Volunteers from miles around help in 'house-raising' project
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
A dozen or so volunteers have spent most of the summer replacing the home of Hamilton Branch Pres. Rex Avery and his wife, Mae. The branch is in the Bessemer Alabama Stake.
Several day-long service projects have brought volunteers from more than 100 miles away to this small city located in northwestern Alabama to help a family rebuild their home after it burned down earlier this year.Most of the volunteers have been members, but, as in a July 15 plumbing project, non-member neighbors of the Averys took part, too, said project organizer Elder Howard G. Hall, who is serving in the Alabama Birmingham Mission with his wife, Raona. The Halls are from Yuba City, Calif.
"Two young people both non-membersT showed up looking for work on July 15T," Elder Hall said. "I said, `This is volunteer work - we don't pay anything, but we have plenty to do. They the young menT got there early and worked the whole day."
This was the sixth volunteer day organized by Elder Hall. This "house-raising" effort has drawn community support and made people more receptive to the missionaries, Elder Hall said.
Work on the home began May 27 when members from the Bessemer Alabama Stake and the Averys' non-member neighbors and friends, including U.S. Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), turned out to help put up the framing of the Avery home. Starting at 7 a.m., the crews had the home roughed in by 6 p.m. and ready for exterior finishing. Thunderstorms forecast for the day never arrived, allowing workers to finish the roofing and put on brick veneer before dark.
The real heart-stealer of the day was 9-year-old Donny Jamal Wallace, a non-member neighbor, who worked daylight to dark hammering nails with his father, James.
