Taking down the wallpaper

By Jeff Becraft

I would be the one who did not want us to take down the wallpaper.

I had taken down wallpaper once before in my whole life and that was in our kitchen. After that, I said I never wanted to do it again. And that is one of the reasons why the Becrafts do not have any wallpaper anywhere in our house now.

But with Our Place of Hope and the new Clubhouse location, we had this 4,000 square foot room… with wallpaper that was almost 40 years old. I was the first one to raise my hand and say we should subcontract this out. So, we got bids from various contractors but it was much more than we wanted to spend. The Our Place of Hope team decided that we were going to do this.

And to be honest… it was a phenomenal experience. We had so many different people – there were potential members, volunteers, Board members, office staff, etc., with people playing so many different roles.

This group came together and worked in basically three-hour shifts. Some people worked longer than three-hour shifts, but we essentially rotated people in and out like a hockey game.

One of the leaders went out and bought four steamers. And I am telling you right now, those steamers made the difference. They were a game changer. As he would say, we are going to name our next child after him.

We had people coming in that were really excited about what was going on. There were board members who really jumped in on the project and some who brought others with them. It was just an incredible group of people and every person and everything they did made a difference.

Whether it was buying drinks to have in the refrigerator or steaming the wallpaper or moving the furniture away from the wall. Just think about that… you go in there one day and the furniture has all been pushed to the middle of the room away from the walls. Someone did that.  It didn’t just happen magically.  That meant the rest of us didn’t have to mess with it. Somebody had to do that. It’s not a very glamorous job and it’s possible to think that the main job is really taking down the wallpaper… but to get to the walls, you have to move the furniture to take down the wallpaper. And some people did that.

Taping, spackling, sanding… all kinds of different people were involved with this. And nobody was a professional… but I was so impressed with the job the tapers did. People went over, gave their time and did the best they could. And after all that, we found a married couple who knew what they were doing who painted the room.

I was so impressed with all the different people acting as one team. There was one purpose – to get that room ready to be the Our Place of Hope Clubhouse where people living with mental illness would be valued, needed, and given the dignity to contribute back to society. The first event there will be the upcoming Community Mental Health Forum on September 19.

When a group of people come together and work as a team, there is a special dynamic. There is a camaraderie that happens when you work side by side with one another. It goes to a different level than just sitting and visiting. It is meaningful work and meaningful relationships. This is really the Clubhouse International model – to engage people living with mental illness and allow them to be part of the team. It’s not what you’re doing for them; it’s what you’re doing with them.

So even if it’s taking down wallpaper… when you work together as a team, supporting and encouraging one another, and working for the same purpose… even grumpy people who didn’t want to do it can wind up saying, “That was a phenomenal experience!”

Jeff Becraft is the Interim Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Youth Corps is a life-changing leadership development experience that inspires high school students to be leaders in the Midlands and beyond. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].