Recently two Herald reporters visited two homes on South Bridge Street to take photos of renovations taking place.

The renovations were labors of love by two youth organizations and Habitat for Humanity.

Members of the Fresh Boys Club and the Farmville United Methodist Church watered and hung plants in backyards, cleaned porches, scraped porch steps in order to be repainted, and renovated an outdoor picnic table.

More than two dozen teenagers, adults and children spent hours making repairs, speaking to residents of the homes and taking breaks for picnic lunches and sips of water and Gatorade.

George Waters wrote the feature about the collaboration, which ran in last week’s edition of The Herald. In the article, Farmville United Methodist Church Youth Minister Lyndsie Blakely, Habitat Volunteer Coordinator Alanna Rivera and Fresh Boys Club President Louis Gould III gave a really meaningful responses concerning why they chose to organize this project:

“You can make a difference any day, at any age,” Rivera said.

“Instead of traveling away from our community, why not help our literal neighbors?” Blakely said.

“I’m always preaching to them about volunteering y’know, always lend a helping hand,” Gould said.

One resident of Bridge Street, Ruth Ellen Watkins, is in her 90s and has lived on the street for years.

She and her daughter, Delores Scott, praised the youth organizations.

“We really appreciate the work that is being done,” Scott and Watkins said.

They spoke about the lessons the youth are learning through the project, such as civic engagement, collaboration with peers from different backgrounds for meaningful causes and opportunities to learn more about themselves.

There are so many ways we could spend our summers. The youth organizations and Habitat for Humanity set a fantastic example to follow. We have countless opportunities to know our neighbors, to bridge gaps, to better our communities.

Thank you to Habitat, to Farmville United Methodist Church, to Fresh Boys Club for the meaningful impact your work has and continues to have in our community.