The house shelters women in difficult situations, but Friday nearly 20 men swarmed around the building, clearing brush, painting walls, pounding nails for a bench and roofing a shed.

Only a female officer and a few female volunteers labored with the 19 male U.S. Coast Guard sailors to fix up the women’s shelter, which is operated by the Clatsop County Women’s Resource Center.

The Coast Guard allowed the sailors to leave work early for the “Day of Caring.”

After only a few hours of work, the workers from the Cutter Steadfast had already painted the interior walls with two coats of white and busted through much of the brush cluttering the backyard.

“I don’t know what else to do,” said Ensign Pat Gallagher as he surveyed a group of three or four men pounding nails to build a wooden bench for seating in a storage room. Workers had already moved most of the items in the storage room into a shed, which was sealed from rain because of a new roof.

“They re-roofed that shed in no time,” women’s center worker Amy Eaton said. “They’re just incredible workers.”

The shelter can house up to four families, if needed, she said. None of the women staying at the shelter were present during the maintenance work.

In a room adjacent to the finished house, General Contractor Tony Biamont and his employees sanded sheet-rock they had recently installed for a small apartment. Grants funded the addition that will house a manager for the shelter, said Women’s Resource Center Director Pat Burness.

Biamont said he’ll finish the apartment next week as Burness begins looking for a person to manage the shelter. The manager’s housing will be free with an estimated $500 stipend, she said. Burness said the ideal manager would be someone who could be flexible with their time, listening and caring for the women and children who spend time at the shelter.

Coast Guard members often volunteer to help the Women’s Resource Center, Burness said. Workdays like these occur throughout the year, but are more frequent during the United Way fundraising campaign, which kicked off Sept. 13 and will run until Nov. 18.

United Way, which contributed about $38,000 to the center last year, hopes to raise $250,000 for the agencies it benefits, said United Way Director Darlene Felkins.