BLOOMINGTON — On Saturday morning, instead of relaxing or spending time with their families, five local electrical workers decided to rewire Wayman African Methodist Episcopal on Bloomington’s west side.

The entire church.

“What they’re doing is absolutely amazing,” said Rev. Elexis Wilson Thomas. “It’s God’s work to say, ‘There is a need. Let us fulfill it with the skills and the graces that God has given us.’ So, it means the world.”

Members of the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus (EWMC) within IBEW Local 197 donated their labor, and the union itself donated thousands of dollars’ worth of new conduit, wiring, outlets, junction boxes and pretty much everything else for the project, said Ahmad Manns, president of the caucus.

“I could be working right now,” he said. “But, you know, we all just come together for the purpose of bettering the community.”

Wayman, located on the corner of Olive and Allin streets, is one of the oldest church communities in the Twin Cities, and it holds service in one of the oldest buildings around, being built almost 200 years ago, Wilson Thomas said.

The building was in desperate need of an electrical upgrade, said Marty Lane, whose parents regularly attend services at Wayman.

Lane, who operates WYSE food pantry out of her garage at her home on Market Street, has lived on Bloomington’s west side her whole life and has always been an advocate for positive change in the west side’s neighborhoods, she said.

Lane got in touch with Manns. “I sent him the pictures, and I’m like, we need to get this done ASAP,” Lane said. “And he was like, ‘I agree.'”

The electrical infrastructure of the church was outdated, crowded and was potentially dangerous, Manns said.

“It was definitely a hazard, you know, slip trip, fall,” he said. “And then also, too, having so much on one circuit. We didn’t want it to be getting overloaded. … It could trip down the basement, possibility of fire.”

Lane has known Manns since he was a young man, she said, and the two were already planning a service project. Manns, a traveling electrician, had the idea to create his own chapter of the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus late last year after working with another union’s caucus, Lane said.

Their objective is “promote equity, equal opportunity employment for minorities and underrepresented workers in all levels of IBEW structure,” Manns said. They also “encourage workers to be greater activists in the community,” he said.

With that in mind, EWMC members at IBEW 197 have been volunteering with Lane at WYSE food pantry, she said.

“He also found out that they have a day of service that they do every year on November 22,” she said. They were not able to put something together in time for that deadline, though, Lane said. So, she decided to up the ante.

“We got back together just — because I am who I am, I’m like, ‘Well, you owe me a whole year because you’re late,'” she said, laughing.

They decided to call the project Light Up the West Side, Lane said, “fixing porch lights, a switch that doesn’t work, a light bulb that needs to be changed that’s too high for people to reach, wiring a Ring Doorbell … more lights, more cameras, whatever — free of charge.”

To that end, WYSE food pantry has been raising money for supplies, and the EWMC has started a GoFundMe.

But the work at Wayman was not initially planned, because it was not initially known, Lane said.

“It was an emergency to me,” said Lane, who is a retired emergency room nurse. “Emergency is kind of my thing, you know. That’s why we do emergency food and emergency electrical issues,” she said.

The work that Lane and Manns are putting into the west side is rebuilding community and tearing down barriers, Wilson Thomas said.

“We get to see where our community is not divided, but we’re unified. … We’re now together, working together to build each other up in the best way possible,” she said.

And for the folks in EWMC, that’s the whole point, Manns said.

“This is what it’s about. I mean, this is what we’re passionate about,” he said. “We want to get out in the community. We want to be active, and we want to give back.”