IRMO, S.C. — Brandi Clarkson and Wade De Loach of Irmo have teamed up to help fellow community members who may be down on their luck.
"I had a neighbor who got an abatement notice who had two days to fix her yard, and so that kind of made me think ‘what can we do to help our neighbors?’" Clarkson shares, "and you can’t revitalize a community with ordinances- you can only do that by helping your neighbors."
Clarkson got with De Loach and gathered a group of volunteers and took care of her neighbors yard. "And that was the beginning of Handy Hands."
De Loach shares his personal reason for helping out, "When you get out and start helping people and they realize that there are others that care and are gonna help me out of a bad situation. I know what its like to be down and I’ve been there when I didn’t know where my next lunch was gonna come from so I know what its like. I think people that are like that’s been through hard times realize what its like and can help others out in the same situation they were in once.”
Helping people in their own community also means a lot to them. "“To me it means the future for the town as it grows in a positive way," says De Loach, "I mean its easy to find fault in anybody, anything, anywhere but to show a little kindness out here and you’ll start thinking there is some good things in Irmo and this is apart of it.”
Currently, the group is in its early stages and is in need of volunteers. They have a waiting list of people they would like to help out but need more people to get it all done.
To get more information about volunteering you can contact Wade De Loach on Facebook while the group works to get a website together for easier contact.