AFTER another busy bee clean up, local resident Barbara Bracken wants to thank everyone who has helped her efforts to restore the Metricup church.
Built as one of the £100 ($200) churches in the region by Les Harding in 1935, the St John the Baptist Anglican Church was constructed through the efforts of locals, and financial sponsorship from English-based organisation, the Confraternity of Divine Love.
The church served the community in a time when Metricup was a settlement in its own right, and retains historical and cultural significance to the area as the social focus of the Metricup settlement groups at the time.
Barbara and her husband Bernie set to work restoring the building and grounds a few years ago, shortly after Barbara was struck down by two aneurisms, which put her in a coma for several weeks, and required surgery and some long hospital stays.
“People ask me why I do this now – it’s because I have a lot to be thankful for,” Barbara said of her work on the church.
After a call for help in the restoration, donations and assistance flooded in, and the pair was able to repair the church vestry, ceiling and toilets, plus paint and clean the church, with the Lions Club of Cowaramup painting the outside walls at their own expense.
Most recently the couple repainted the bus stop on Bussell Highway to match the burgundy church roof.
Last year Barbara won a Tidy Towns Special Commendation for her work on the church.
“Its a little group settlement church now, which is what it was built for,” she said.
“Everyone has been wonderful.
“I want to thank people for getting behind me – for the work using the chainsaw, moving the logs, the heavy things – I can’t do that on my own, they helped me in so many ways. I’m a very lucky lady.”
Barbara’s letter of thanks can be found on page 15.
Services are held at the Metricup Church at 10am on the fourth Sunday of each month.
