The plans for a shelter house at the Jackson County Learning Center in Seymour had been drawn up, and bids for materials had been sought.

Seymour High School senior Aaron Greathouse had done a lot of work on his community service project and was excited about providing something for the facility that had given him and other students so much.

But on the afternoon of Oct. 18, the 17-year-old was killed in a two-vehicle wreck on County Road 25N in Brownstown.

Not wanting to see all of Greathouse’s work go to waste, learning center officials came together to apply for a grant and ask for donations and volunteers to build the shelter house.

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At the end of April, volunteers from Home Depot and Cornwell Construction, both in Seymour, constructed the shelter house, completed the landscaping and placed a couple of picnic tables. All that’s left to do is pour concrete.

At 5 p.m. May 18, a dedication ceremony is planned for the shelter house, and Greathouse’s family is expected to attend.

A plaque with the quote “A life that touches others goes on forever” will be added to the shelter house.

“It’s kind of a remembrance of him and everyone that comes through here and makes a difference because as he came through here, he was on board to really make a difference in our community and his life and his family,” said Amy Heideman, director of the Jackson County Learning Center.

“This is just one little thing to help make this facility even more useful and help more people make a difference,” she said.

As she recently looked out the back door of the learning center and saw volunteers working, Heideman became a little emotional seeing the shelter house coming together.

She said Greathouse had been a big helper at the center, from cleaning the facility to working on an Oktoberfest parade float.

“He was always just right there on board to help and give ideas. He would bring in materials because his family does construction, so they had leftover materials, and he would bring stuff to help us,” Heideman said.

“He was very caring, very excited about getting everybody on board with the community and showing people what great things we do out here and giving back to everyone here,” she said. “This is exciting to see (the shelter house) is going to happen, and it’s going to help the people here. I’m proud of the community for coming together.”

Robin Cummings, a teacher with Seymour High School’s Community, Opportunity, Responsibility and Education program, said Greathouse had attended the center for two years and was on track to graduate this spring.

She said he had completed his courses early and was working a half-day at Rails Craft Brew and Eatery in downtown Seymour and attending school to finish his work for the math qualification exam. He was on his way to work when the wreck occurred.

At the time, he also was working with Heideman on the recreation area for students and staff of the learning center.

“We watched people sit out there and they would eat their lunch on the porch step. There was just nowhere to be,” Cummings said.

A few years ago, students worked with Seymour High School teacher Jeremy Wischmeier to build picnic tables for the center.

“(People) have been using those, and it has been wonderful, but we needed the shelter house because we would see people on a rainy day or poor weather be in a situation where they needed a little shelter to do that,” Cummings said.

Greathouse completed the design work and bidding for materials and was prepared to apply with the high school to fund the shelter house. But when he was killed in the wreck, that changed how the project was going to come to fruition.

“When we do these community service projects, the students are the lead partner, so he was truthfully and honestly the lead partner on this, and so when we lost him, we lost our lead partner,” Cummings said.

Learning center officials decided to take over, and they applied for a grant from the Home Depot Foundation and sought donations.

The grant and donations were received, allowing volunteers to start working on the 10-foot-by-18-foot shelter house.

Store manager Brandon Ollis and pro desk supervisor Shawn Miskell were among eight employees of The Home Depot in Seymour who helped with landscaping.

The Home Depot Foundation offers veteran housing grants and community impact grants and sorts through applications to select projects to do throughout the year. A sign-up sheet is put up at the store to seek employees to help with each project. Those volunteers are a part of Team Depot.

“It’s just an opportunity for us to give back to the community that helps take care of us,” Ollis said.

Home Depot has a value wheel with eight values, and one part is giving back.

“When you talk about the culture that the Home Depot holds for its associates and its community, it’s really important that we stay involved in what the community is doing out there, and it’s important to us to give the associates an opportunity to really be engaged in that, as well,” Ollis said. “It’s a great avenue.”

Ollis said he found out about the shelter house project after his wife read about it in The Tribune after Greathouse’s death.

“My wife knows about the culture that we have at our company, too, and she said, ‘You need to read this,’” Ollis said. “She handed it to me, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

Miskell, the Team Depot captain for the Seymour store, then met with Cummings to see what volunteers could do to help.

“I had never met Aaron, but just some of the stuff I read about what he was to this particular community, to the Jackson County Learning Center and what he was doing … it was just an opportunity to kind of help the Jackson County Learning Center see that to fruition and really get his vision brought to reality,” Ollis said.

Miskell said he has helped with more than a dozen Team Depot projects over the years and done several projects through his involvement with the Seymour Jaycees.

“It’s just great to work for a company that likes to give back to the community in many different ways,” Miskell said of Home Depot.

“The biggest thing is (the foundation) wants something that’s going to impact and be beneficial to the community in some way, shape or form,” he said. “To see the finished project, especially for somebody that can’t do it themselves now, means a lot to see that through for him.”

Ollis said it was rewarding when the learning center students came out to look at the shelter house as volunteers worked.

“To see what we can do for them, that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “Putting a smile on their face and of course honoring Aaron’s vision on what he was doing there, too, that was a big draw to this to be able to help.”

Cummings said it was great to watch volunteers working on the shelter house.

“I see those flowers out there, I see (Greathouse’s) shelter house, I see the people working and the laughter, and it just reminds me so much of him,” she said. “It’s just one of those things where you can feel the presence of everything that we do here, and it’s not just everything that our CORE program does, but everything that JCLC really does.”

More than once that day, Cummings said, there were tears shed, but they were tears of joy.

“You see Seymour High School students, you see community members, you see college students all pitching together and seeing something like this come about, and that’s really what this facility is like,” she said. “But it’s also what this entire Seymour community is and can be when we come together.”

Cummings was impressed with the finished product.

“This is a beautiful ending to (Greathouse’s) project because he wanted a lot of people involved in the project,” she said. “It’s a lot of partners coming together, and that’s the beauty of any of these community service projects is that everyone finds that it takes an entire community to really support and take care of one another. It’s because of the heart of the community that this has come about.”

Seymour High School junior Tre Perry said he knew Greathouse for a couple of years, and they spent a lot of time together.

“He was like a brother to me,” Perry said. “He liked fishing a lot, and he cared about other people.”

Perry said Greathouse talked about the shelter house project a lot. He said Greathouse would be excited to know the shelter house came together.

Any time someone sees or uses the shelter house, Perry said, he wants them to think about Greathouse.

“They’ll remember Aaron and what he has done for this community,” Perry said. “They’ll sit out there and know it’s his idea, and he’s still here.”

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A dedication ceremony for the Jackson County Learning Center’s new shelter house is set for 5 p.m. Wednesday behind the facility at 323 Dupont Drive, Seymour.

Seymour High School senior Aaron Greathouse had done the design and bidding work for the shelter house, but he died in a wreck in October.

The community came together to ensure the shelter house was constructed.

Greathouse’s family plans to attend the dedication ceremony.

Also that day at the center, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., there will be a celebration of graduates and tours of the facility.

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