Surgance Central

First Workday on Sewell Parent Cottage = Remarkable Results

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:

rejuveNATION Shawnee - Community............transformed!

Hello Friends!

So I was walking through the poolhouse in Shawnee, OK today and was looking at all of the painting that the amazing volunteers from OBU and the Art Club did, and I think at least one small tear came out of my eye. Just one though. :) But, as I was standing there, I realized that it was done. The rejuveNATION project in Shawnee is FINISHED! I honestly thought I would never say those words. From mobilizing volunteers, to getting Ace Hardware to donate the materials (paint at cost), Sonic and a local pizza place to provide lunch, and actually carrying out the project, it seemed that months of hard work would never pay off. But this last weekend, the last round of artists went and finished the last parts of the walls that they painted. It looks fantastic...they are actually using it this upcoming weekend and James, the City of Shawnee's Director of Operations, could not be happier. He wanted me to let everyone who volunteered in any way and all the Surgance staff know that he is very grateful for us stepping up to the plate and helping to "rejuvenate" the community in a small, but impactful way.

I sort of fibbed that it is completed, we still have to put the volunteers names and sponsor logos on our "award" wall, but when it is finished it will have Ace Hardware, Sonic, the local pizza place, and somewhere around 25 volunteer names listed as people and organizations who made this project happen!

I want to express my thanks to the Surgance National Staff for their continual support, the volunteers for their unrelenting and willing spirit to complete the project (and having a lot of fun), and the City of Shawnee, particularly James Bryce, who we were able to come together with and scheme on how to make Shawnee a better place. It was a blast working with James and solving problem after problem!

James also wants anyone who helped on the project (who can make it) to attend a city commission meeting (time TBD) as he wants to recognize the Surgance team for their efforts. More on that to come later!

In all, the project was a great success for the community, bringing together like-minded people who have a heart to serve and transform lives in any way and providing a legacy (shown through paint) that will encourage less gang violence, more family integration and form stronger bonds between Oklahoma Baptist University and the community. Thank you to everyone who stepped up to the plate!

Josh Karr

P.S. I will be loading some final pictures to the website soon so be on the lookout for those!

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: