The Benevolent Handyman
By Jennifer Tyler
In December, Camp Ondessonk shared a picture on social media of the Lalande outhouse without its cover. As expected, the post received a fair amount of witty and clever comments. But rest assured, while the beauty of the outdoors is celebrated at Camp Ondessonk, open-air outhouses are not.
With the help of the Vienna High School construction class, the old outhouse was dismantled in the fall. Evan Coulson, Camp’s Strategic Initiatives Coordinator, then enlisted the help of friend and Camp volunteer, Dan Frierdich, to build the new structure. After 19 hours of work, the Lalande outhouse was rebuilt and functional.
Dan Frierdich is no stranger to odd jobs around Camp. He has been volunteering off and on for Camp since 2006. He has been a unit leader and barn volunteer. He took a break from volunteering when he had young kids, and returned as a volunteer last summer when his son became a first-time camper. He was assigned to maintenance, which turned out to be one of his favorite experiences.
“[Last summer] we fixed a ton of water leaks, which is great. That felt good because it allowed maintenance staff to be able to do the bigger things that needed to get done,” he said.
“I’ve never had any formal training in [home repairs and construction], but my dad was all do it yourself when I was growing up. I spent many an hour holding things and watching and helping where I could as a kid,” Dan said. “I inherited my father’s persistence in doing things yourself. If I have a capability of doing it, then I’m going to do it and figure it out along the way. It’s been a lifetime of participating in projects and absorbing skills via osmosis, if you will.”
Dan and his wife Briana have been married for 12 years and have two children, Simon and Rosemarie. Dan grew up in Belleville, Ill., and graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in 2005. Dan’s professional experience is in space and event planning, with a focus on commencement activities. He currently works for Tassel, a software company that works with colleges and universities worldwide to modernize and offer efficiencies to graduation events.
According to Dan, Camp was always engrained in him. His grandfather helped with construction of the original Camp in the 1950s, and his mother was a camper in the 1960s.
“Gene Canavan came to my grade school to promote Camp, and that really sold it,” he said. “He hung a poster of Packentuck in the school office, and told us all that in the photo, there was a kid somewhere – I don’t think there actually was, but I stared at that poster daily looking for the hidden camper.”
In 20 years of volunteer service, the Lalande outhouse is just one project of many that Dan has assisted with. He finds meaning and fulfillment from spending time with family, being outdoors, and getting work done. He especially enjoys helping at Camp and making a difference behind the scenes. He looks forward to volunteering in maintenance again this summer while both of his children are campers.
