Article Courtesy Of Griffin Daily News©
by Ray Lightner
07.16.11 - 05:54 pm
Bobby and Anita Simpson were able to move back into their Sunny Side home last Saturday, thanks to a lot of help from a group of volunteers from Henry County.
The Simpsons’ home was damaged in the April 28 tornado. Volunteers from the Fuller Center of Henry County came in that weekend to help clean up. Board member B.J. Mathis, the Henry County Commission chairperson, had called her counterpart in Spalding County to offer help.
That started cleaning up debris in Sunny Side and at the Patterson Road mobile home park.
“We came over and were cleaning up yards. Bobby almost ran them off,” said Fuller Center Board member Don Dunlap. “He didn’t know who they were.”
After meeting the family, the group took on the Simpsons’ home as a project, beginning work on the house May 14. Working every Saturday since then, volunteers with varying levels of expertise helped clean up and repair the home enough so the family could move back in July 9.
Volunteers included experienced and working contractors as well as students.
The project is still not completed, said Fuller Center of Henry County President Shane Persaud, “but the family can move back in. That is our goal.”
Volunteers turned out Saturday to work some more and dedicate the house back to the Simpsons. As part of the ceremony, as is their tradition, Persaud presented the family with a Bible signed by many of the volunteers and a “greater blessings box,” made from wood from the Fuller farm in Americus. The box contains envelopes to make donations when they can.
The Fuller Center for Housing was founded by Millard Fuller, who also founded Habitat for Humanity.
The Simpsons thanked the volunteers for their work.
“This is a blessing we don’t deserve,” said Bobby Simpson. “We moved back in this past Saturday. It would would been months more without your help.”
Anita Simpson said, “the Lord brought us all together for a reason. Not sure what it is yet, but once we’re back up, we’ll be helping too,”
The house has been in their family for a some time. The Simpsons bought it from Anita’s parents, who bought in from her uncle in 1994. Her mother, Becky Channell said, “The lumber in the attic of the home came from granddaddy’s property.”
Shane A. Persaud, Volunteer & President of Henry County Fuller Center For Housing, Inc*. presents an overjoyed Bobby & Anita Simpson with their Bible & Greater Blessing Box on Dedication Day-July 16, 2011
*Over 50 home repair projects have been done, at this date, by the Henry County Fuller Center For Housing, Inc. for Georgia residents, since it's inception.
