Michigan Volunteers Work on Alabama Storm-Damaged Houses

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A group of 70 volunteers from Michigan recently installed floors and insulation and did a myriad of repairs to five tornado-damaged houses in Pleasant Grove and Birmingham’s Pratt City community.

The group was made up of high school students and adults from the Westwood Christian Reform Church and Redarrow Ministries in Kalamazoo, Mich.

John and Sherry Huizinga headed up the operation. Mrs. Huizinga said she and her husband have traveled the country for 21 years on spring break to work in disaster-hit areas or in areas where a resident needed home repairs but did not have the resources to do the work themselves.

Huizinga said the couple worked in New Orleans following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Volunteers from Michigan worked about nine hours a day while in Pleasant Grove and Pratt City, doing repair work that included flooring, siding, framing, drywall work and painting. Huizinga said the work in both areas involved houses where residents have not yet returned to their homes.

In Pleasant Grove, volunteers worked in the 500 block of Ninth Court and houses in the 400 and 800 blocks of Fifth Street. The group worked on Fifth Way and Trilby Street in Pratt City.

They connected with homeowners in need of assistance through LOVE (Locally Organized Volunteer Effort) Inc., a group based out of Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church that works with six Pleasant Grove area churches to help tornado victims. LOVE sends teams of volunteers into the community each week, director Gordon Thompson said.

Dan Doorn, one of the Michigan volunteers, worked at the Cummins house on Ninth Court in Pleasant Grove and said the crew installed siding and insulation there. Doorn said he has worked in past years in Biloxi and Pascagoula, Miss., after Katrina.

He said the devastation left by the tornado is different from that left by the hurricane.

“Over there, there were houses still standing that needed repair instead of being rebuilt,” Doorn said. “This was pretty much wiped out.”

Doorn said he met the owner of the home on which he worked in Pleasant Grove and she was happy with the work.

“It’s just great to help others,” he said. “I live to help others, and it’s one of my talents.”

Huizinga said residents welcomed the group with open arms. She recalled a 13-year-old boy who stood up to thank the group at a youth service at First Baptist Church in Pleasant Grove but never finished because he was in tears.

“We’ve never stayed in a place or interacted with people in a place who have been so appreciative,” Huizinga said.