds to me, I'll feed the fire,” Mori said, flashing a wide grin as he unloaded a pile of weeds into the fire.
Dick Hurstak, Senior Vice Commander for VFW Post 1002, got the ball rolling after he was contacted by Breen, whose husband of 59 years, William “Bill” Breen passed away in 2008. Bill Breen served with the U.S. Navy, including time during the Korean War, and moved with his family to Fallon 1958. He joined VFW in 1964, served as Post 1002 commander, council member, state commander and was active for more than 30 years, often driving fellow veterans to Reno for medical appointments or various other military-related business.
“We needed some help, and they didn't even hesitate,” Hurstak said of the high school program. “They jumped right on it.”
Hurstak knew exactly where to go to find help with the project. He went to fellow veteran Claude Evans, who then called Mori, one of his former students.
“Claude Evans was my teacher when I took this class,” said Mori, a 1981 Churchill County High graduate. “She (Breen) was worried about weeds, particularly all the tumbleweeds piled up against the fence, being a fire hazard. She can't do the work herself, it's too much.”
Mori said students in his class perform community service projects to benefit the community and to help individuals when they need assistance.
“For about the last 10 years we've been doing community service projects, and this is just one of the things we do,” Mori said. “It works out good for us; most of these kids are seniors and we like them to get community service so when they leave they know there are things they can do for people in the community.
“We've been doing some things for the community rather than individual projects, but we try to do both,” he added. “We've done stuff at school, we've built some gazebos; we helped at the park over at North Maine, we built that playground and we built the covered patio. We could do this the entire year if we wanted; there's always people who need help.”
Mori went on to point out even though the students had already taken their finals, they came out on their own to help with the project at Breen's home.
Class members met at the VFW Post to have pizza for lunch after putting in more than three hours of work.
“That was great. I loved it,” said Hurstak. “I was really proud to see youngsters who were willing to go do that.”
