GREAT FALLS — In the final days leading up to what was meant to be the most joyous occasion of their lives, Emily Burns and Garrison Smith faced an unexpected and devastating hurdle: a fire ravaged their home, just a week before their wedding in May 2024.
“We had a fire start outside while we were getting ready, making food for our wedding,” Smith said. “It quickly spread to the garage and totaled out the whole garage and [a] little spread into the house.”
Stituations like this are when Montana Carpenters Local 82 steps up to help their community. Michael Burns was days away from becoming Smith’s brother-in-law. After hearing about the fire, he knew he needed to help.
“I never, never in a thousand years thought that I would ever be working on rebuilding a burnt structure for any of my family members, and it it's tough because you don't expect that to happen to anybody,” said Burns, a Superintendent for Guy Tabacco Construction. “But when it does happen to somebody that you love and care about, it just is hard.”
Burns is a member of Montana Local Carpenters Union 82. The union has Carpenter Union Participation Programs, or “CUPPortunities”.
“It's how the union gets local volunteers from our hall to come out and help out community members and just show, show a good face to the community and show them that we're here and we're active and we're helping out,” Burns said.
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The union’s work can be seen around the community, most recently at Chief Joseph Elementary School, where they raised money to help rebuild the playground.
“Every member here will not have any payment of any kind,” Burns said. “The Carpenter Union Participation Program gives us CUPP points. At a certain amount of hours, the union does give us a check for our hours worked. And then we get some tax rebates if we do another allotment of hours. So, it's a good incentive to get guys out and get them. Get them involved with our community.”
So, union members show up, on their weekends, to get the job done.
“I bet you in about three more weekends time, this will be a done structure, and I can walk away happy,” Burns said.
And for Smith and his wife, it’s another big step back to normalcy.
“That'll be amazing. That's something I'm definitely looking forward to,” Smith said. “As I said, just getting, not just this, but getting our whole lives kind of back to where they where they were and where they should be.”
Community and literal family, coming together for one another.
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MAY 28, 2024:
