“You’ve got to have something to do to pass time,” says retired neighborhood resident Leslie Hayes. “And you’ve got to have fun doing it.”

So Hayes makes birdhouses in his garage – lots of birdhouses.

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Once a month, he takes at least 50 birdhouses to a small, back-country shop called Catfish Haven, located on Highway 849 enroute to Lindale, Texas, where they are sold for $10 each.

Hayes also keeps Garrison Gardens stocked with his birdhouses. He also sells them from his house and gives away 10-20 birdhouses a month to people he thinks might need one, he says.

Hayes then takes the proceeds and gives it to the Highlands Christian Church Men’s Project Fund. The fund contributes to different community causes, such as church memorial and disaster victim funds and education needs.

Hayes says he doesn’t do this all by himself. He has help from other men in his church, who routinely bring him scrapwood they’ve gathered in the neighborhood.

“You can’t do anything like this by yourself and do it right,” Hayes says. “It’s a group effort.”

The scrapwood birdhouses have a basic, square design with two slanted roof tops meeting each other at the tip of the house. The rustic-looking houses either have a cross propped on the top of a small, square house or a smooth outline of the peak of a church resting on the bird dwelling. Hayes received a Christmas card several years ago that he uses as the model for the church building.

Many people use the houses for ornamental fixtures in their house rather than prop them outside for birds to nest in, says Hayes’ wife, Lenora. (The couple has been married for 52 years. Lenora’s maiden name is Merriman – Merriman Park Elementary – and her mother’s maiden name was Wallace – Wallace Elementary.)

It takes the 77-year-old Hayes one day to cut the wood for 25 birdhouses and only five minutes to put a house together, once the wood has been cut.

Hayes makes other wood creations such as nail puzzles, reindeer, magnets, folding stools, recipe holders and card holders, with all of the sales proceeds donated to the Men’s Project.

Hayes, who worked as an engineer technician at Texas Instruments for 25 years, says he loves his hobby and the fact that it touches so many people.

“Everyone knows where the money is going – it’s going for a good cause,” Hayes says. “But there’s more to it than money.”

For information about the birdhouses or the Highlands Christian Church Men’s Project, call 214-348-8929.