Video: Volunteers help spruce up homes in Chesapeake

CHESAPEAKE

Frances Maness Flowers is getting some much-needed work done on the South Norfolk home she has lived in since 1959.

The 74-year-old woman has raised four children, three foster children and three grandchildren in the single-story home. The old house needed some painting and fixing.

Flowers' home is one of 26 South Norfolk and Indian River improvement projects being tackled by the volunteer project World Changers, said Sheri Arnold, senior neighborhood resources specialist for the city.

Nearly 300 young people from the program are painting, repairing and landscaping homes in Chesapeake this week. They're helping elderly people, those with low incomes and people with disabilities.

Flowers said 10 World Changers have been pressure-washing the exterior of her home, painting the interior, repairing woodwork and sprucing up her porch and walkway. She jokes about adopting them.

"Oh, they've been fantastic," she said. "I feel like I've known them all my life, even from the first day. They're a wonderful bunch of kids."

It's the fourth year participants have traveled to Chesapeake. The workers come from as far away as California, Arnold said.

" They pay to come," she said. "They pay a couple hundred dollars from their own budget to spend part of their summer vacation to help other people."

Started in 1990, World Changers is a project of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. It provides free labor to communities in need.

The city pays for materials. Local churches provide lunches for the youths, who are staying at Oscar Smith High School.

They arrived Saturday and will leave this weekend, said George Garnett, construction coordinator for the volunteers.

They are doing four roofing jobs, fixing broken windows and doing some landscaping and lots of painting, said Garnett, who retired from Oscar Smith High after 32 years of teaching construction.

Neighborhood Services coordinator Theo McClammy said the funding for supplies is through the city's Neighborhood Improvement Initiatives. To qualify, residents must have a household income for a family of four of less than $64,100, McClammy said.

The program's participants pay about $250 to take part in the weeklong effort, said Sarah Moore, a World Changers spokeswoman. Next week, about 330 volunteers will travel to Norfolk. A group of about 300 will be in Portsmouth in early July, Moore said.

"A really big part of World Changers is youth putting their faith into actions and not just talking about it," she said.

Joshua Moore, 14, of North Carolina and Drake Meeder, 18, of South Carolina are two who are here this week.

"I did it because my brother did it last year and he said it was fun," Moore said. "He didn't tell me how much work it would be." Meeder was in Vicksburg, Miss., last year.

Chaperone Michelle Smith, 25, said youths from the Carolinas, Maryland and Florida are working on Flowers' house.

Working early in the morning, Jessie Barnett, 14, said that she would probably be sleeping at her South Carolina home if she weren't here working.

"I just wanted to be a part of it," she said.

John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com