Kevin Jacobie’s kind heart and love of children led him to restore the huge mahogany doors that grace the entrance to the Marylou Whitney Chapel at Double H Ranch in Lake Luzerne.
Kevin, 65, one of the well-known Jacobie clan of Moreau, has worked at Irving Tissue as a boiler operator for 43 years. His employer helped Double H restore the chapel, staining the interior and exterior and helping to replace the floor.
“Someone mentioned they would like to get the doors refinished,” Kevin told Glens Falls Living. “I refinish furniture as a hobby, so I looked at the doors, which are incredibly detailed, and thought, ‘If I don’t do it, who will?’
“It’s all about the kids. Double H is a wonderful organization, and I felt guilty that I couldn’t do more. So, this is my contribution.”
Max Yurenda, the longtime CEO of Double H, said, “Kevin did it from the heart. He told me the other day that it was a labor of love for the kids. It’s a work of art, and I can’t think of anyone else who could have taken on that job and done it so well. His love for the kids kept him motivated to finish the project.”
When Kevin went to work, the doors, which are three inches thick, eight feet tall and 30 inches wide, “were as gray as you could imagine. They were really weathered, and it was hard to imagine what they would look like when refinished.
“So I brought them home, and it took me pretty much all last winter. I worked on them on my time off, and even days I worked, I would often go down into my shop before my 7 a.m. shift.”
How long did it take to sand them?
“About 999 hours,” he said, chuckling. “The skin on my thumb and forefinger of my right hand wore off, so I had to use my left hand.”
After he sanded the doors, he finished them with teak oil.
“There was so much detail,” he said. “It all had to be done by hand. There was no machine that could do that intricate work. They are beautiful doors. Just amazing. I hated to give them back.”
But of course he did. There was no ceremony, no special occasion.
“I went up with the doors, helped reinstall them and left,” he said.
Mr. Yurenda said, “They turned out beautifully! The Whitney Chapel is an important building on our campus, the spiritual center of Double H. The doors are a work of art.”
Kevin said, “Double H brings in kids from all across the country with various serious illnesses, and for one week, the kids get to be kids and do kids’ stuff…They come to camp and it’s the happiest place on earth.”
Mr. Yurenda said the construction of the Whitney Chapel in 1995 was financed by the late Marylou Whitney, the generous Saratoga Springs benefactor who passed away last year.
“She supported it financially and one of Charley Wood’s men built it,” he said. “But as you know, as buildings get older they need tender loving care, and the employees of Irving Tissue adopted the chapel, redoing the interior and the exterior. Kevin’s work on the doors was an extra beautiful gift to our campers.”
Speaking of the Double H Ranch, Mr. Yurenda said their Sept. 26th virtual gala raised more than $600,000.
“It was our first virtual gala, and we were worried, but Lisa and Bob Moser, our gala chairs, did an incredible job,” he said.
“Our in-person galas at the Great Escape Lodge generally raise more than $800,000, but our virtual gala exceeded our expectations, and is a huge testimony to the support of this community.”
Mr. Yurenda said that while there was no in-person camp this year, the ongoing pandemic meant that “the needs of our kids are even greater. Our team did an exceptional job pivoting to virtual programming. We found software called Jigsaw, and used it to run a virtual summer program for more than 650 campers.”
He called the success of the virtual programming “a silver lining. Virtual programming will now be a part of our efforts in the future, to reach kids that we were not able to get to camp.”
Its success “puts pressure on our team to now figure out how to elevate our virtual programming. It’s been a tough year for everybody. We are looking at our budget right now, and have scenario A, scenario B and scenario C, and will probably end up with some version of scenario D.
“But we’re very fortunate. Our team pivoted beautifully to help us stay connected to our campers.”
