In Action
In Action
Two of our volunteers, Fred and Helen Crayton, found an individual who was able to get Elmira Horton’s septic tank installed and water lines connected to her mobile home in Sawyerville.
The Crayton’s also let us know about three families who lost their homes to fire. Rodney Cooper of Oak Mountain Mission Ministries of Birmingham partnered with FOHC to provide much needed items for these three families — Marjorie Taylor and her two children; Barbara Benison and her daughter in Sawyerville; and Hersey and Cara Lee Bryant of Newbern.
We were able to purchase and deliver a mobile home to the Bryants, to replace their fire-damaged home. Items to fill their new home came from as far away as Auburn University, where a Christian student group called The Navigators gave their time and money to help.
Cara Lee now, as she says, “pays her debt forward” by teaching quilting classes to people in her community in the Outside In, in Greeneville.
In addition, Cara Lee told us about Katherine and Jo Ma Williams of Newbern. Mr. Williams was in a nursing home and was not allowed to return home because their home was considered unsafe, and they had no running water. FOHC was able to purchase a mobile home and delivered it to them, and the Williams were able to be reunited.
Oscar Mann with New South Federal donated another mobile home to FOHC, and the home wasdelivered to and set up for Frank Cottrell, a 66-year-old man who had worked all his life doing drycleaning until he had a stroke, brought on because he could not afford his heart medication.Members of our group cleaned and prepped the new home, and Frank helped by bringingbuckets of water from his home and running an extension cord so that we had some power — primarilyto plug in a fan to keep the workers cool!When Carolyn Fields Hutching was told Frank needed a stove, she donated an electric one.William Marks, Ronald Ross, and members of the Rising Star Baptist Church built a porch and wheelchairramp. Sue Frederick and her friend Mary Alice from Jasper, Al., had a “kitchen shower” and put togethereverything Frank would need to equip his kitchen, along with a new apartment-sized refrigerator.Sherrie Petrie and Janet Eversole of Helena UMC donated a queen-sized mattress and boxsprings, bed frame, and several sets of sheets and a comforter, along with curtains and towels. RobertBenson and William Marks connected the plumbing for the new home, with William digging the sewerline.
Using donations from Birmingham’s MSE Building, a construction company founded by Steve and Cindy Jones in Clay, Al., our group — with the help of Oscar Mann of New South Federal — was able to purchase a nice mobile home for the Tubbs family in Greensboro.
Barbara Tubbs was a widow with three children. Their house burned down not long after her husband died, and she had gone to work at the Southern Pride catfish plant in Greensboro. She had been able to save $1,000 to purchase a mobile home, but the home she bought was in horrible condition: the plumbing was not working, and many of the electrical outlets were not working due to water in the ceiling, which had come through the leaking roof in several places. Doors and windows had been taped over where they’d been broken.
Through all this, Barbara did not complain. Instead, she prayed that God would send someone to help her family. Through her prayers, God led two of her fellow church members at New Jerusalem Baptist, Eunice Reaves and Betty Tubbs, to come to one of our meetings and tell us about her situation. While Barbara and her children stayed with relatives for a few weeks, we paid to have her old mobile home taken to the local landfill and prepared her property for the new home. Judge Leland Avery helped with getting dirt delivered, and Johnny Parker came out with his bobcat and spread the
dirt, leveling the land where the new home would be placed.
Many members of our group, with help from Barbara and her kids, prepared the home for her to move in. Jim Nevins of Mountain Brook donated a kitchen table and chairs, and others hooked up her water and sewer and had the air conditioner rewired and installed. Debbie Posey donated living room
and bedroom furniture.
Libby and Julius Watkins were being evicted from their mobile home while they were waiting onJulius’ disability claim to come through. One of our members found public housing for them, but theycouldn’t pay the housing deposit and the deposit for Alabama Power. We talked to the manager of thehousing project and a manager from Alabama Power, and they agreed to break the deposit down over ayear so the Watkins could afford to move in.
We were contacted by a member of our group regarding Rosa Long, a 65-year-old woman living on a fixed income, who had been unable to pay her power bill because her 48-year-old son had taken ill and she had spent two months with him at UAB hospital. We got the Community Service Program of
West Alabama to cover most of her bill, and Cassie Clayton, who works at Alabama Power, was able to get the rest of the bill taken care of.
A married couple were literally reunited when our group put in a ramp for their mobile home. This enabled the man, who had lost a foot, to be able to push his wife’s wheelchair up the ramp and into their house. The’d lived apart because of their inability to enter the home, and the wife had been living in a nursing home. William Marks, Ron Ross, Rev. James Carter, Rev. Freddie Robinson, and others came together and built the ramp, and the couple were able to live together again in their own home.
Libby and Julius Watkins were being evicted from their mobile home while they were waiting on Julius’ disability claim to come through. One of our members found public housing for them, but they couldn’t pay the housing deposit and the deposit for Alabama Power. We talked to the manager of the housing project and a manager from Alabama Power, and they agreed to break the deposit down over a year so the Watkins could afford to move in.
So many of these people had lived in their homes their entire lives and were very proud of their homes.
One of those was Sally Madison of Greensboro, a member of Salem Baptist Church who was born and raised in her home. She had 10 children that were born and raised in that same home. She was very proud of it and didn’t want to leave it, so members of our group repaired the roof and helped fix it up to keep it livable for her to remain in.