When a historic shrine in rural Missouri lost the funding it needed to cover electrical upgrades, IBEW volunteers from St. Louis Local 1’s Retirees’ Club eagerly stepped up to help.

“They helped prove that the drive to be of service in the IBEW doesn’t end with retirement,” said Local 1 Business Manager Frank Jacobs.

The Black Madonna Shrine near Pacific, Mo., was built by Bronislaus Luszcz, who was part of a delegation of Franciscan missionaries invited in 1927 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis to establish and operate a nursing home.

Between 1937 and his death in 1960, Brother Bronislaus constructed an open-air pavilion chapel near the home, as well as several grottoes around the property dedicated to historic Christian figures.

“I’ve heard about the shrine my whole life,” said Local 1 Retirees’ Club President Matt Lampe. “He did it all himself. All these stone walls, shrines — everything. It’s really cool.”

Above the chapel’s altar is the centerpiece of the shrine, a depiction of a centuries-old Polish icon of Mary. The icon is called “The Black Madonna” because its varnish has gradually darkened over the years, giving Mary’s skin a deep chestnut color.

“People from all across the country, when they’re coming through St. Louis, they make it a point to stop and visit the shrine,” said project leader Jim Schario, a Local 1 retiree and active Catholic.

Although the shrine “is way off any highway,” Lampe said, it rapidly became a center of religious devotion and a tourist attraction.

“When I was 11 or 12 years old, we went on one of our camporees out there,” Schario said.

Last year, when Schario learned that the shrine needed some electrical work, the 71-year-old journeyman wireman, who retired in 2013 after nearly 40 years of active IBEW membership, spoke with Jacobs and Lampe about what Local 1 could do to help.

“They also wanted some lighting done so that they could have more evening events,” Lampe said. “I think whatever funding they were getting got cut.”

Jacobs was enthusiastic about the project, Schario said.

“Frank said that we probably couldn’t ask anybody during the day to work on it,” he recalled. “But he thought it’d be wonderful if retirees headed it up, and it just blossomed from there.”

Schario, who spent the first half of his IBEW career working the tools before becoming a full-time instructor at the St. Louis Electrical Industry Training Center, eagerly tackled the project.

“I went out there several times, planning and organizing exactly who could do what,” he said. “I forgot how enormous it was.”

Local 1 signatory contractors Guarantee Electric and Liberty Electric donated supplies such as lamps and switches, as well as the use of scaffolds and ladders.

Then in August, Schario, Lampe and six other Retirees’ Club members set out for the shrine and quickly got to work.

“We upgraded the alcove lighting in some of the grottoes, and we added all the receptacles that they needed,” Schario said. “We went ahead and ran all the conduit for the new lights, and we also installed some really nice industrial ceiling fans.”

The volunteers were thorough, Lampe said: “We added a few circuits, and we got them all hooked up with switches and everything.”

Schario made sure every volunteer could participate safely.

“Some of these guys are near 80 years old, so you want them on the ground,” he said. “They wanted to contribute wherever they could.”

By the end of the day, every punchlist item had been completed.

“All these fellows that volunteered, they have a good heart and soul,” Schario said. “They feel like they did something good.”

Lampe, who retired in 2018 after 41 years of active IBEW membership, including 13 years as a Local 1 business representative, agreed.

“Some of the guys have been retired for a couple years, and some for eight or 10 years or more,” he said. “We had a lot of good electricians out there. It was a good day, it was a fun day, and we helped them out immensely.”

The Retirees’ Club president also noted that Mike Scully, the shrine’s director, was pleased.

“He said they might have some more stuff for us to do in the future,” Lampe said. “We told him, ‘Just give us a call, and we’ll get back out here.’”

Lampe is proud of how Local 1’s Retirees’ Club remains so active.

“We get like 80 to 90 guys at our meetings every other month, and we’re getting more and more as guys retire,” he said. “I try to get speakers at every meeting that are relevant to us.”

Lampe, the club’s president for the past four years, makes it a point to invite Jacobs and other Local 1 leaders to speak at the meetings, along with experts on Social Security and health care, as well as representatives from other building trades unions. The club also arranges a host of activities, from parties and golf tournaments to baseball game bus trips.

“We’ve got some older guys that are very active still,” Lampe said, “and the younger retirees, they all pitch in, too.”

Schario believes staying active with the IBEW after retirement is important.

“Even around the country, when retirees can get together and volunteer, I think that’s really a nice gesture,” he said.