Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette photos George Pelote, of Silver Spring, Md., paints the fence along Irishtown Park in Carnegie. Mr. Pelote is with a group attending a weeklong Adventist Risk Management Conference, Downtown. The first day of the conference is dedicated to helping the community.

By Jan Ackerman
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette It was a beautiful day to be on the links, but two British insurance brokers, Peter Boardman and Graham Spratt, found themselves replacing drywall in a Carnegie house that was damaged by Hurricane Ivan almost two years ago.

They were in Pittsburgh for the Adventist Risk Management Conference at the Omni William Penn Hotel, Downtown.

Instead of golfing or touring, about 100 executives and administrators of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and their colleagues from the insurance industry spent the first day of their conference rebuilding houses in Carnegie and Bridgeville, clearing brush in the yard of an elderly Heidelberg resident, building a tool shed for community gardens in Carnegie and cleaning up Irishtown Park in Carnegie.

Mark Frederick, of Toronto, and Graham Spratt, of London, England, cut drywall at a home in Carnegie yesterday, the first day of the weeklong Adventist Risk Management Conference. Click photo for larger image.

"The first day of the conference is always a community plunge," said Martin Ytreberg of Nampa, Idaho, one of the participants.

"A couple guys said we used to do golf, but we like this more," said Ray Hartwell, president of the Pennsylvania Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, based in Reading.

They also assembled about 20 baskets of food and toys to be distributed to victims of Ivan as part of a "Christmas in September" program.

"From Monday to Thursday, we work on education. But on Sunday, we get involved in the community," said Robert Sweezey, president of Adventist Risk Management in Silver Spring, Md.

The gentlemen of Lloyds of London were happy to join the Seventh-day Adventists to rebuild the inside of the house on Sixth Street in Carnegie, a neighborhood that suffered extensive flooding from Ivan on Sept. 17, 2004.

"I have done it one time before," said Mr. Spratt, who has tackled this nasty plasterboard business in his own house in London.

Pastor Andrew Clark, executive director of Adventist Community Services of Greater Pittsburgh, has worked on Ivan recovery in Carnegie, Bridgeville and Heidelberg for almost two years.

He came to Pittsburgh right after the flooding in 2004, expecting to stay 30 to 90 days. Since then, he has been running a distribution center that provides donated appliances, furniture, housewares and clothing to flood victims across the region.

His organization plans to repair four more houses before shutting down its Ivan recovery program in Bridgeville.

But Pastor Clark isn't leaving. He is opening a new center on Main Street in Carnegie where he will be working on long-term goals to improve life in the community.

"We don't want to stop helping people in the community, but we can only work on Ivan so long," he said.

Yesterday, Heidelberg Mayor Kenneth LaSota was happy to see about 25 volunteers turn out to clean brush from the yard of a house on First Street. The mayor said the elderly homeowner had made interior repairs after the flooding, but was too feeble to cut back the overgrown brush in his yard.

"These volunteers are wonderful," said Mr. LaSota.