Volunteers from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Oxford brought a whole new look to a boys dormitory at Crossroads for Youth on Oct. 8.

Consisting of over 50 volunteers and parish members, the group dedicated nearly 12 hours to the Boys Center as part of their annual “Extreme Home Makeover” project, which aims to improve organizations in the Oxford/Lake Orion communities each fall.

The group brought donations of furniture to the home, including new bookcases, bean bag chairs, a basketball hoop, a flat-screen television, dishes, and a refrigerator.

They also spruced up the landscape outside the facility by planting flowers, mowing the lawn and cleaning up the picnic table.

“I’ve never seen anything quite this extensive done before. We’ve always had a wonderful connection with St. Joe’s church. I’ve worked here over 20 years and they’ve done so much for us… but this was above and beyond anything we’ve ever seen them do. It was amazing,” said Crossroads Programs & Training Director Karen Gully.

Crossroads for Youth is a private, nonprofit treatment agency that serves at-risk children and youth.

The upgrades were well received by the boys who live there, according to Gully.

“The kids were so excited. They came back and were running around room to room. On Monday morning, I went in there and one of the boys said ‘Look at the living room. It looks like a real living room!’ and I said ‘It is a real living room!’ And then he showed me they left Dawn dishwashing detergent. That meant a lot to him. They just couldn’t run around fast enough looking at everything and touching everything,” said Gully with a chuckle.

According to St. Joseph Christian Service Coordinator Colleen Schultz, the parish was able to raise $300 in cash donations and countless dollars in gift cards towards the project through fundraising efforts.

“I’m hoping that it shows them that there are people in the world that care about them and they, too, are children of God and (that) people love them,” Schultz said.

Schultz thanked Meijer in Oxford for providing 12 matching sheet and comforter sets towards the project.

Many volunteers from the St. Joseph team plan to return to Crossroads for Youth later this month to renovate Adams House West, a neighboring youth residential building, according to Schultz.