115 volunteers turnout to help elderly, disabled during annual Repair Affair

After her husband fell ill with cancer and died nearly three and a half years ago, Clara Hill has found it difficult to get repairs done around her home. The gutters were gone on the front and side of her house. Her porch needed painting, and the yard needed work.
“It has gone a while without repairs. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know power tools, and never have,” Hill noted. “I can’t afford it either. I don’t have any income right now, but pretty soon I will have a little bit, barely enough to live on.”
Hill said she was delighted when she found out about the Repair Affair, a program offered through the Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency, through someone at Whitley North Elementary School, which is just down the road from her.
About 115 volunteers turned out Saturday morning for the Repair Affair, which is designed to help make the lives of some elderly and disabled Whitley County residents just a little bit better.
Williamsburg Kiwanis Club President Steve Morris said his volunteers joined up with the Methodist men this year to place gutters on Hill’s home in order to keep the rain water away off her porch and out of her living room.
“It is just a good thing that is sponsored by Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency every year, and Kiwanis has probably been involved for six or seven years. It is an annual event for us. It is just a good way to get our members out in the community, and see what kind of needs are in the community, and how we can help. We just want to try and be of service,” Morris said.
Norman Cornelius, coordinator for this year’s Seventh Annual Repair Affair, said seven teams were dispatched to six locations to fix doors, paint porches, and build ramps among other projects for needy Whitley County residents.
“It is a great thing, and everybody is just really working hard,” Cornelius said. “We are just trying to get the volunteerism out bigger, and bigger, and bigger if we can because we have so much of a need to help people. We need volunteers.
“Area patrons donated food for breakfast this morning, and they are supplying lunches, which will be delivered to every site. It is just a great response. I am well pleased.”
Mission of Hope, an Appalachian relief ministry based in Knoxville, brought down 21 volunteers for the event, in addition to donating building supplies.
Emmette Thompson, executive director of Mission Hope, said his group has been participating in the Whitley County Repair Affair for about three years.
“We just really enjoyed their approach on the Repair Affair. We asked if we could help. This is the third year we have supported them financially, and with volunteers. We brought them a tractor trailer load of building materials back during the spring from a donation we got in Knoxville.”
Cornelius said he thinks the turnout would have been higher, but that Williamsburg and Whitley County had graduation scheduled Saturday along with the annual Cumberland Falls Clean-Up.
Groups participating in this year’s Repair Affair, included: Mission of Hope, Williamsburg Nursing Home, First State Financial, Cumberland Valley National Bank, Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency, Williamsburg Kiwanis Club, Williamsburg Methodist Church, and the Williamsburg Fire Department.