Hank Chardos, Founder of “Home Works of America,” based in Columbia, SC, came back to Greenville, Sunday, July 15th, to organize various groups of adults along with middle and high school student volunteers to perform minor repairs to homes owned by senior citizens on a fixed income. All the homes are in Greenville County.
The fifty students, ages 12 - 18, came from Florence, Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Aiken and Greenville. The adults were from the Greenville area.
The students were strangers at first, but working together on various projects during the week they became friends quickly as they learned how to work together.
Christ Church Episcopal hosted the group and provided shelter in the gymnasium where the volunteers ate prepared meals and slept of the floor in sleeping bags.
The volunteers were at the assigned house by 8 o’clock in the morning and worked until 4:30 in the afternoon.
Seven homes were preselected by the “Home Works” Organization before the volunteers arrived in Greenville.
The Maronite Catholic Church (Eastern Rite) in Greer, along with the Catholic Church Fraternal Unit “Knights of Columbus,” provided adult volunteer leaders.
An adult volunteer was chosen as a site leader for each of the seven homes.
All of the homes needed some painting done, minor plumbing repairs and yard waste removed from property.
One house needed to have a shed removed because some of the wood was rotten and the shed was about to fall down.
Various saws, drills, hammers screwdrivers and wrenches were provided by adult volunteers. Paint, paint brushes and some lumber materials had to be purchased or were donated by local home repair businesses.
Friday night, the homeowners were invited to a supper in the church gymnasium where they got to meet all the students and adult volunteers. Some of the students explained how they learned how to use a certain tool for the first time, to complete a work project.
The homeowners stood with the volunteers and thanked them for volunteering to work on various projects on their homes that either they could not afford to hire someone, or they were unable to do the job themselves.
One young female volunteer completed her fifth year, and this year she was chosen to be a site leader at one of the homes.
Hank Chardos said that his organization enables youth to work in a religious setting in performing minor home repairs.
One of the homeowners had prayer with the volunteers when they arrived in the morning, and then had closing prayer after the project was completed in the afternoon.
