RE: Story on Wood "Banks" for folks down on their luck

[firefighterjake]

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/01/...-in-maine-but-not-without-some-growing-pains/

 

[Beer Belly]

for some reason, no story.....just headline

 

[Pellet_Pete]

Now that's some community-level organizing! Great story, & thanks for sharing it here.

 

[Swedishchef]

Nice story Jake! The kindness of people still gives me hope for humanity...

Andrew

 

[drewmo]

Has there ever been any effort by Hearth.com members to form local chapters? With a little work, I can only image the good that a couple of like-minded individuals could make happen.

 

[Hoozie]

Locally, the parolee work crew will often go into the woods and cut wood for a wood bank, I presume to work off their community service sentences.

 

[Byrond]

I participated in a program here in upstate SC a few times and after delivering trailer loads of wood to a few "needy" family's I became rather discouraged by I what I saw. Most, not all, of the family we delivered to had able bodied folks living there and never once did they offer to help us process wood

 

[kennyp2339]

Wow, that's awesome, its always comforting to know people care and help other people.

 

[Highbeam]

I participated in a program here in upstate SC a few times and after delivering trailer loads of wood to a few "needy" family's I became rather discouraged by I what I saw. Most, not all, of the family we delivered to had able bodied folks living there and never once did they offer to help us process wood

That's a big problem. I deliver lots of things to the food bank and see nice cars, nice phones, fat people, energy drinks, smoking, etc. It's easy to think that your donation is not appreciated but I just try to imagine the hungry kid at home that needs the food or heat.

 

[newatthis]

Our church processes and delivers wood for local families who use wood heat. I've never participated in this (just recently read an article about it), and found myself wondering if the wood was sufficiently seasoned. It sounded, from the article, that it wasn't. Ever since I read about it, I've wondered how to improve the charitable process by educating the church members and recipients, storing, planning, moisture measuring, etc. Now I'm a little distressed about it. Thanks a LOT, hearth.com!

 

[Byrond]

That's a big problem. I deliver lots of things to the food bank and see nice cars, nice phones, fat people, energy drinks, smoking, etc. It's easy to think that your donation is not appreciated but I just try to imagine the hungry kid at home that needs the food or heat.

We delivered to a few families and I was taking the wood that wasn't seasoned from the folks that were donating and swapping it out for my seasoned wood. I asked several of the families, women included, if they would come help me c/s and deliver wood to others and they always had an excuse as to why they didn't have the time or what not. Just rubbed me the wrong way. However, I do have one lady whom I mow her grass (for free) that also needs wood and she is in her seventies and every time we go by with wood, she spends the whole time helping unload and stack. Needless to say, she is about 1.5 heating seasons ahead