Longboat Island Chapel builds resilience against future storms

As JoEllen Vergari quoted, "Many hands make light work."

She and more than 30 other volunteers lent a hand on Tuesday with breaking down flood-damaged pews at Longboat Island Chapel, making way for new seating.

Rev. Brock Patterson said several storm restoration projects are coming together this month, including the repair of the damaged roof with more durable metal and work on a wall that will open up space in the main hall.

Volunteers felt a mix of sadness in seeing their wooden pews go and relief in taking another step forward in storm recovery.

Photo by Dana Kampa

Patterson said the church would have liked to keep the pews, but experts said the benches will only continue to deteriorate rapidly, exacerbated by the salty seawater that flooded the church.

In their stead will be sets of chairs, similar to those used at St. Armands Circle Lutheran Church and other neighboring facilities.

The Reverend acknowledged some wished the church could bring in new pews if they had to part with the old ones. However, a new hurricane season looms, and he said it wouldn't make sense for the church to incur the expense just to replace them again after another storm.

He shared his gratitude for everyone who turned out that day and helped out with the steam cleaning, unloading of the remaining chairs, and everything else in restoring the church to its former glory.

"It's a lot of physical labor and we need to get it done, and we have a short timeframe to get it finished," Patterson said.

Mini teams set to their tasks of sledgehammering the benches, collecting the wood slabs, running the wheelbarrows out for disposal, sweeping and setting out the new cushioned chairs.

They took out 36 heavy wooden pews and replaced them within an hour. In that time, they also embarked on a special side project.

Patterson selected several benches in the best condition, and he said a local carpenter agreed to use them to create a new table for the conference room, allowing the church to keep a memento of the many services, weddings and other special events during which congregation members rested upon those pews.

One advantage of having the new chairs is the flexibility the church now has to configure the space for special events, Patterson said.

He hopes they will soon get to celebrate the completion of all the storm-related projects.

Father-son duo Bob and Bob Mazuruk said they were happy to help make it happen.

The more senior Bob has been on the Key for the past 14 years, and his son, granddaughter and the rest of the family moved to nearby Bradenton three years ago.

Their timing for the move was tricky considering they arrived weeks before Hurricane Ian hit, and now they've faced Helene and Milton. But the pair said they were glad to give back, especially since the father has been coming to this specific church since he moved here. He also enjoys helping out at the Lord's Warehouse next door.

Even though he is one member who wishes the pews could have stayed, he agrees it is smart to be financially prudent and believes the church will look great once the work is complete.

Vergari and her husband, Carmen, said the completed look will be a fun surprise for them come next February when she returns from Pennsylvania, as she has done the past 30 years.