Renew Project: Five-Car Garage Clean-up

My name is Mike Pruett, and I’m a Renew Project Leader for one of the Middletown Community Groups.  This past week we had the opportunity to serve long time Middletown resident Carol Knight.  Carol lives in a very old home, which until recently had a HUGE wooden five-car garage.  Due to time, weather and a falling tree, the garage had almost completely collapsed, leaving a pile of wood, glass, wiring, shingles and other random items piled up in her backyard.  City ordinances necessitated the complete removal of this former garage, quite a daunting task for a single woman living on a fixed income.

David, the Director of Renew at The Oaks, talked with city officials and found out about this  need. After seeing the daunting task, he scheduled three separate community groups to work on it over two days.  Tuesday, the Monroe community group showed up, and with the help of a neighbor operating a bobcat, work began.  People lined up to haul pieces of debris, small and large, into the dumpster.  By the end of their two hours, one  trailer-sized dumpster was completely filled, and they estimated we would need three more!  

Wednesday, two community groups from Middletown showed up to continue work.  A fresh dumpster was brought in thanks to Rumpke, who provided dumpsters for us both nights. We had no bobcat Wednesday, but our folks  worked hard, pulling and heaving and breaking what used to once be walls, rafters, and doors, into smaller chunks that could be loaded up. Carol was with us the entire time, talking and sharing her life and regularly thanking us for the work being done.  A neighbor came to take pictures, and a reporter from the Middletown Journal showed up to document the project. A link to that article can be found here.  l  At the end of our two hours, the second dumpster was completely filled, with a majority of the large pieces removed.

Afterwards, we shared with Carol our church’s vision and motivation for serving.  While there is no specific scripture related to fallen five-car garages, what is clear is the mandate to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to serve with our whole hearts to the glory of God.  

For me, this became so much more than a simple cleanup project.  Here was a woman none of us personally knew, who was under serious pressure and strain to remove a seemingly insurmountable obstacle from her property.  For us, it didn’t matter why she needed the help; the important part was that an opportunity was literally laid at our feet to serve and love a neighbor.  Carol, like the rest of us, is a beautiful work of the Lord’s hand.  We are glad to have been a blessing, and look forward to finishing up what we started at her home sometime soon!