Kingdom Hall on South Street Road in Fleming received a complete makeover in only four days.

Those four days of work were preceded by months of careful planning. Beginning on Thursday, June 11, and continuing into the following Sunday, several hundred volunteers from central and upstate New York, east to New York City and south into Pennsylvania, worked in shifts with many staying at the homes of local members.

Dave Lansbury, one of the six elders that govern the Auburn congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, explained the renovation process: “A couple years ago, we started looking at replacing the carpeting, starting out small, but the next thing we knew, we had come together to compile a list of things we needed done.”

The project included the remodeling of bathrooms, new carpeting and floor tile, insulation, interior painting, landscaping and a new sign and increased handicap accessibility - with a budget of approximately $140,000.

Lansbury said that list became a formal “scope of project” proposal that they submitted to the Regional Building Committee (RBC), which is based in a Brooklyn headquarters.

Once the building plan was approved, a budget was developed. After that, the RBC put the construction into its calendar and scheduled a weekend to perform the work.

Members of congregations within the region, which includes about 40 churches, then volunteered their time and effort to make the project a success.

The congregants of Kingdom Hall are more commonly known as Jehovah's Witnesses. According to www.watchtower.org, the official Web site of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the members “believe in Almighty God, Jehovah, Creator of the heavens and the earth.”

They also believe that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for the sin of mankind.

They have taken their name from a passage in Isaiah 43 that says, “You are my witnesses, says the Lord, my servants whom I have chosen.”

For the busy weekend, the church land was filled with cars and trucks, campers, construction trailers, heavy equipment, large and small tools, plus several large tents for meetings and meals. And people - lots of people - wearing a rainbow-like assortment of hard hats.

Lansbury said that there were several skill levels among the volunteers, which could be described from professional tradespeople to knowledgeable amateurs and willing volunteers, with the professionals training and supervising the volunteers in their charge and overseeing the work.

“Everything's very organized. Some people drive four hours or more to be here,” Lansbury said. “Our lives are centered around Jehovah; we all love the Lord.”