Students join forces, use elbow grease to brighten the City of Woodruff
While most students had a relaxing fall break, 10 students, including trip leader Tina Maurer and trip advisor Luis Sierra, spent vacation in Spartanburg, South Carolina, serving with Christmas in Action.
Christmas in Action (CIA) is a non-profit organization established in 1972 that helps repair homes for the low-income, disabled and elderly in communities across the country. The USC team spent all of Thursday and early Friday repainting the home of Mrs. Syble, an 87-year-old woman who needed repairs done to her home. Previously, CIA workers built a ramp for her walker and railings on the stairs for safety. This year they painted the exterior of her home, including her front porch.
CIA also partnered with the City of Woodruff this year in order to complete a special project. The group helped paint the exterior of two small stores in Woodruff as a part of the Paint the Town movement. Paint the Town is Woodruff's way of making improvements around the city to make storefronts look more welcoming. Passersby showed their gratitude for the work that students were doing and shared how thankful they were of what Paint the Town is doing for their community.
On Saturday, students spent about four hours in the morning organizing charitable donations, such as furniture, cabinets, flooring, tiles, roofing, doors, sinks and tools at the Christmas in Action warehouse from stores like The Home Depot. These donations help to lower the cost of repairs they make in Spartanburg. The companies drop off supplies wherever they see space on the warehouse floor, so it’s the team’s responsibility to organize the gifted clutter.
As Christmas in Action is a small, non-profit organization, they typically don't have a steady workforce to manage these donations. This year's project took a lot of work and power to organize, so CIA was grateful to have such a large group participate.