A legally blind Mother of three witnessed a miracle at the hands of so many Valley residents. After a home improvement went drastically wrong, she was left with a house that literally had a hole in the roof allowing all the winter snow and freezing rain to enter her home which cause mold to overtake her entire home.
Compassionate Community Services, Inc. had been helping Laura meet her everyday needs by providing food for the family etc. Kim Chernecky, Executive Director of CCS had nominated Laura’s house for the ABC Extreme Home Makeover show but she was not selected.
I remember like it was yesterday, Doris Burdo, a SHELTON resident called Valley United Way’s Volunteer Center to say that she was interested in Volunteering. After a nice conversation with Doris, she said that her husband was a contractor and he was very interested in doing a little volunteering as well.
Being aware as I was about Laura’s need for a new roof, I asked if he would be willing to go and take a look at her house. Frank Burdo, I’ll call him “Saint Frank”, said sure he would go and take a look at it. Frank immediately saw the enormous urgent need and set up another time for he and his brother to go back over to the house and build something that would al least stop the rain, snow and elements from entering her house. It worked! I remember Frank saying to me that her house was in catastrophic condition and that she needed a new roof. It was also very apparent that the mold was out of control and the smell had penetrated her entire home to the point that it was unhealthy for Laura and her three children to remain living there.
Just at the same time a few neighbors stopped bye to see if they could help and Laura told them to call me because as Valley United Way’s Volunteer Director my role was to assist non profit agencies if they had a need for Volunteers … I met Kim Chernecky and the need for Volunteers to help was quite clear from the start.
We rapidly spiraled into a speed that was like none that I had ever seen before! The next thing that happened was a meeting at VUW for everyone who was interested in volunteering. The CORE group of Laura’s Volunteers emerged…we had begun the task that would take nearly 10 months to complete from beginning to end… (More to come on Monday with more pictures…. )
Compassionate Community Services, Inc. had been helping Laura meet her everyday needs by providing food for the family etc. Kim Chernecky, Executive Director of CCS had nominated Laura’s house for the ABC Extreme Home Makeover show but she was not selected.
I remember like it was yesterday, Doris Burdo, a SHELTON resident called Valley United Way’s Volunteer Center to say that she was interested in Volunteering. After a nice conversation with Doris, she said that her husband was a contractor and he was very interested in doing a little volunteering as well.
Being aware as I was about Laura’s need for a new roof, I asked if he would be willing to go and take a look at her house. Frank Burdo, I’ll call him “Saint Frank”, said sure he would go and take a look at it. Frank immediately saw the enormous urgent need and set up another time for he and his brother to go back over to the house and build something that would al least stop the rain, snow and elements from entering her house. It worked! I remember Frank saying to me that her house was in catastrophic condition and that she needed a new roof. It was also very apparent that the mold was out of control and the smell had penetrated her entire home to the point that it was unhealthy for Laura and her three children to remain living there.
Just at the same time a few neighbors stopped bye to see if they could help and Laura told them to call me because as Valley United Way’s Volunteer Director my role was to assist non profit agencies if they had a need for Volunteers … I met Kim Chernecky and the need for Volunteers to help was quite clear from the start.
We rapidly spiraled into a speed that was like none that I had ever seen before! The next thing that happened was a meeting at VUW for everyone who was interested in volunteering. The CORE group of Laura’s Volunteers emerged…we had begun the task that would take nearly 10 months to complete from beginning to end… (More to come on Monday with more pictures…. )
NEVER DOUBT THAT A SMALL GROUP OF THOUGHTFUL COMMITTED CITIZENS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD; INDEED, IT IS THE ONLY THINK THAT EVER HAS.
For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.
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