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About 100 Vine City homes were damaged by the tornado, 50 of which suffered severe damage, according to Greg Hawthorne, executive director of the Vine City Health and Housing Ministry. Kelly Caffarelli, president of the Home Depot Foundation, who handed Hawthorne the check at Beulah Baptist Church, said volunteers had been working in the community since Saturday. "Every house that had a hole in the roof now has a tarp on it," Caffarelli told the community leaders who had gathered for the press conference. But she added that the donation would go to making permanent improvements to the homes. "Those funds will be available to residents to make repairs to their residences." More specifically, the money will go toward patching roofs, replacing windows and fixing other damage from the storm. Vine City, which lies just west of downtown and the Georgia Dome, was one of the hardest hit neighborhoods. "When the neighborhood is able to come together, it really shows the human spirit that is here," Hawthorne said. "We tend to gel in times of crisis." (Vine City also experienced devastating floods in 2002). The Home Depot grant also will assist Vine City residents who don't have homeowners insurance or those who need help meeting their deductibles. In all, the Home Depot Foundation and the company's associates have been working on relief efforts since Saturday, providing a total of $300,000 in donations. For example, the Atlanta area stores delivered $10,000 in supplies to both Cabbagetown and Vine City on Saturday. Home Depot gave $30,000 to support community partners working on the effort, including the American Red Cross, local neighborhood associations and Hands On Atlanta. The Atlanta Tool Bank received a $5,000 grant from the foundation to help recoup costs after waiving its tool lending fees during the rebuilding efforts. Home Depot, through its Team Depot initiative, has had dozens of its associates working in both Cabbagetown and Vine City to help clean up debris and contribute to rebuilding efforts. Blue Tarps Cover
Atlanta Storm Damage
Hundreds of them spread out Monday
over the roofs of homes and businesses damaged by Friday's tornado and high
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For example, volunteers who introduce children to the wonders of bugs at the Atlanta Botanical Garden are welcome to return weekend after weekend. Those who help with Saturday morning activities at Decatur Christian Towers can rejoin its senior residents often, sometimes just to talk.
Those who spend Saturday morning helping Small Dog Rescue and Humane Society, a north Fulton animal adoption group, can return again and again to care for the dogs. They can operate the group's Web site and help even without leaving their homes by stitching "belly bands," basically diapers that prevent anxious male dogs from marking their new homes.
The bands save "carpet, furniture and sanity," for those adopting the dogs or offering their homes as foster homes, said Anne Stockton, executive director of Small Dog Rescue.
Most Hands on Atlanta volunteer events Saturday are scheduled for between 8:45 a.m. and 1 p.m., to be followed by a party for volunteers in Centennial Olympic Park. Many of the volunteer opportunities require advance training, but some do not.
At the Atlanta Botanical Garden, four of 14 volunteer positions with the "Big Bugs and Killer Plants" exhibit require no advance training, said Mary Woehrel, manager of volunteers. Shifts are 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1 p.m.-4 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday until the last weekend in October.
"Just jump in with a sense of fun and help families," Woehrel said.
At Decatur Christian Towers, residents will join volunteers Saturday morning for breakfast and bingo games. They will work together to build birdhouses for the Towers' garden and write cards to soldiers stationed in Iraq, said Renee Kirlin, activity director at the Towers.
Those interested in helping further can do so in many ways, Kirlin said. Especially needed are monthly volunteers to "do friendly visits, run errands [with or without the resident accompanying them], an arts & crafts group leader [and] light housekeeping," Kirlin said.
"The point of Hands on Atlanta Day is to encourage year-round volunteering," said Johanna Brown, a spokeswoman for the organization. "For half our volunteers [on Saturday], it will be their first time. We hope it will be an entry point for them to volunteer year-round."
To learn more about Hands on Atlanta or to register as a volunteer where need remains, visit www.handsonatlanta.org or call 404-979-2808.
Hands on Atlanta effort to draw thousands Saturday
By
CHRISTOPHER QUINN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/04/07
Brenda Rhodes of Marietta can't say no.
"Am I a volunteer addict? Yes, I am," Rhodes sheepishly admits.
She spends time helping out a number of charities and community organizations, and she's a regular for the annual Hands on Atlanta Day.
Saturday, she will show up at the Atlanta Community Food Bank for a ninth year of work with the region's biggest volunteer event.
Hands on Atlanta is a day when 15,000 workers across 10 counties will leave behind a Saturday on the golf course, in front of the TV or shopping at the mall in favor of good works.
In previous years, Rhodes has restocked library books and cleaned up around a horse farm where low-income children participated in programs to teach responsibility and work habits. She has sorted cans at the food bank.
"Why not?" she says when asked about giving up a day of relaxation.
"It is more productive than sitting around watching TV. And it feels great to know you are doing something for other people."
Glenn Layfield will be leading a team building an access trail for the disabled on top of Kennesaw Mountain.
"My family intends to come out with me," he said. "We are looking for around 100 people to turn out to help."
Hands On Atlanta is a nonprofit that connects volunteers across the metro area with more than 500 agencies that serve communities year-round.
Seventeen years ago, the organization added one big celebratory day of projects. This Saturday, after planting flowers, painting schools, preparing meals for the homeless and building trails, volunteers are invited to a party in Centennial Olympic Park.
Johanna Brown with Hands On Atlanta said it is not too late to volunteer.
"Usually a couple of volunteer locations open up the day before," she said.
Volunteers can sign up for projects on the agency Web site, handsonatlanta.org.
Workers are needed from about 9 a.m. to about noon. The party begins between noon and 1 p.m. and includes free food and soft drinks or water. There will be music, including some winners from a youth talent competition the organization sponsored earlier this year, Brown said.
Annual volunteer events unite for cause
By
ADRIANNE M. MURCHISON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/04/07
During a spring luncheon in 2003, a small group of Gwinnett pastors toyed with the lofty idea of helping people in need through volunteerism.
"That conversation birthed Unite," said Chip Sweney, metro outreach pastor at Perimeter Church of Duluth.
Unite is a movement started that day by Sweney and other pastors from Perimeter, Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church and Victory World Church, both in Norcross.
By October that year, 30 churches held the first Compassion in Action Weekend where volunteers perform a variety of services.
This year's fifth Compassion in Action Weekend has merged with two other annual events, Hands on Atlanta Day and Gwinnett Great Days of Service.
Sweney expects about 6,500 of those volunteers will represent the Unite movement. The 100 churches, which are now on board, come up with their own ideas. In past efforts, volunteers have painted homes, restored school buildings and grounds, and built access ramps for the elderly. Others put on health fairs and counsel the homeless.
"Compassion in Action is what gets all the publicity but Unite [is active] all year round," Sweney said.
The group works with World Relief, and volunteers routinely visit local apartment complexes to help immigrants assimilate into the area or to teach English as a second language, he said.
Unite's member churches also helped displaced families from Hurricane Katrina to find jobs and housing.
The Unite movement inspired Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett. The Lawrenceville center assists people who cannot afford health care. It was started by medical professionals who volunteered during Compassion in Action and wanted to do more.
Bringing together people from different faiths and ethnicities is just as important as the service Unite provides, said Sweney and Brian White, a pastor at Hopewell.
Hopewell, whose congregation is mostly African-American, is located in a predominantly white neighborhood. White hopes that through Unite, Hopewell demonstrates that its doors are open to all cultures.
"Unite helps us to get beyond our differences," White said. "We shouldn't be just a black church."
Compassion in Action Weekend concludes with a public celebration of song and tribute 6-8 p.m. Sunday at Hopewell, 182 Hunter St. in Norcross.
For more information on Unite Compassion in Action Weekend, visit www.uniteus.org.
DAYS OF SERVICE: Volunteers unite to make a difference
Events team up to send workers to 100 projects
By
George Chidi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/07/07
The parking lot of Perimeter Church in Duluth reverberated with the tap-tap-tap sound of nails being driven into lumber. Then pried out of lumber. Then driven back in straight.
Most of the three dozen or so volunteers working for the church's home repair ministry Saturday probably hadn't picked up a hammer in a while, said Mitch Hughes, a volunteer coordinator.
But that's not the point. "They've got one now," Hughes said.
The volunteers were building frames for two houses bound for Katrina-affected parts of Mississippi. The house framing was part of Gwinnett Great Days of Service, an annual public service event drawing thousands of people to service projects around the county. It's now in its seventh year.
Great Days of Service aligned itself this year with "Hands on Georgia Week," partnering with Unite Compassion in Action Weekend in Gwinnett and Hands On Atlanta.
Some 15,000 volunteers fanned out across metro Atlanta early Saturday for the 17th annual Hands On Atlanta day. Unite Compassion in Action Weekend, in its fifth year, wraps up today with a public celebration of song and tribute at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Norcross.
This weekend's volunteer projects across metro Atlanta included building picnic tables for developmentally disabled children and painting a mural for refugee families. Volunteers around Gwinnett worked on more than 100 projects.
Past volunteer projects have included landscaping, restocking food pantries, painting, food drives and building playgrounds.
Near Lawrenceville on Saturday afternoon, about 20 people helped clear brush and build a privacy fence behind a home for two disabled adults. The Wishes 4 Me Foundation keeps the home for people suffering from Friedreich's Ataxia, an inherited disease of the nervous system which often leaves its victims using a wheelchair.
The volunteers did about $10,000 worth of work, building a fence to separate the backyard from a nearby graveyard, said Lynn Robinette, head of the foundation.
Her daughter Robin Cheatwood lives in the house.
"It's just great seeing these people out here," Cheatwood said. "It means so much. Words can't say."
This weeklong wave of organized volunteerism began in Thomas County last Saturday and eventually rippled through all 159 counties: In all, 37,000 volunteers took part in 550 projects during Hands On Georgia Week.
Ultimately, the hope is that some volunteers will decide one "Day" is not enough.
"It's just like the big white sale in January," said Suzanne Wilson Davis, Hands On Georgia's manager of external affairs. "Everyone's come into the store and seen everything going on. And they want to come back."
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