Using their hands and muscles and kicking up a lot of dust, Joe McCroskey and two other men yank an old wood panel off the wall, then poke and prod the plaster behind it with tools and even a wire coat hanger.

Standing in a large room in the St. Andrews Center, the Brainerd Kiwanis Club members assessed the work needed to remodel what will become a display area for local children.

“Every year we send out letters to different charities and ask them what projects they have that we can work on,” said Mr. McCroskey. “We always look for something that’s going to benefit the children.”

Throughout the history of the St. Andrews Center, individual vounteers and organizations have come together to maintain the century-old building that houses more than 20 agencies that work with underserved communities, including La Paz de Dios, La Plaza Comunitaria and a free children’s clinic.

Marinus Ray said he was immediately attracted to the St. Andrews Center to do his senior year and Eagle Scouts project. He said he grew up in a family that is driven by community service.

“There are so many things this center does that help the community’s poor,” said the 16-year-old, who’s graduating this month from the Hamilton County Middle College High School at Chattanooga State Technical Community College.

Last year, the Chattanooga Matters Leadership 21 class, a program for people 23 to 35 and centered on the biblical worldview of life and servant leadership, also chose the St. Andrews Center for their class project. Members painted and rearranged a meeting room and turned it into the Common Grounds coffee shop/bookstore.

The St. Andrew’s Center is an ecumenical cooperative that started in 2004 after the St. Andrews United Methodist Church voted to close because of declining membership.

Its mission, according to its Web site, is “to provide educational, social, cultural, economic and spiritual growth opportunities to the Chattanooga community and to provide a home for other nonprofit agencies with missions in harmony with its own.”

The Rev. Mike Feely, executive director of the St. Andrews Center, said since its inception, the center has drawn interest from “individuals and groups with different levels of expertise, coming in and helping us with all sort of things.”

Next to the room assessed last week by the Brainerd Kiwanis Club, a group of UPS managers were fixing the future offices of La Paz de Dios, an organization working with the Hispanic community that also is housed in the St. Andrews Center.

The UPS managers come to Chattanooga for about a month to participate in the company’s Community Intern Program, where they learn about diversity and the disadvantaged by working with various social agencies.

The work of volunteers at St. Andrews is why it still exists, Mr. Feely said.

“For us, it has meant the difference between being a place that could barely get by to being a place where maybe folks could flourish a little bit (just) because of the work that has been done,” he said. “It has made it a more physically attractive place, and we are deeply appreciative.”