Neighbors band together to repair couple’s home
On a cold, gray morning, neighbors and volunteers are hammering boards into place and spreading stones along the side of a Cary home. A fire crackles nearby, waning until a woman clears more brush and throws it on the flames.
Most of these people don’t know each other. The Cary Grove Neighborhood Life Love Your Neighbor team has descended upon the house of Kris and John [last names withheld] bearing construction materials and know-how. They came to the home to fix soffit and facia along the house’s roofline, which raccoons had scratched their way through.
“They climbed up the screen and into the crawl space,” Kris said. “It sounds like elephants walking around.”
Like many Americans, Kris and John recently fell on hard times.
“I have cancer. My husband was laid off. I’ve been sick for two years,” she said. “Things get crazy.”
While battling cancer, Kris continues to work as a nurse. When she comes home, her energy is zapped, she said. With finances tight and medical conditions limiting their abilities, the couple was unable to fix the problem.
Churches step in
The couple’s home is located in a heavily wooded area. When a friend came by to cut the limbs off their trees, he noticed that they were in need of some exterior home repairs. He contacted a network of area churches, which eventually landed the job in the hands of the Love Your Neighbor Team.
“We got the name from extension ministries,” said Andrew Dimino, an organizing volunteer with the team. “Somebody found out they needed help. The extension ministry team in the area asked, ‘Can you guys help?’
The Love Your Neighbor team is part of Cary Grove Neighborhood Life, an outreach organization that includes membership churches from Cary, Fox River Grove, Barrington and Crystal Lake.
Volunteer Doug Parker broke down the group’s mission into simple terms.
“We get a bunch of people together with like skills and do good,” he said.
Specifically, the group works on home improvement projects. They have worked on two other major projects including painting an apartment complex in exchange for a tenant’s free rent and roofing a home for another Cary couple in June.
“We keep picking projects that are really big. We’re supposed to be doing light switch replacements,” Parker joked.
Parker said the group was inspired by the television show “Extreme Home Makeover.”
“There’s lots of people living right here that need help,” he said.
Cary Grove Neighborhood Life uses funds they raise at various events, like The Taste of Cary-Grove or summertime lemonade stands, to put $500 toward projects for the Love Your Neighbor team. Beyond that, partner churches help raise money, the team donates some and many of the materials are donated. The homeowners also put in money.
Strangers lend a hand
The temperature Oct. 24 was low and the constant rain stopped more volunteers from making it to the work site. Despite this, Dimino, Parker and Dave Keiter were busy on the back of the house, climbing ladders and swinging hammers. The weather did not deter them, because they enjoy doing the work.
“It’s energizing to come out and work,” Parker said. “God gives you gifts and talents. You find the best fit for your skills. I get the most fulfillment out of this.”
“When you get working, you don’t even know how much time is going by,” Dimino said. “I like working with my hands.”
However, the group does not disclude those without home repair skills.
“It’s not just people who like to swing a hammer,” Dimino said. “There’s other areas—people who have gifts of compassion, hospitality, people to bring [the workers] food.”
Members of the couple’s church, Woodstock Assembly of God, came to help as well. They cleared brush, laid down gravel and brought food for the rest of the volunteers. Although the couple did not announce that anyone would be working on their home, members of the church found out and showed up anyway.
“They are very blessed and loved,” said Sara Weber, a member of Woodstock Assembly of God.
Weber and other volunteers from the church were repeatedly telling Kris, who recently had surgery, to sit down and stop trying to help them.
“These people are fabulous,” Kris said. “They don’t want anything in return.”
—By Michelle Stoffel, Triblocal.com reporter
