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Photo by Melissa Carlo | Story by Nolan Rosenkrans | Winona Daily News
Many people stepped up when Ridgeway Community School needed help renovating and expanding its building.
Volunteers broke down, built up and smoothed over much of a 6,200-square-foot addition that included classroom space and a new library. Today, tiles next to the library commemorate the more than 100 selfless people who gave their time, expertise and money to the project.
While everyone contributed in their own ways, many point to the efforts of two volunteers who helped to lead the effort through thick and thin.
Jim Morcomb, the project manager, and Steve Groth, the volunteer coordinator, are both local guys. They both attended different one-room schoolhouses that eventually merged into Ridgeway.
Both said the school carries a legacy of the rural schools they once attended.
“This school is trying to keep the heritage of the one-room school houses, which is kind of a dying thing,” Groth said.
Morcomb, who retired about 10 years ago from IBM after almost 35 years as a mechanical and computer engineer, got involved with RCS when the school wanted to become a charter school. He helped lead negotiations between the Ridgeway Community Association, a nonprofit organization created to assist the charter school, and the Winona Area Public Schools, which eventually led to the district selling the property in 2006.
After funds were raised, it came time to roll up the sleeves. Because Ridgeway was a small school with limited resources, community involvement with the construction was bital.
Priority No. 1: Get Groth involved.
“He knows a lot of people, and he is highly respected,” Morcomb said. “People were ready and willing to help because of Steve.”
Lending a hand to the community is not foreign territory for Groth, captain of Ridgeway’s volunteer fire department.
“We knew that if he got involved there was a much bigger chance of the project being successful,” said Jodi Dansingburg, RCS coordinator. “We truly couldn’t have accomplished this project without them.”
Volunteers were involved in almost every aspect of the building project. They demolished parts of the building, poured concrete, painted and much more.
Their efforts were infectious, said Morcomb and Groth. If the two needed any reason to be excited about the project, they had only to look at their neighbors’ contributions.
“You only had to be here a couple nights and see how many people were so dedicated to this school to want to get involved,” Groth said.
It’s not unusual to see a community come together on a work-intensive project. Long hours mustering up a constant sweat, late nights working by floodlights and days spent saving exposed materials during the rains last summer helped neighbors get to know one another. While many in the Ridgeway area are longtime residents like Morcomb and Groth, others are transplants who might have found it hard to connect with community.
“I don’t think this crew could have worked together any better than they did,” Morcomb said.
While the two helped lead the volunteer effort, they are quick to point to those who volunteered. People built shelves for free, and they landscaped and catered food to all those involved.
Dansingburg estimated that more than $150,000 was saved through in-kind contributions, volunteer hours, materials and equipment.
Work on the school is not yet done. Additional landscaping needs to be completed, and another expansion is planned. Groth and Morcomb say they will be involved in the project — and the school in general, from now on — despite the fact that their children are grown.
Perhaps Morcomb’s and Groth’s giving spirits come as no surprise: Both have sons who have served in Iraq. Morcomb’s son left Friday for his third tour.
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