The Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming sent a group of 71 to Moore, OK this summer to build sheds, paint homes and send a message of hope to residents there affected by an F5 tornado several years ago.
The group included 45 high school students, 10 college interns and 16 adult chaperones who braved temperatures of 100 or more to build seven sheds and paint two homes.
This isn’t the first time the church group has helped disaster victims. They came to the aid of victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2006, too.
“We built the sheds ourselves – cutting 2×4’s for walls and floors,” says Carrie Short-Lippert, an organizer. “The sheds are a key component in the final steps of recovery for the people of Moore as insurance didn’t cover rebuilding houses as big as they had had and sheds were low priority. The sheds really help with the emotional recovery for the people of Moore as their stuff was stored in their garages and every day that was a reminder that their lives had been torn apart when they had to park their cars on the driveway. The first day 40 of us built the walls, tresses, and floors while 31 painted two houses. The balance of the trip was assembling the sheds in seven different yards.”
For more information about the Friendship United Methodist Church, go to friendshipwyoming.com.
