FRANKLIN — Fifty homes in 50 weeks.
It sounds like an ambitious goal, but it’s one that the Appalachia Service Project and Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief (TBDR) volunteers are working hard to accomplish.
According to Chris Schroeder, ASP vice president of new build and disaster recovery, the amount of need that still exists in East Tennessee in the almost six-month aftermath of Hurricane Helene will last for years.
“We don’t want to shy away from that challenge,” Schroeder told the Baptist and Reflector. “But it takes all of us.”
Essentially, the goal is to lay the foundations for 10 homes and then fully complete about 10 homes in the upcoming weeks. In mid-February alone, ASP is looking to lay the foundations of seven to eight homes and complete another five to six.
Ultimately, the organization, working in cooperation with TBDR, hopes to get the 50 homes completed by the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene between Sept. 26-27.
There are a lot of moving parts requiring multiple projects across multiple organizations.
“The response is still incredible, both nationally and internationally. And we want to do everything we can to leverage that,” Schroeder said.
For Kaye Thomas, volunteer coordinator for TBDR, the numbers still show that incredible response.
She said TBDR volunteers have completed 30 jobs and that there are still 49 open jobs. Some of those 49 are houses that will have tasks completed weekly. To service these projects, they have had 35 team members at Elizabethton.
With all the people working together, Schroeder emphasizes the volunteers and leaders from the various organizations still have the “same goal and same mission.”
“We want to be building homes that are long-term and sustainable,” he said.
Most of ASP’s concentration is in the Washington County area, but they also focus on Carter, Unicoi, and Cocke counties.
“These natural disasters are indiscriminate of who they affect,” said Schroeder. “But we are blessed with a wonderful network of friends and contractors who have put a lot of their personal projects on the back burner to help with these relief efforts.” B&R
