Four Cities Compact pitches in on home addition for Emma Pfouts

NORTON — A home addition valued at roughly $40,000 has been made possible at the home of Norton High School cheerleader Emma Pfouts thanks in part to work from Four Cities Compact students in Wadsworth High School's carpentry program. The Four Cities Compact has teamed up on the project with Mission USA Inc., a Barberton-based nonprofit. The effort has been led at Wadsworth by teacher Chris Kallai, who said reaction from students has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. "As soon as I mentioned in class what this work was going to involve, so many hands went up," said Kallai. "Emma is a fellow Four Cities Compact student in the athletic training program, so many of the kids in my class know her, even the ones who don't go to Norton. They all wanted to reach out and do what they could to help, no questions asked." Kallai and students were spotted at the home Sunday and didn't stop working in the latter half of last week even as snow and frigid temperatures descended upon the area. In October, Pfouts suffered a severe allergic reaction during Norton High School's homecoming dance that left her in a medically-induced coma. Since waking from that coma, the teen has regained some ability to communicate but a long recovery process still lies on the horizon. The new addition will be designed to help Pfouts on that road with future plans at her home including a wheelchair ramp and driveway expansion. Masonry students in the Four Cities Compact have been tapped to help with that project. "I tell my students that if you're serious about carpentry, you have to be ready to get out in the bad weather," Kallai said. "If you don't teach that you're not showing kids the real world. You also have to be ready for jobs that aren't necessarily for pay, because people are going to ask you to do things that you'll want to help with regardless of pay. Those are the kinds of kids we have in this program." By Sunday, much of the addition's exterior had been completed with that progress coming in just over a week. Project organizers expect work to be completed by the time Pfouts' returns home in April. A GoFundMe page raising funds for Pfouts' ongoing medical costs has now brought in more than $42,000. Mission USA president Fred Muffet said outreach from the private sector has matched enthusiasm shown by students across the Four Cities Compact, which covers Wadsworth, Barberton, Norton, and Copley. "We have four masonry companies, four to five plumbers, three electricians, flooring companies, drywall companies, roofing, siding — you name it," he said. "They all want to contribute to this and help this family out." In 2005, Muffet and other members of Akron's The Chapel, 135 Fir Hill, brought together first responders to travel to Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That effort ended up encompassing a total of 14 months over a three-year period and led to the 2009 creation of Mission USA. The nonprofit also traveled to Haiti in 2010 following the country's catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake with that work leading to construction of a dental clinic. For more information on becoming a volunteer or making a contribution to Mission USA, visit https://missionusa.us. "When you have these kind of big projects, a lot of people say they want to come and help," said Muffet. "What Mission USA does is kind of oversee the whole thing and put the pieces and parts together, to kind of add continuity to everything. We're very glad to get this help from the Four Cities Compact. It's kids helping kids." Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at 330-721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.