West Asheville, NC – Nov. 9-15, 2025

A group of ten young people, six women and four men, arrived from Penn Yan, New York, and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on Sunday evening, November 9, to work on repairing houses. A second group of ten, all men from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, arrived to help build residential bridges.

One of the teams finished the painting at Monica’s house on Monday. This house is now completed, and the job card is signed off. On Tuesday, the team finished the siding at Susan’s house and then moved on to Ron’s house. All week, this hardworking, efficient team, under the direction of crew leader Daryl, worked on installing siding.

Another team finished the roofing at Annette’s house, working in freezing, snowy weather early in the week. After a day of demolition work in one room, they worked on the rim joist and floor joists. They insulated the walls and floor and installed subfloor, drywall, and windows. Doug, their crew leader, called them the “E Team,” acknowledging them as an Excellent team, not an “A Team” for average.

A lot of hard work happened at Theresa’s house, where Nathaniel served as crew leader. As part of the prep work for installing flooring throughout the basement, they had to grind away uneven cement that had been added by volunteers from another agency. Others in the group sanded, caulked, and painted the walls. They laid flooring in the fireplace room and one of the bedrooms.

Highlights for the weekly volunteers this week include:

• Receiving the gratitude of the people

• Getting to set steel on the bridges

• The opportunity to work on the roof

• Connecting with other volunteers in the group

Rev. Marcia Mount Shoop, pastor of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, joined us for supper Thursday evening. She spoke to us about the transfer of this Presbyterian church building and property to the Reparations Stakeholder Authority of Asheville (RSAA). Initially, some in the presbytery objected to giving the property to RSAA. The day before the vote was scheduled, Asheville was hit by Hurricane Helene. During this tragic disaster, the community banded together to help one another. By the time the actual voting meeting took place, the vote was unanimous to convey the property to RSAA. Now, RSAA is grateful to partner with MDS in serving the community of Asheville.