Category Archives: Good People

Nice Article on Labor of Love

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Kim Underwood wrote a nice article for the Winston-Salem Journal about TAA's Labor of Love project at The Children's Home.  As I wrote before, this is one of the most amazing projects I've ever been involved with and I think the article really helps explain why:

The cottage is needed because last Sept. 1, the Children's Home took over the operation of Opportunity House, a nine-bed emergency shelter for young people on Brookstown Avenue. The shelter had been run by the Youth Opportunities organization.

"The intention from Day One was to move that facility on campus," said George Bryan, the president and chief executive of the Children's Home…

When the Children Home agreed to take over the shelter, Bryan estimated that it could take $150,000 to renovate the 10,000-square-foot Stultz Cottage. With no money available, immediate action wasn't possible.

Along came Marc Crouse, a member of the apartment association who volunteers at the home and is in the process of adopting a young person who has been living there. When he approached Bryan about the association doing something at the home for this year's "Labor of Love" project, Bryan thought that fixing up the cottage for the program would be just the thing.

"From the first, we are considering this a miracle," Bryan said.

Labor of Love is a True Highlight

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This weekend was the kick off for a project that I'm already sure will be one of the highlights of my career.  The organization I work for, Triad Apartment Association, is doing it's annual Labor of Love project and this year it really is audacious.  We're taking on a three story building at The Children's Home that has been vacant for over 25 years and fixing it up so that it can be used to house children that the Home serves.  The project includes cleaning and painting every room, installing new carpet, replacing outlets and light switches, repairing all plumbing fixtures, re-glazing all bathroom tiles, replacing/repairing floor tiles, repairing and refinishing a parquet floor, removing an interior wall from one room, installing new appliances, installing 9 new ceiling fans, repairing exterior woodwork, providing new furniture and installing new landscaping. What makes it so incredibly rewarding is that all of the materials, time and money have been donated by companies and individuals involved with TAA, and even more remarkably, people in the community who somehow heard about it and volunteered to help.

We're getting all this done in four days, Feb 12-13 and 19-20, which you'd think would be impossible until you consider that on the 12th we had over 70 people show up to help and on the 13th we had over 90. We're expecting just as many, if not more, next weekend.  We had so many people that we had enough to go out and do other projects on The Children's Home grounds.  

One of our volunteers is a woman who grew up at The Children's Home and lived in the building that we're working on.  I can't even describe the feeling of standing in a room with her as she painted a window and told a story about her first night at the Home spent in that very room and how it changed her life.  It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

There aren't words appropriate enough to describe what all of these volunteers have given The Children's Home, so to those of you who have participated please accept these humble words: Thank you! If you would like to help with The Labor of Love you still can and please feel free to shoot me an email if you're interested.  Otherwise there is always a need for volunteers at The Children's Home and there's plenty of information on how to help at their website. 

All Lives Have Equal Value

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You can read Bill Gates' 2010 Annual Letter for the Bil & Melinda Gates Foundation here.  It's broken into 12 sections which you will find below.  Personally I really like the line at the top of every page: "All Lives Have Equal Value"

Helping Mrs. C’s Class

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A friend of ours teaches special needs children in a high poverty school here in Winston-Salem.  She's signed up on DonorsChoose.org to raise a couple of hundred dollars for some equipment she needs for her class.  Here's the description:

"I teach middle school students with moderate intellectual cognitive disabilities, mild physical disabilities and/or mild to moderate autistic tendencies. My 30 students are unable to read grade leveled materials but LOVE to read. My program's number one goal is to get my students to become readers and writers and most importantly to LOVE SCHOOL!

We graduated to middle school but all of our technology was left behind!!! I moved up to the middle school with my students, however, with budget cuts there is no money for my "new classroom". During their elementary years, my students had daily access to specialized computer programs, adaptive hardware and the opportunity to learn computer applications in a small group setting. This year, we have are not so lucky. My goal is to have my students write, edit and publish self created books weekly. Due to the numerous physical and cognitive limitations of my students, they need to write books at a pre-K level and read books presented in a variety of formats, ranging from paper to computer. I am in need of materials to save and print student created PowerPoint books. Some of my students are capable of paper copies, however, others will need to read their books on their home computers and will need a way of "bringing home" their published work. Once home, my students will be able to share their love of books with their families.

I am in need of paper, computer ink, book binding combs and several thumb drives. With these materials, my students will be able to participate in a weekly literacy lesson which will produce a book that is not only accessible, but interesting and appropriate for all of my students with moderate cognitive delays.

MY STUDENTS NEED YOU!! With your support, you will give my students access to the world of literature.

My students need two reams of paper, computer ink, book binding combs, and four memory sticks. The cost of this proposal is $256, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment ."

You can contribute here. 

Help Second Harvest

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Second Harvest is in dire need of food and financial donations.  Check out Life in Forsyth for some info, as well as WXII's story on the record shortage that Second Harvest is enduring.

At the day job we've been running a food drive for a while now and it all culminates at our monthly dinner meeting next Tuesday.  We're hoping to gather the equivalent of 50,000 cans of food and as you can see from the stories Second Harvest can use every one.

If you have donations you'd like to make, but for whatever reason aren't able to get them to Second Harvest, just let me know and I'll be happy to collect it and add it to the box we have in the office.  Money also helps greatly so you can visit Second Harvest's website or give them a call to make donations.

Keeping Them Honest in Houston

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According to this article a woman in Houston named Marsha Farmer has spent the past seven years exposing a scam in the city's Department of Housing and Community Development.  In 2001 when her home was damaged in a flood and 17 months later she received an estimate from a contractor in the city's home repair program and realized that the numbers didn't add up.  Unfortunately for the contractor and the Department she had a background in bookkeeping and construction as well as a strong sense of right and wrong and she spent the next seven years exposing the sham.  All the while her home was never repaired until the Houston newspaper got hold of her story and starting asking questions, so now repairs are finally scheduled to be done.  The following excerpt from the article shows what a person with a little know-how, a lot of gumption and access to Google can do:

Farmer's first contact with the home repair program came in January
2001, when she applied for new windows and electrical repairs to the
Oak Forest house where she had lived since 1987. Farmer, who is
disabled, met the requirements of the program, which provided free
repairs to needy homeowners.

She was placed on a waiting list, and after her house flooded during
Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, her case was assigned to the
Houston Area Urban League, one of four nonprofit home repair
contractors working with the city.

Four months later, Farmer received a letter from the city saying her
house had been approved for repairs. Nothing more happened until the
day in June 2002 when she saw the report that triggered her suspicions
about the program.

Over the course of the next year, Farmer complained to HUD about her
own case, obtained files on other repair jobs under open records laws
and began compiling a database.

In her examination of Urban League files covering more than two
years, Farmer found that the city paid for excessive roofing material
in at least 18 of 24 projects. She found charges for installing a
400-foot sewer line and a 300-foot water line, even though in most
places these lines are about 50 feet from the house to the main
connection.

Almost half of the files she examined showed that bids were for exactly the program limit of $20,000.

It's not clear who benefited from the overpayments. The city
essentially outsourced the program to the Urban League and other
nonprofits, which paid companies that did the repairs based on
often-erroneous quantities determined by initial inspections.

There's much more in the article, including the fact that she unsuccessfully sued as a "whistle blower" under the False Claims Act which would have entitled her to compensation, but even in losing that lawsuit her key role in exposing the fraud was acknowledged by the judge:

"Even though Ms. Farmer's legal claims failed," he wrote, "the
litigation was productive in that it led to the city's emergency home
repair program being shut down by HUD."

And we also learn that her contributions were not insignificant:

Two months after Farmer filed her lawsuit, HUD shut down Houston's
home repair program. The agency cited evidence of poor workmanship and
"huge differences between the estimates of materials needed and the
actual units of materials applied" — the same problem Farmer had
noticed in the estimate for her house.

HUD allowed the program to resume the following year, subject to the
city's agreement to reinspect and, where necessary, repair 2,214
previously repaired houses by July 31, 2010. Farmer's review of 530
reinspection reports — about one-fourth of the total to be performed —
identified $717,000 in overcharges.

What I like about this story is that it shows the importance of oversight in government affairs, the power of individual citizens to make a difference and the important role that media plays in our daily lives.  Let's be honest, if the newspaper hadn't been there to put the screws to the government Ms. Farmer might not be getting her home repaired any time soon. She's made their lives miserable so what would their motivation have been to help her?  But bad publicity tends to motivate people and as soon as the newspaper exposed the government's (in)actions to hundreds of thousands of people they suddenly had a fire lit under them.

I know that at times I've given the folks at the Winston-Salem Journal a hard time on this blog, but believe me when I say I want them to figure things out and succeed.  We need them almost as much as they need us.

Like a Virus In a Good Way

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I read the lead story in today’s Winston-Salem Journal with great interest.  You see it’s about the folks at King Moravian Church putting together a "Mission Blitz" and what’s really cool is that the idea came from their youth group.  From the article:

King Moravian had its first mission blitz last year. Volunteers from
the church worked on 10 homes around the county that needed everything
from new roofs to wheelchair ramps.

The Rev. Jim Newsom, the church’s pastor, said that young people in
the church gave older church members the idea for the program after
they had undertaken home-improvement projects in Ashe and Alleghany
counties through Laurel Ridge, a Moravian Church camp in Laurel Springs.

"(Our) church said, ‘What if we did a Stokes County mission camp?’" Newsom said.

Word of last year’s effort spread, and this year eight other local
churches signed on to help, including Methodists, Baptists and
Episcopalians.

My kids have done the mission camp at Laurel Ridge with their youth group for the last few years and every year they come back with great stories and a better sense of the world around them.  They also see how rewarding it is to do things that aren’t totally self-centered.

There’s a little family pride involved here since my Dad’s sister Debbie helped start the mission camp program at Laurel Ridge and ran it until last year.  I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to see that the Mission Camp concept has been taken home by some of the participants and is spreading like a virus, in a good way.

If you’re interested in the Laurel Ridge Mission Camps here’s the website.

Abundance

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In my previous post I mentioned that the kids were away at mission camp last week.  What I didn’t mention is that my Aunt Debbie spent five years of her life building the mission camp before turning it over to others and moving to Blue Heron Farm with her husband Steve.  Debbie took up blogging a while back and in her latest post she shared with us how she and the others on the farm are working to identify their community’s core values.  My favorite part of the post was how she defined "abundance":

Unpacking abundance: I’ll just start by saying that abundance was my
bottom-line value contribution. so I really wanted to see it on our
list of three values. Within our small group, and later in large group
discussion we referred to abundance as a lofty ideal and a fluffy word.
I agree! It’s a leap of faith to believe there is enough. I’ve spent
the last five years leading mission camps where we faced head-on the
overwhelming needs of Appalachian mountain communities. We did this
with limited funds, tools, and mostly unskilled, teenage laborers.
Miracles were a daily occurrence. I still believe, more than ever, that
there is enough. And I also believe we need a lot more practice around
sharing and simplicity so the haves and the have-nots are standing
closer together. My life revolves around this very practice.

This really struck a chord with me.  I don’t know if it’s a form of middle aged crisis or what, but I’ve been feeling a growing urge to do something…more.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel very fulfilled as a husband and father and I enjoy being in the part of my career where I don’t feel like a paper-pusher any more, but, and it’s a big but,  I wonder if perhaps I could be doing more. 

When I left for college I thought I’d be a teacher, but then I decided against it.  Then I thought, "Well, I’ll make my fortune and then teach as a second career.  That way I won’t be beholden to anyone and can teach on my own terms."  Can we say naive?  Now I find myself saying, "When the kids are grown I’ll have more time to devote to helping others."  Ah, but life has a funny way of replacing one obligation excuse with another and I’m sure when the kids are gone it’ll be something like "Well, when the house is totally fixed up I’ll…"

As I’m having this conversation with myself I remember something my stepfather, John Garrity, said to me when I was a soon-to-be Daddy who wasn’t so sure he was ready.  John said, "If everyone waited until they thought they were ready to have children then there wouldn’t be many kids around."  I think the same is true of doing more.  If everyone waited until their own lives were perfect then there wouldn’t be things like Mission Camp.

I’m not sure where I’m going to go with this.  I just know that I’m increasingly feeling the need to make a significant change.  I’ve talked to Celeste about this and I’m afraid I’ve scared her to death.  She probably thinks I’m going to quit my job and join the Peace Corps, but that’s not the kind of thing I’m talking about.  Rather I’m looking at this the way some nutritionists look at losing weight: it’s not about going on a radical diet, but about making a lifestyle change.  What can I do on a daily basis to do more?  As Debbie put it, how can I stand closer?

I’m asking these questions because, as I said, I feel very fulfilled.  I feel like I have received many gifts of abundance including good health, a loving family, security (both emotional and financial) and community.  We’re by no means wealthy, but too often abundance is equated with wealth and that’s just not so.  I won’t retire any time in my middle age, but at the same time I don’t have to worry about where the next meal is coming from, or whether or not I’ll have a roof over my head tomorrow.  Compared to many that’s a great deal of abundance and for that reason I think it’s important to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who need more.

How to do this?  Right now I don’t have the answer, but I’m working on it.

Tornado Hits Closer to Home

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The tornadoes that hit our area last week missed us here in Lewisville by a few miles, but one of my youngest son’s band teachers wasn’t so fortunate. We were told by our two kids that go to Meadowlark Middle that they were told that  Mr. Lanning’s house was destroyed and Mr. Lanning was knocked unconscious and thrown from his house and his wife was thrown from the house as well.  On the fortunate side their children escaped unscathed.

Donations are being collected by the school for Mr. Lanning and his family and I suspect the same is going on at Reagan High School where Mr. Lanning also teaches.  Once I find out more info on how to help the Lannings I’ll share it here.

People Being Decent at Fenway

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Disability Awareness day was being observed at Fenway Park.  An autistic man was singing the national anthem and got a case of the giggles.  At first the crowd laughs with him, but when he kept giggling the crowd started singing with him.  I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that many in a crowd sing the anthem before and it was way cool.  Don’t know how I missed it when it happened since I’m sure it had to make the sports highlights that night, but it’s still really cool to see.  Video is below.