Volunteers from two local churches are gearing up to help a homeowner in need this summer. All they need is the homeowner.
For more than a decade, the folks from First Presbyterian Church and First Christian Reformed Church in Chatham have joined forces to spruce up the yard or the exterior of one home a year in Chatham.
It’s all done at no cost to the homeowner, as it is just a way for volunteers and the churches to help others in the community.
Mike Maroney, minister of First Presbyterian Church, said the biggest challenge the Backyard Missions project is getting nominations.
“We just encourage people to nominate someone. You can nominate yourself,” he said. “The work just has to fit our criteria.”
That criteria are the person has to have a financial need, must own the home, live there, and have house insurance.
That’s it.
“If you’re having difficulty in paying for something, nominate yourself. We’ll chose the one that ticks all the boxes the best,” Maroney said.
The lucky homeowner will have a swarm of volunteers descend on their property for two days in August to perform an exterior makeover of sorts.
There are no strings attached and the homeowner is not out of pocket for any of it.
“We just hope we can find someone who we can help. It just transforms a house in two days,” Maroney said. “It’s a marvelous thing to see. The deserving recipients are always amazed at the amount of work that gets done.”
The work is done on the outside of the home, or in the yard. But not on the roof. The team also does not replace doors or windows.
“We paint houses. We do outside repairs. We’ve done wheelchair ramps. We’ve replaced eavestroughs. Basically anything that is exterior,” Maroney explained. “We don’t do roofs, because that’s a liability issue, and we don’t do doors or windows. That’s an area of expertise.”
Volunteers have built fences and helped with extensive landscaping changes in the past as well.
The Backyard Missions team is armed with about 40 volunteers, including several contractors.
“It’s a tremendous amount of work that gets done in two days. We have contractors who volunteer and lend their expertise and equipment,” he said. “A problem that seems to be getting worse with a house, it is fixed in two days, and the homeowner is not a penny out of pocket.”
Support from area businesses helps fuel the projects, Maroney said.
“Local businesses help out with materials at cost. It’s quite remarkable. They are quite happy to help,” he said. “The community is very generous. We are so thankful for that.”
Maroney said it helps the volunteers to stretch the funding for the project, or set some aside to save for the following year.
The minister is surprised there aren’t more people being nominated each year and stresses there are no strings attached.
“We do this as a practical way to show the love of Christ to members of our community,” he said. That does not include preaching church principles to the homeowner, but rather just the provision of about 80 helping hands for two days.
To learn more, visit firstchatham.org/backyard-mission/. The webpage provides specific instructions on who qualifies for this project and how to contact the organizers of the project.
“Go to our website, get the information and mail the nomination or email it to our church,” he said. “Tell us why they’re being nominated, what the difficulty is and provide the address.”
