COLUMBIA, S.C. — Home Works of America is a non-profit organization helping senior citizens in South Carolina through "compassionate construction."
Over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, volunteers from Midtown Fellowship provided free home repairs for two local homeowners.
Matt Stroud was one of the site leaders for the repairs.
"Our church Midtown, every year we do a ‘serve the city blitz’ on MLK weekend because we have such a long weekend. We have a few different places that we’re serving. We have a couple of houses that we’re doing with Home Works and so we’ve got about 20 people at each site just doing different repairs on the houses," said Stroud.
JoAnn Davis has lived in her home for over 30 years and was thankful for the repairs.
"I had to be on the waiting list for a year, but they finally got me approved to have work done on my house and I am so thankful and grateful to God and to them and they’re doing a great job. They’re doing things that was very much needed,” Davis said.
Teams primarily worked on fixing the kitchen floor that was caving in and getting Davis new flooring. They also did work to the outside of the house, painting windows and repairing what they could. Stroud said the goal is for the residents to be safe.
Austin Colemen, one of the volunteers, likes seeing the impact of the repairs.
"Even if its something as simple as putting paint on walls that didn’t look as good before. The most important thing is the relationship with people. The people who live in this community are the people that we are in the closest proximity with every day, every week, every month and its important for us to get to know them and kind of branch out of our own circles that we have a little bit. So seeing that impact that it has on them and also making everybody feel more included and more a part of the community,” Colemen said.
“I just think its wonderful and that its God in their hearts that’s making them come out and reach out and give me the help that I need for the repairs on my house," Davis said of the volunteers. "I just think its God in them.”
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Home Works has helped repair almost 3,000 homes with more than 45,000 volunteers since it was founded in 1996. Click here to learn more about this non-profit, including how to receive services.