A Portage Life in the Spotlight: Tom Crnarich

A Portage Life in the Spotlight: Tom Crnarich

Growing up in a small Pennsylvania coal-mining town instilled a sense of community and volunteerism in Tom Crnarich from a young age. Crnarich’s family stepped in and lent a helping hand when another family was struggling or had fallen on hard times. Now, decades later, Crnarich still carries, and has passed on to his four children, those same values that help build and hold communities together.

“I grew up in a small mining town in Pennsylvania,” Crnarich said. “I just always thought that if you have something given to you, you should always help and give back. I guess it was my parents who pushed that. If someone needs something you go and help. That was just the way it was.”

Crnarich moved to the region in 1955 when he was 20 years old and went to work at Inland Steel where he worked as an electrician for 42 years. After he retired in 1998 his youngest son, who had been doing volunteer work with Rebuilding Together Portage, asked him about what he was going to do with his time and put some pressure on him about getting out and doing something.

“He kinda bad mouthed me and said that I should be doing something,” Crnarich said. “I said, ‘you know what, you’re right!’ I had the time and I’m in pretty good shape, but I’d rather be the boss so I went to Mel Gore who was in charge of Rebuilding Together Portage at the time. I went from House Captain for about 3-4 years then moved up to Materials and then, over time, I moved up to President where I’ve been for around 10 years.”

Rebuilding Together Portage works around the old fashioned idea of ‘barn raising’, with as many as 75 skilled and unskilled volunteers assigned to a particular project.

“The first thing we do is put out applications for anyone in need,” said Crnarich. “Anyone who needs help can file an application and we look at all those applications and we’ll see if they fall within an income range. Once that’s cleared we’ll send some people out to see what they really need. Then we meet and decide which ones we can do. Once we select a house we’ll assign a House Captain who gets in depth with the family in the home. He’ll find out what they need and we’ll get a cost of it. Once we have the cost he’ll start getting materials and in March we’ll start getting volunteers.”

“Skilled help has become a big, big problem with us,” Crnarich said. “We can get all kinds of unskilled volunteers but getting skilled workers is not easy. We have plumbers, electricians, and carpenters who come out every year and help us out. What we really need is carpenters. Fortunately, last year Local 1005 came over with 12 carpenters that day and you should have seen the work they did. It was unbelievable and we’re supposed to have them back this year.”

Rebuilding Together Portage works on a budget of just $25k per year, but the amount of work that gets done is far beyond that. The organization gets help with funding through the Anderson Foundation and the Porter County Community Foundation as well as through grants and other donations from the community.

“The majority of the work is all done in one day,” Crnarich said. “It’s a busy day! Usually, anyone who volunteers comes back and does it again. It’s very rewarding. We have a really good, strong organization. One thing I always say is that in the morning, on that day, you go to whatever job you’re assigned to and you see these people at the end of the day crying because they have something that hasn’t worked for so many years and now it’s working. When you get back to eat supper you don’t know who’s better off, the giver or the receiver. It’s amazing. You don’t really know until you’ve seen it.”