LEE, Maine — Gordon Boyington knows exactly how helpless parents are when their children serve overseas. The 60-year-old Milford resident’s son Chandler Boyington traveled extensively during his three-year hitch as a military police officer in the U.S. Army.
“I was very fortunate to get him home safe and sound,” Boyington said Thursday.
“It is a constant concern that every husband and wife have when one of the children is out of your nest and your control. Their well-being isn’t ever out of your mind,” Boyington added. “Until you are a parent and go through it, you really can’t understand it, and it is probably worse with losing them. I can’t imagine what that’s like.”
That’s why Boyington works as operations manager for the construction of an 80-by-90-foot lodge for House in the Woods, A Military and Family Retreat. Carpenters are working to build the lodge at a cost of $2 million, Boyington estimated Thursday.
House in the Woods is a nonprofit organization formed by Bill and Quie Emery and Paul and Deanna House. Both from Lee, the Emery and House families were bonded by the loss of sons to war — U.S. Army Sgt. Blair William Emery, 24, was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle Nov. 30, 2007, in Baqubah, Iraq.
His death came slightly more than five months after U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division Sgt. Joel House was killed by an IED on June 23, 2007, in Taji, Iraq.
House in the Woods gives veterans and their families free guided trips in the Maine woods. The program does not feature professional counselors, but it allows the beauty of the woods and the bonding that comes naturally from shared experiences — including ice and open-water fishing, turkey, bear or partridge hunting, kayaking, canoeing, hiking and bird or moose watching — as a form of healing.
Both enormously bolstered and hindered by its reliance on fundraisers, the lodge is about 30 percent finished, Paul House said. The building’s foundation, basement, main floor and one of its apartments are in and partitioned. Its windows and boiler room are installed.
Installation of the metal roof and vinyl siding starts Monday, and the building’s insulation and stairwells are being finished. Plumbers have begun installing PVC piping. When the roof is on, the building’s electrical wiring and sheetrocking can start, House said.
Staffed full-time by Boyington and four carpenters, the job hopefully will be finished by September, Boyington said.
“We’re shooting for getting it done by July, but that all depends on donations, on how fast we can go along. If we don’t get donations for certain items, we have to try to generate the money,” he said.
At least 85 building contractors, suppliers or construction rental companies from around the state have donated raw materials, manpower and equipment to the job, Boyington said. As an example of how people helped make the project happen, Boyington said Local 104 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers gave him a year off his regular job as a Class A operator to do the House in the Woods project.
That’s one of the reasons why Paul House calls the project “a miracle happening before our eyes.”
“It has been a really big collaboration of all the businesses in Maine that have gotten together and made this happen,” Boyington said.
Anyone who would like to donate to House in the Woods can email Paul@houseinthewoods.org or visit houseinthewoods.org.