Volunteers Raise The Roof At MVHS

The sounds of nail guns and good-natured hollering filled the brisk November air at Medomak Valley High School as volunteers laid new shingles on the building that houses the school’s heirloom seed bank on Friday, Nov. 21.

Below the noise, Neil Lash, who founded the Heirloom Seed Project in 1991, carefully clipped sheet metal into step flashing to protect the new roof from leaks.

Lash, now retired, said the seeds are no strangers to action, as many come from prominent historical moments with ties to figures like Amelia Earhart and Thomas Jefferson.

“We’ve done seeds up with Monticello because they couldn’t find ones that Thomas Jefferson grew, and we had them,” Lash said.

He said the precious seeds rest within a steel vault and are kept at minus 6 degrees to extend their life, but the building that houses the vault had seen better days.

“This roof has been in dire needs,” Lash said.

According to Lash, the building housing the internationally renowned seed bank was built in 1974 by students in the high school’s woodworking class.

“A lot of headaches just got free,” said Ryan McNelly, who stepped up to run the Heirloom Seed Project after Lash’s retirement.

Lash and McNelly were two of around 11 volunteers who showed up to get the roof fixed, several of whom were district and school administration, including interim RSU 40 Superintendent Thomas Ambrose.

“You don’t very often find superintendents up on the roof helping, do you?” Lash said.

Ambrose, clad in work boots and a flannel, practically buzzed with excitement as he stomped across the in-progress roof. He said he wanted the community to see that the administration at RSU 40 is willing to step up and do the work to improve the facilities at MVHS.

“We don’t want a handout, we want a hand up,” he said.

The Nov. 21 repair efforts began after the RSU 40 Board of Directors toured the high school in October and saw the state of the seed bank building.

“The building is old, it may need to be torn down someday. I don’t love putting a lot of time, effort and money into a building that is struggling. However, there are kids in that building today, and frankly, that seed vault is a point of pride for this community and I want to protect it,” Ambrose said in the Thursday, Nov. 20 meeting of the RSU 40 Board of Directors.

Ambrose said the alternative option of disassembling the vault preserving the seeds and moving it to another building felt implausible with the urgency the building’s condition demanded.

“I get heart palpitations thinking about moving those seeds in November,” he said.

The eventual move of the seed vault should be done “slowly and consciously” to keep the seeds safe and find a good long-term location for the vault, Ambrose said. In order to make the building safe in the meantime, the roofing project was born.

Initially, RSU 40 board member Leah Shipps, of Waldoboro, attempted to get a donation to cover the entire $6,000 cost of roofing materials. After the endeavor didn’t pan out, the board tried other avenues, Ambrose said.

Board member Timothy Wood, of Union, was able to get a $750 discount off materials for the project from Paul Sproul at Hammond Lumber in Waldoboro, as well as a donation from Warren-based Broad Cove Builders, Wood’s employer, of two workers’ labor for the project.

Restoration Resources in Alna, Shipps’ employer, also donated close to $1,000 for sheathing to repair the side of the building.

Volunteers showed up to MVHS at 6:30 a.m. on Friday to tear off the old roof and finished putting down new shingles by late afternoon.

On Saturday, Nov. 22 the volunteers returned and resided the building, repaired the shed adjacent to it, and rebuilt the connector between the building and its greenhouse.

The completed project “will make a big difference for our students,” said MVHS Principal Linda Pease.

“We’re so grateful for everybody that’s helping the kids,” Ambrose said.