By Clark Judge
(August 26, 2024) — It’s not often someone refers to a three-day roofing job as a “weird, cosmic thing,” but then you weren’t at Deer Lake recently when roofers installed Vermont quarried slate on a chapel overlooking the camp’s lagoon.
I know … thrilling, right? To contractor Mike Young it was … and when you hear his story, you’ll understand why.
You see, it wasn’t the first time Young worked on the chapel. He’d done it back in 1985 when, as a 15-year-old Boy Scout with Madison’s Troop 499, he helped repair the building as part of his Eagle Scout project. He and a handful of others were able to find donated materials, re-support the framing, replace the roofing and complete the project.
“Took us two days,” Young said.
That was 39 years ago. In the interim, Young went on to attend the University of Utah, travel the world, get married, help raise two children and start a local business called Connecticut Roofcrafters. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Cathy Iino sometimes summoned Roofcrafters for local repairs when she served twelve years as Killingworth’s First Selectwoman.
And that’s where our story takes a sharp U-turn.
Because it was Iino who brought Young back to the roof of the Deer Lake chapel nearly four decades after he last stepped off. As a board member with Pathfinders, Inc., the non-profit that bought the property, Iino thought of him when the organization sought to update the A-framed structure – this time in response to a monetary gift from the Killingworth Ambulance Association in memory of Ranger Mark Clifton.
Clifton, a fixture at Deer Lake for forty years and former president of the KAA, passed away last year.
When the KAA approached his widow, Patty Clifton, and asked how it could best honor her husband, she suggested improving the chapel. Their son was married there. Their grandchildren were baptized there. The ashes of Clifton’s mother are scattered there. And Clifton’s memorial service was held there. So it seemed a natural choice.
“It’s a special place,” Patty said.
Enter Mike Young. Again.
As he recalls, Iino contacted him about two months ago to see if he’d be interested in re-roofing the building. Now, keep in mind, she knew nothing of his connection to Deer Lake. Nor did she know that his grandfather years ago donated a Farmall tractor that’s still there. She simply thought he might want to donate his time.
He did. But he wanted to offer more. An emotional Young not only said he was interested in the job; he told her would do it at no cost for labor or materials.
“And he said, ‘My heart is full,’ “ Iino said.
Nothing has changed since.
“The universe blessed me enough to give me the opportunity to come back and see this again as a roofing contractor,” Young said, standing in front of the chapel. “We used to camp here regularly – sometimes monthly – and there were six or seven of us. We had a supervisor with us, and there were four of us nailing shingles.
“I was very proud of what we did. But this … this is a weird, cosmic thing. When Cathy called, I was almost in tears … for real. I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing was electric. I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding, Cathy. You have no idea of the history.’ “
She does now. And so do you.
“It’s as if something magical happened,” she said.
Funny, but Young used that same word to describe the experience, and why not? Though he lives locally – not far, in fact, from Deer Lake – he said his visit to the chapel this week was his first in “many, many years.” So many, in fact, that he had to clarify his response.
“More like decades,” he said. “You have to understand: This is huge. I was camping all through these woods and hiking. So this … this is magical. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman, and this is where I cut my teeth. This is the place that really sparked a lifelong interest, and all those memories … all of them come back when I look at this.
“We would pick the coldest weekend of every year, and, as a Scouts group, would call it ‘Our Deep Freeze Camp Out.’ We were the only ones here, and we’d go out, freeze all night, and then run around all day long. It was just young men having a remarkable adventure. And now … well, now it’s full circle.”
Workers completed the job when they laid their last piece of slate, which is the exclamation point to this story. Originally, there was talk of putting down a new layer of asphalt shingles. But then Young entered the scene, said he had a better idea and introduced a truckload of New England slate … again, at no cost.
“This is a product that’s stone” Young said, “so it should last at least a hundred years. When I heard about the asphalt shingles, I said, ‘Why are we going to do that when we have the opportunity to do this once and be done with it?’
“I cannot believe how the universe saw fit to have me back on site here … all these years later … with all the decisions … all the choices … all the adventures later that come back. It’s kismet. It really is.”
Photos by Clark Judge
