Ky. students lend hand to flood victims
BY BRITTANY HART bhart@therepublic.com
Timberly Trueblood knows how much life can change in a matter of minutes. Her mobile home in Candlelight Village was destroyed by the June 7 fl ood. Three months later, college students she had never met were helping to repair her family’s residence. “You have to accept help from anyone... you can’t do it all by yourself,” Trueblood said. “It’s taking a lot of people, a lot of heart and a lot of soul to get it done.” About 100 students from four Kentucky colleges performed major repair work on three Columbus homes and 12 mobile homes in Candlelight Village, Friday and Saturday. The largest fl ood-relief group in months, according to United Way, arrived Friday from campus ministries at University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, University of the Cumberlands and Morehead State University. Coordinated effort SharaLeigh Fries, member of The Living Room church in Columbus, and her sister, Emily Yancey, a University of Kentucky student, coordinated the fl ood-relief efforts through United Way and Bartholomew County Long-Term Flood Relief Team. The group split into teams and installed insulation, vapor barriers, siding and skirting on the mobile homes and performed other major repair work on houses. “We do it because we love Jesus, and we just want to help people,” student volunteer Lindsey Jones said. John Boyle, construction coordinator of Bartholomew County Long-Term Flood Relief Team, aided in organizing the students’ repair projects. The group had construction experience from past storm- relief efforts in Louisiana, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and more. “We’re trying to make the world a better place and share the hope of Jesus Christ,” said student volunteer Peggy Ray, 20. Powerful experience Trueblood, who lives with her family in a Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home in Heritage Heights in Taylorsville while repairs are being completed on her Candlelight Village mobile home, said it must be a powerful experience for the students to see how people’s lives have been altered by the fl ood. “I had no idea it was this bad,” Jones said. “There’s so much devastation that people outside of this area don’t know about.” The student volunteers were moved by the flood stories of the Columbus residents they were helping. “Even though the fl ood was a few months ago, it still seems to be very fresh in their minds,” Ray said. The Trueblood family, whose mobile home is almost fully repaired, was grateful for the volunteers’ help. “There are a lot of good people in the world, said Robert Trueblood. “This has shown it here today.”
ANDREW LAKER | THE REPUBLIC Student volunteer Marcus Bradbury staples a vapor barrier under a mobile home Saturday at Candlelight Village.
