Edwards' community volunteers time at St. Joseph's Manor

  • Published
  • By Airman Stacy Garcia
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The Edwards Top 3, along with the base community, recently volunteered at St. Joseph's Manor in Littlerock, Calif., to help set up refuge prior to opening.

The St. Joseph's Manor, an independently living program, is a facility that houses 27 women and 64 children who come out of foster care with no place to go said Master Sgt. Schuyler Griswold, 419th Aircraft Maintenance Unit bomber flight test senior non commissioned officer in charge, along with the Edwards' Top 3 organization.

The Top 3 is comprised of master sergeants, senior master sergeants and chief master sergeants throughout Edwards.

"I got involved with St. Joseph's Manor when I was asked to take over the project," Sergeant Griswold said. "I came out here on a personal invite to come see the manor and I was totally flabbergasted, not only of the size of the place, but also the vision they had in store for the people."

The Top 3 started donating items from the Airman's Attic to the manor. The organization ended up volunteering at the manor by cleaning the yards, performing electrical repair, setting up the manor's laundry room, as well as doing small projects for the nuns who reside at the manor.

"The Top 3 set up a clean-up day with volunteers ranging from family members and friends to other Airmen who just wanted to give a hand," Sergeant Griswold said. "More than 70 Edwards members took their time to come out to the Manor.

St. Joseph's Manor is a facility that will teach patrons on how to have proper job skills and how to get a high school education. Once the training two year training is over, individuals will then receive a force-savings plan for an apartment when they get out, as well as job.

The goal of St. Joseph's manor is to stop the revolving door," said Steven Wheatley, St. Joseph's Manor board president.

Individuals, who come out of foster care, have no other place to go so they enroll in other types of programs, but eventually when those programs are through they have no other place to turn to, so they wind up back in the streets," Wheatley said. "And we want to avoid or stop that."

"The Manor provides the proper tools that are needed to be successful in life," Weatley said.

The Manor is providing $50,000 worth of computer that these individuals can use to learn the program needed for certain jobs. With the schooling that is offered by organizations, individual at the manor can also receive a two year degree.

A lot of community effort has been put into the making of St. Josephs Manors, Mr. Wheatley said.

"We have had so much help from the Edwards community," Weatley said. "Everyone at Edwards has been so wonderful, and they have done so much. We have received an endless supply of donations that we needed for housing and for set-up of the rooms here."

Hoping to open in January, Wheatley said. St. Joseph's Manor is still waiting for state funding. St. Josephs Manor is a public organization that welcomes anyone regardless of religious preferences.