The first workday on the C.T. Sewell Empowerment Elementary Parent Resource Cottage provided a powerful demonstration of what uncommon partners can accomplish when they come together on a common ground issue. Fifteen volunteers from Lowes, three local churches (Hope Baptist, Life Baptist, and Oikos Church) and Grace Village Vegas joined together to complete the demolition of the interior of the cottage in a whirlwind four hours. I’ve seriously never seen a group of people work so hard and so cooperatively on such a project!
I had anticipated about 6 hours of work to complete the demolition, but our crew worked way ahead of that pace. In fact, we would have finished in a little over three hours if we had not run out of room in the construction dumpster donated by Republic Services! We had to spend about forty-five minutes finding enough room for the remainder of the discarded materials, so that slowed us down considerably.
Over and above the speed and efficiency of our volunteer crew’s work, I was most struck by the incredibly positive attitude of every volunteer. Everyone was fully and happily engaged in every task they were asked to perform, whether the incredibly fun job of busting through a wall with a sledgehammer or the more menial task of sweeping up debris. It was particularly heartening to see the managers from two local Lowes stores covered in dust and sweat, working right alongside their employees. And one of those managers had spent the previous several days in bed with the flu! That’s a manager I would work for any day!
I went home Saturday extremely tired AND extremely proud to be associated with such terrific partners in our community. I’m truly amazed at the quality of individuals and companies that have stepped up to the plate to make this project a reality! Seriously, when else would a pastor of a church and a national home improvement retail chain ever partner to do ANYTHING? That’s the power of uncommon partners brought together by a common ground issue. And the results are truly remarkable.
If you would like to make a contribution to enable Surgance to continue to lead community transforming projects like this all around the world, we would greatly appreciate your tax-deductible donation of any size through Network for Good:
