Homeowner Richard Peters (left) works with volunteers to clear dozens of trees from his driveway.
“Four years later and Marianna still has tarps in places,” said MDS volunteer Rhoda Yoder. “We had a lot of people come to help us so we wanted to come help here.” Her son, Kevin Yoder, is associate pastor at Rivertown. “We remember what it meant for people to come help us and give us hope,” he said. “We wanted
around debris as best he could. The couple doesn’t have the money to pay a tree-clearing business. “There was a man who came by the house a couple days after Hurricane Ian hit. He wanted to charge $5,000 a day to clean up the driveway,” recalled Richard. “I said, ‘I’m on social security—does it look like I can afford that?’” Every day after the storm struck, Richard worked to make repairs. But he couldn’t budge the trees that volunteers were cutting and stacking into piles for him to use as firewood. “We’ll have to live 50 more years to burn all this up!” said Dixie, smiling as she watched MDS volunteers clear a particularly stubborn, precariously dangling limb—after seven tries. Dixie cheered aloud when the limb finally came down. “These guys are on the ball,” she said. “This is the most fun I’ve had in years!” Part of something bigger People in Florida who were once helped by MDS themselves found an opportunity to come to Arcadia to work for a day or two helping Hurricane Ian survivors. In late October, 11 volunteers arrived from the Rivertown Church in Marianna, Florida. Their church hosted volunteers for more than three years as MDS responded to Hurricane Michael, which struck that community in October 2018.
to help others.” Karen Grice said she volunteered for MDS because she wanted to be part of something bigger than herself. “Nobody will know I’m here—they just know the work gets done,” she said. “We had so much help from MDS.” Her husband, Jeremy Grice, uttered in a prayer his hopes for those recovering from Hurricane Ian: “God, we ask you to be with them, and reaffirm their faith that people are here, and people will help them.” — Susan Kim
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behind the hammer
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