MARSHALL — Aaron Valdez, a longtime client of Marshall Advance, spent the past few months building birdhouses. Valdez, a disabled adult, watched as the birdhouses were installed at Garvin Park Tuesday morning with the help of Lyon County Environmental Services.

“This is one of the most beautiful stories ever, because it is the culmination of everything we’ve been trying to do over the past, at least, 10 years,” Advance Chief Operating Officer Elizabeth Schear said. “It’s been a continuous evolution.”

Advance works directly with individuals that have intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities seeking employment and day support services through a collaboration of community connections.

“We’re not a residential facility, we are a day program. We provide the connection for people with disabilities in and among the community,” Schear said. “We focus on employment, and that’s where this [project] with the bird houses comes in.”

Valdez, alongside Advance employees Kylie Peterson and Ashton Stahl, first came up with the idea to build birdhouses because of Valdez’s deep love for birds.

“I have a bird feeder and bird bath, and I take care of my birds,” Valdez said, who has four pet birds.

Valdez, Peterson and Stahl started by painting birdhouses at Advance, before meeting with the Lyon County Environment services to set up an employment opportunity to build some of his own.

“It was a lot of problem solving, and a lot of trying to figure out what worked best,” Stahl said. “Once he [Valdez] got the hang of them … He got 10 of them done in a week.”

“His [Valdez’s] right hand has a hard time using [tools] and maneuvering, so using a hammer was kind of hard for him … We actually ended up buying a brad nailer, and that’s how these ones all got put together,” Stahl added about the building process. “We probably did six or seven practice ones before we started building them … We worked out all the kinks that we were having.”

The county bought all 20 birdhouses Valdez made to be set up around Lyon County Parks, the first two of which went to Garvin Park that he got to watch be put up in person with the help of Spencer Kor and Jon Maeyaert from Lyon County Environmental.

Valdez spent the past few months working on the houses, starting around December. They also found locally-resourced wood for the project.

“It started with Aaron, because Aaron’s got an infatuation with birds. Originally when this started, we were going to build a birdhouse to go outside of Advance … He started by painting the ones that we ordered, then it built off of that,” Stahl said. “I kind of talked about, ‘Well, is there a need for that community?’ And then we reached out to [Lyon County Environmental Services] … [They] gave us some different plans for bluebird houses that we could build.”

Although the birdhouses are built and being installed with the hope to revitalize the bluebird population in Lyon County, Maeyaert mentioned the houses could also welcome other bird species around the area.

Another highlight of the morning for Valdez was using an action Trackchair for the first time, courtesy of Garvin Park, which allowed him to travel through grass and gravel around the park.

Action Trackchairs are motorized wheelchairs that are suitable for outdoor and recreational activities.

Advance, which has a site in Marshall, serves people from a variety of surrounding counties.

“We make connections wherever we can for just normal community, day-to-day activities. Then, people make connections, and find similarities in their likes, interests and skills, and they start developing those relationships,” Schear said. “We’re just at another one of those pivotal moments where the opportunity is right … Look at this [Valdez’s birdhouse project]. We’ve had great community involvement, and huge support.”

Valdez also talked with Maeyaert and Kor about future project possibilities, brainstorming other types of birdhouses the county may be interested in.

“This evolves into more, because you might like wrestling, or horses or who knows, and then we find somebody [to partner with],” Schear said of Advance. “Isn’t that how life works for everybody? It’s just who you know, find something in common, and off you go.”