Mission Serve volunteers are shown at Pamela Taylor's house in the Painttown Community. (Photo courtesy of Paulette Cox/EBCI Housing and Community Dev.)
Housing & Community Development’s Summer Repair Program completed 78 projects in partnership with three church groups that volunteer their services, free of charge. The church groups assisted in improving housing conditions by doing minor construction jobs, roof jobs, and a lot of painting jobs.
Team Effort was in Cherokee from June 1 through Aug. 8. They worked in all areas of the Qualla Boundary. The projects that Team Effort worked on were more extensive then what the other groups could accomplish such as replacing shingled roofs with metal ones, carpentry work when needed and interior/exterior painting of homes. They completed 18 projects
World Changers arrived in Cherokee on July 11 and worked throughout the week on homes in the Big Cove, Birdtown, and Yellowhill Communities. They completed 26 jobs which consisted of installation of new doors, painting, shingled roofs and yard clean up.
Mission Serve was in Cherokee from July 18-24. They completed 34 projects in the Painttown and Wolfetown Communities which consisted mostly of interior/exterior painting of homes and re-shingling of some roofs.
Every Friday, closing ceremonies were held and 35 families were in attendance who received assistance.
The Summer Repair Program will conclude this week. All three church groups have committed to coming back next year to perform much needed repair work on homes.
Source: EBCI Housing and Community Development release
