Dean Schaumburg was critically hurt in an August logging accident and his family then lost their rental house in Vernonia in the December flood.

Without a house to go home to, Dean Schaumburg ended up in an assisted-care facility in Forest Grove.  Casey Mitchell runs the Community Action Team in St. Helens helping low-income families build houses.

Mitchell, along with Tony and Dana Hyde -- Tony is a Columbia County commissioner; his wife Dana is a friend of the Schaumburg family -- decided to get involved.  Within hours, Mitchell secured the donation of a 5,000-square-foot lot from Mike Pihl Logging as a future homesite for the Schaumburgs in Vernonia.

Casey secured two sets of house plans for the family. Suburban Door pledged to handle the entries and exits to the house. "I've got Kemper Drywall ready to donate all the labor to drywall the house," Mitchell said. And other subcontractors were lining up to lend a little more humanity to the construction.

Now, in December, 2008, Casey writes: "As many of you know I have been working on building a house for Dean and Kendra Schaumburg of Vernonia. Dean was seriously injured in a logging accident and then their home was flooded while he was trying to recover.

Dean has made great strides in the last year and is an inspiration to all. Kendra is strong as ever, a great mom and wife.

Despite the current economic conditions we have raised all but $50k to build them the home on the lot that Mike Phil (Ax Man) donated. Jim Prpich and Bruce Holz have been busy getting the remaining donations for the build."

Watch for an Orgonian front page story by Steve Duin on Christmas day!

Steve Duin's front-page column in The Oregonian told the family's story.

The excavation has been done for the home and we look forward to pouring the foundation soon.