CHESAPEAKE — With more than a little bit of help from their friends, there will be major roof repairs to the Chesapeake Community Center soon.

The latest fundraiser for the center brought in just under $3,000 to go toward replacing a section of the old and leaking roof.

Last month a fund-raising spaghetti dinner held at St. Ann’s Church brought in $2,800 for the project.

“It was far above what I was expecting,” Ruth Damron, community center director, said. “We have enough now to put a roof on it, with the help of dedicated friends.”

One of those friends is the father of a karate student who is also an experienced roofer and has offered to volunteer his time and expertise. All the center has to do is pay for the materials.

The heavy snowfalls this winter showed up the fact that the roof needs to be replaced.

“We would like to replace the whole thing,” Damron said.

However, costs have slowed the process with the center planning on replacing it a section at a time. The most severe damage is over the room used for weekly karate lessons for teens and pre-teens.

Just to replace that roof on that section of the building was to cost at least $6,000. However, with the volunteer workers, that cost has been significantly cut.

This past fall, a benefit concert by Howie Damron brought in $1,200 and a Halloween ghost hunt, $600.

Next will be the section off from the staging area where the Community Mission Outreach stores its large freezer used for its weekly food pantry. Cost on that is expected to be around $1,000.

Work on the first leg should start in two weeks.

“We are excited to get this started,” Damron said.