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Andy Kinyon was going to take a vacation in Mexico in the winter 2004. As a union painter, that’s the time of year he usually had the time off, and he had the money saved and ready to go. Then the cataclysmic tsunami, set off by an underwater earthquake near Indonesia, rocked the Pacific Rim. After learning of the news and the scope of the devastation, Kinyon changed his plans.
“I said, I’ll just go there and see what I can do,” said Kinyon, who traveled to Thailand to try to help with the recovery. “It just changed everything.” The Murphys resident hasn’t had a conventional vacation since then. Kinyon, 53, spends as much spare time as he can volunteering for disaster relief efforts around the world with the organization All Hands. “I’d love to be able to do it three or four weeks a year,” he said. Kinyon most recently spent six weeks in the Philippines, helping to restore housing in villages devastated by a typhoon that killed 1,000 people and left 50,000 homeless. He worked there through much of February and March, shoveling mud out of flooded homes, demolishing buildings that couldn’t be repaired and stacking cinderblocks for new residential units. Before that, he spent more than six months in Biloxi, Miss., helping with the rebuild effort after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said that was the project that really hooked him — working with crews made up of volunteers of all ages, from all parts of the country. While there, he met then-President George W. Bush whom he showed a memento he made and placed at the front of his tent while working — a mailbox with “Dubbya” written across the side. A skilled painter since age 17, Kinyon said he knows his way around a construction site. He’s sometimes tapped to lead groups while on a project, though he said he often prefers getting his hands on the job as opposed to directing workers. “I don’t want to say it’s God-driven, but working for money is one thing. It’s different to say I got five families back in their home,” he said. His connection with All Hands started with his first project. When he arrived in Thailand, he was directed to the organization which was on the ground early. The U.S.-based organization has grown since then and has worked dozens of rebuilding and disaster-aid projects around the world. A 15-year Murphys resident, Kinyon moved to the area from Los Gatos. His first visit to the town was in 1988, when he saw the Charlie Daniels Band in concert at the Bret Harte Center, and enjoyed the small-town atmosphere. His daughter, Andi, 22, lives with him in Murphys, and has also been working on projects with All Hands since before she was 18. Her first trip was in Biloxi, where she ended up staying past the two weeks they initially planned, and she also spent time in Haiti after the disastrous earthquake in 2010. Kinyon says it’s something the two of them can share, as he didn’t get to spend as much time with his daughter as he had wished while she grew up. For Andi, it’s been a source of perspective. “Seeing people with literally nothing but the shirt on their back just blew my mind,” she said. Though he’s been around the world, Kinyon’s still working on mastering some technology — Andi sometimes has to help him navigate the Internet on his home computer. He said he’s aware of his age when he goes to project sites with All Hands, and not just because most of the volunteers are students or in their 20s. He said the most recent trip to the Philippines was probably the most challenging, since the humid weather sapped his energy on top of the labor. “At the end of the day, I would just want to die. They (the other volunteers) just wanted to play soccer,” he said. But even though he’s eyeing retirement, don’t expect him to start taking leisurely jaunts to Hawaii any time soon. “These are my vacations,” Kinyon said. “Just put a hammer in my hand. At the end of the day, you’re hot, you’re sweaty and you’ve had the time of your life.” |