Community Rallies for Leah's House Crisis

St Mary's County - 11/30/2008

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By The Bay Net User 'morrisrite@m'

In mid July the Leah's House (LH) shelter for women and children, went into a crisis-mode to the shelter, its families and its offices. Through no fault of its own, they received a notice of eviction because the owners of the property LH leased went into foreclosure. The organization determined that it was in their best interest to relocate to the property it already owned. This project was dubbed Project Relocate. They needed to house their families on a site where no building existed. (Christmas in April volunteers had cleared tons of debris from the site in April 2008). Now comes mid July of 2008. They needed water lines, electricity, a road, septic, cable, phone lines, and a modular home delivered, all against time and very little money to accomplish the task. In addition, they needed funding and appropriate agency approvals for occupancy. With fewer than 75 days to go from open field to living quarters, the community rallied and moved in remarkable ways. An anonymous donor came through with a $40,000 donation to assist with funding to make the purchase. Maryland Bank and Trust came through with financing. Several agencies streamlined the application through. Pastor Morris with a firm faith in God stated that even with the project being challenged by rain delays - she believed that what looked impossible was possible. The Great Mills Trading Post through the heart of Bubby Knott and under the direction of Bob Trautman put in the road and did grading: Mehaffey and Associates once again made revisions to the site plan, and representatives travelled to county offices with them. Chesapeake Trails Surveying dropped by and flagged the lot, an unidentified representative from SMECO that came to remove limbs from power lines got out of his truck and personally, with the use of a machete, cut poison oak from the base of several trees. Networx Inc. ran cable and phone lines spending several days at the property, G.A Smith Electric had someone on site for 3 days, Long Plumbing stepped in with very little notice, Jay, of Larry Hills and Sons dug trenches (the companies worked as teams digging trenches for one another) did septic work. Watson & Johnson Well Drilling came through repairing the well and running water lines. Dave's Discount Carpet donated and installed carpeting in office space donated by B & B Site Management. Volunteers from St Mary's College, the Southern Family and Curt & Kristina Sproul helped pack and haul furniture in pick up trucks. Joe Morris of New Beginnings Christian W.C. worked into the late hours of the night installing additional steps and making many needed repairs. Alexander Homes sent laborers to put temporary steps in place for occupancy and sent food. Locally, Dan Orwig of First Rate Construction was called upon to drive the home in from Tappahannock, Virginia. (You can see this trip in on You-Tube under Leah's House Relocate Project). The women in Leah's House worked tireless night after night, not to mention the other volunteers and employees that lent themselves. A team of volunteers from Patuxent Presbyterian Church spearheaded by Tim Springer (pictured) organized other area churches, like South Point Church, Living Word Community Church and New Beginnings Christian Worship Center rallying them to the occasion. This team organized and built much needed permanent decks including handicapped ramps. Yes, through the hard work of many in the community, we were able to successfully relocate families and offices. Thanks St. Mary's County. If you would like to make a much needed financial donation visit their website at www.leahshousemd.org or call 301-994-9580.

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