ShawneeDispatch.com

Beginning this week, a group of Shawnee firefighters will make a huge difference for 600 schoolchildren in a small village in South Africa.

In the town of Bhukwini, northwest of Port Elizabeth, the small school building is falling to pieces. But today, thanks to the Shawnee-based Oceans of Mercy organization and a generous donation from a local businessman, nine firefighters, most from Shawnee, will travel to Bhukwini to build a new school for the students, along with 12 other Oceans of Mercy volunteers.

Leading the group's effort is Bill Jahnke, a former Overland Park fire chief who now lives in Shawnee and owns Jahnke & Sons Construction/ WHP Training Towers, a company that sells fire training towers all over the world.

"It was my brainstorm," Jahnke said.

Jahnke met Schaun Colin, founder of Oceans of Mercy, and Colin's father, Ron, at the Country Club Cafe in 2002. Of course, they taught him all about Oceans of Mercy, dedicated to helping South African children affected by the AIDS virus, and Jahnke quickly became interested in the organization.

"Being in the fire service, kids have a special place in our hearts," Jahnke said.

He soon came up with the idea of building a school or other building on the land Oceans of Mercy was purchasing for its Children's Village.

"I thought it would be neat to send some firefighters over there to help out, because I knew they'd eat that up," he said.

The problem was timing; it took two years before the trip could take place.

Jahnke, father of eight, kept busy between constantly having a grandchild on the way and running his company. Actually, even for this trip, he will not be there for the actual building because yet another grandchild is due. Instead, he has served as project coordinator, going to South Africa July 17 to Aug. 1 to make all the necessary arrangements for materials and machinery.

Even more remarkable - Jahnke is funding the travel expenses for the firefighters traveling there, and some of the expenses involved in building the school. He also has worked to get several companies to donate building materials for the school.

Eight of the nine firefighters going on the trip are from Shawnee because Jahnke's son-in-law, Ryan Pyle, is a Shawnee firefighter. Pyle helped with the recruitment of firefighters, trying to ask people from different shifts so as not to tax the firefighting staff during the trip. The firefighters going on the trip also are knowledgeable in various areas of construction.

"Each has a separate skill that would be useful over there," Pyle said. "Of all the people I asked, every single one of them wanted to go. So that's pretty impressive in itself."

Also going on the trip are John Mattox, Steve Rawie, Dave Hunter, Carl Myers, Duffy Muehlberger and Mike Beatty.

Another firefighter on the trip, Kevin Weyand, is from Olathe, a friend who "wanted to go and didn't have the money," Jahnke said. "And I said, 'well, I've got that taken care of.'"

The group has met several times since May to work out the logistics of building the school.

"We're dealing with interesting challenges, like how to put in a toilet when there are no sewers," Jahnke said.

With limited resources, they had to determine how they would excavate the site to make a flat surface for the school's foundation, and the proper way to build a latrine, since as Jahnke said, a working toilet would not be possible. A bigger question how to make concrete for a foundation in a place where water isn't readily available and materials may have to be mixed by hand.

They needed to discuss how to cut metal, since there would be no gas to run torches - building the school out of wood isn't a possibility because of the termites in the area. And they needed to figure out a rain collection system from the roof, since rain tanks provide much of the town's water.

The firefighters also discussed how to break into teams to get everything done as efficiently as possible; as they noted, they have 20 days worth of work and eight to 10 days to do it.

Colin told the firefighters that they had to remember to interact with the villagers appropriately as well. He said last year, Oceans of Mercy made the commitment to help Bhukwini, where there is almost 100 percent unemployment and at least 236 orphans, 100 of whom are fed through an Oceans of Mercy-supported soup kitchen.

"This isn't a one-shot in and then we're out of there, and they'll never see Americans again," Colin told the firefighters. "You're really helping us invest in that village. We want to finish it, but we don't want to finish it so when we're done, the villagers say 'Man, we're glad they're gone.'"

Colin said the school would be an incredible improvement to the lives of the Bhukwini villagers.

"You have no idea how transforming this is for this community," Colin said. "This is really uplifting for this community."