Good Works Western Charles

Re: Community Well Project

Short Term Project with Long Term Impact

A project to provide clean drinking water to residents of Nanjemoy who presently lack that basic resource is in need of materials for repair and improvement.  The donation of needed items enable Good Works in Western Charles County to complete work on a well October 2009.

Material were provided to enclose a pump house that is badly deteriorated, along with insulation to wrap the tank.  At this time additional work is needed to the pump house.

The house is on the vacant lot at the crossroads of Port Tobacco Rd. and Tayloes Neck Road. The lot had electricity, a well and a septic system a replacement pump  was installed in the well to make it functional.

In order to obtain water, some residents in this area have to travel several miles to a church with an outside faucet that they are allowed to use.  In an effort to alleviate this situation advocates, community and concern persons volunteered their assistance.   This included removal and replacement of the pump in the well, the services of a back hoe operator, installation of a fixture with a garden hose attached, and installation of a light in the pump house .  Additional work is needed for the lights and insulation to avoid freezing in the coming winter.

The property owner is paying the electric bill.  Signs to prohibit use of the well water to wash cars, and prevent loitering, will be posted, and neighbors have agreed to keep watch for those activities.

Upgrading the existing well provided clean drinking water to Nanjemoy residents who are without water. In addition, use of the hose and additional improvements are expected to reduce the number of plastic bottles left lying around.

* The above referenced property continues to be used for the good of the community.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

OVERDUE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE NEEDED FOR ACCESS TO THE HOMEPLACE

A long-lived nightmare came true on March 22, 2010 when a home in Nanjemoy was destroyed by fire, leaving its residents in dire need of assistance.  The 19^th-century structure served as home to several generations of the same family.  The home place stood on a road that for years has been reported as inaccessible to fire and other emergency vehicles.

The grandmother of the current owner of the now-burned property purchased it for $100 in approximately 1935, and then left it to her daughter.  She in turn gifted the homestead to the present owner, who planned to leave it to his sons.

On March 22, prior to a 77^th birthday celebration for the owner’s mother, the building was completely burned.  Also lost were the belongings of a single mother and her two children whom the owner and his wife had taken in when they had nowhere else to live.

After the fire broke out, several 911 telephone calls finally resulted in arrival of fire-fighting equipment.  However, due to the treacherous condition of the road, fireman had to approach the property on foot, dragging hose behind them.  Emergency vehicles from other responders, including from the Red Cross, also were unable to drive close to the burning home.

The poor condition of the access road to the house and other nearby homes has been reported for years to county and other authorities.  Letters of support were sent by the Nanjemoy Fire Department and United Propane Gas Company.  Southern MD. Electric Company employees also reported difficulty accessing the property.

Fortunately, the delay by emergency vehicles did not result in any loss of life.  However, it pinpointed once again the need for assistance with the road/drive way that provides an accessible route to this property.

* JULY UPDATE

The family has a limited amount of funds as well as time to per their insurance company rebuild the 25 x 25 home place.   The first draw has been deposited with the contractor however companies attempting to bring in materials have not been able to reach the property due to holes in the road.

Isamel Wright (New Vision Recycling and Disposal Service), other concern persons, advocates and the community has first put out a call to associates which has resulted in a pending anonymous donation of funds to complete payment for work previously done.

Secondly a call was put out to SUNDAY 8 A.M. WORD FROM GOD participates Candidate for Congress Charles Lollor and Candidate for State Delegate Mike Phillips. An immediate response was received and meetings to collect information and seek donations of anticipated needed materials and back hoe operator are pending.

Isamel and others are seeking IMMEDIATE donations of gravel, raw materials and back hoe operator.  All will seek assistance/ donations from business with these materials particularly Chaney Enterprises.  Several Nanjemoy residents and their family members has and continue to be employees by Chaney Enterprises.  The homeowners family member has been employed at Chaney for 40 plus years.

JULY 2010

OVERDUE EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE NEEDED

TURNING A DELAPIDATED TRAILER INTO A HOME

will be posted A.S.A.P

If you can assist the community with these projects and or to  obtain more information, for any of the projects in the western Charles Communities, please e-mail info@goodworkswc.org .

(CREATING A COMMUNITY HOUSE WITH ASSISTANCE FROM THE COMMUNITY, CONCERN BUSINESSES, CLUBS, NON-PROFITS, CONCERNED CITIZENS, ETC.)

An article in the Maryland Independent newspaper in June 2005 announced, “You really can go home”.  It told the story of a 46-year-old lifelong Charles County resident who was caught up in a cycle of homelessness — never having had one safe place to call home.  The article said this was a story which had a happy ending. The story reported that the woman, who had once lived in the woods, was being assisted with the many obstacles which had prevented her and her daughter from moving out of a rundown trailer without running water in Nanjemoy to an apartment in Waldorf.

What the article did not say is home for the 46 year old had become the Nanjemoy home place of her fiancée’s family.  Once married there were obstacles that       prevented the family from living together in the apartment. There were years when the husband visit the family however eventually the family went back home to the rundown trailer without indoor plumbing.

Due to the economy, zoning laws and a host of hardships an advocate / landlord has a Use & Occupancy permit on a house which has been vacant for many years. The advocate/landlord cannot afford to make the repairs needed to provide affordable housing in the community.  The landlord is seeking a volunteer realtor to assist in the rental of rooms in a created “Community House.” Those with or seeking housing vouchers or on the Section 8 list will be welcomed.  No security deposit will be collected.

Businesses, clubs, non-profit organizations, individuals, etc. are sought to contribute materials and labor to this project. The needed repairs include roof work, plumbing, replacing sheet rock, spackling, some cabinetry work, removing dead trees from the property and painting.  Other assistance includes providing A/C service, landscaping and a storage shed.  Those providing help may advertise their participation and business on the property while assisting in this community project.

If you can assist with this project and others in the western Charles Communities, please check out this and other projects at http://goodworkswc.org/ email us at info@goodworkswc.org

April 2010 update:  New Vision, a trash removal company owned by ,Ishmael Wright known in the community as “The Trash Man,” has offered to provide trash removal service to tenants of the house.  In recognition of this and other services provided to the community the stretch of road in front of the house, located on Tayloes Neck Road in Nanjemoy, will be “adopted” and kept clean in the name of the New Vision trash company and the residents of Nanjemoy.

(repost from the Maryland Independent)

Outreach program holds church on school bus

Friday, March 5, 2010

By SARA POYNOR

Staff writer

On a cold, gloomy Sunday morning in Nanjemoy, an ordinary yellow school bus doubles as a place of worship.

About 25 believers piled onto the bus last weekend to hear the word of God.

A group of ministers and activists from around Charles County started the outreach program last fall to help people without regular transportation to church.

The bus “may not look like a church, but the church is within us,” said Ishmael Wright, who delivered the sermon telling the story from John about the woman and the well, “So I say good morning church.”

As the story goes, Jesus was on a trip back to Galilee from Jerusalem and passed through Samaria where he sat down by a well to rest while his disciples went to get food. A Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus asked her for a drink. The woman was surprised because Jews didn’t typically talk to Samaritans. Jesus told her, if she knew who he was, she would ask him for a drink and he would give her living water and she would never thirst again.

The woman in the story lived a bad life. She had been married to several men and now lived with a man who was not her husband.

Terawana Keys-Bowman, a community advocate with nonprofit Good Works in Western Charles County, believes Wright was saying that “no matter who you are or what you have done, if you believe in ‘the gift of God,’ God has what you need and it’s not too late for change,” she said.

GWWC is a team of advocates under New Life Missionary Baptist Church for Southern Maryland in Bryans Road, that works together to improve the lives of the residents in the community.

Wright encouraged those in attendance to write their story, “Would Jesus be there or would it be all about you?” he asked.

The bus normally sits on a vacant corner lot of Tayloes Neck Road and Port Tobacco Road; but not this Sunday. Instead, the bus parked in a neighboring driveway to prevent getting stuck on the saturated lot.

“I had someone tell me we need raw materials” to fix the lot, said Bowman, “so we are going to work on that.”

Roland Butler, also known as Ronnie, started offering church on the corner — without the bus — in September.

“I was doing it on the corner because God has inspired me and given me that vision” to reach those who don’t have the means to get to church, he said.

However, when winter arrived, Glynn Dickerson of Vessel Ministries in La Plata made some calls and arranged for a bus which would offer warm shelter. “We didn’t want to lose the momentum that we had [started],” Dickerson said.

According to Bowman, “We are really trying to reach the community and let them know it’s their time and they can move forward,” she said.

It’s very powerful “to see your whole neighborhood come together and to see people enjoying themselves when they come,” said Francis Adams, who lives a couple of houses down from the corner.

Yvonne Posey works with Bowman and Adams to mentor and help community residents. “I’m thankful to have the opportunity to provide and receive the word of God,” she said. “Some people are hungry for the Lord and we are trying to reach out to those who don’t go to church. The biggest deal for our residents in the community is transportation.”

Posey’s mother, Frances Robertson, has lived in the community for three years and does not have transportation of her own.

“I love the bus,” she said as she sipped her coffee outside the bus. “It’s good for me and I can’t wait until Sunday mornings.”

As residents prepared to take off and go about their Sunday plans, there was a brief time for fellowship over coffee, breakfast sandwiches and doughnuts.

Charles County commissioners’ Vice President Edith J. Patterson (D) attended the first service on the corner and said, “If it works for the people who are there, if it allows them to gather together under one simple mission, that is to spread God’s word … I see that as a positive,” she said “Sometimes as a Christian person, you have to go beyond the walls” to reach people.

(Community Porta Jon, and Laundry Hut):

The needs of many residents of Western Charles County, Maryland, are too numerous to catalog completely.  In some pockets conditions are so dire that at times the challenge can be discouraging even to those eager to provide assistance.

An article that ran in The Washington Post in January 2006, titled “At The End Of The World,” described the hardships faced by many people in the area, often without decent housing, indoor plumbing, electricity and other basic amenities.  It described challenges faced by a mother of eight who received only $718 a month in food stamps.

Many people are not aware that food stamps cannot be used to purchase cooked food, laundry detergent, toothpaste and other basic items.  Because this impoverished community is 30 minutes away from the nearest Laundromat, the mother used water from a nearby abandoned house to do the family’s laundry, but could not wash white clothes because the water was so badly discolored.  Following this revelation, good-hearted people in the community offered to assist families with their laundry, particularly school clothes and coats.

Another mother without health insurance reported having been hospitalized to have several portions of her colon removed, and receiving a bill for $70,000.  Her condition was exacerbated by the absence of toilet facilities in her trailer, or an outhouse or Porta-John outside.

After a “Chat & Chew” event held in this part of western Charles County, plans were made to return a portable restroom to the site that it had been borrowed from.  Then it was discovered that children waiting for the school bus, and some adults waiting for public transportation, used this convenience when necessary.  It came as a shock to persons no aware of the needs of the community to learn that some children are not potty trained, and some are afraid to flush toilets and use running water at the schools they attend because they are unfamiliar with those facilities.

The Washington Post article further stated that survival can require creativity in Nanjemoy.  In order to creatively address a few of the issues noted above and others, Good Works in Western Charles County is seeking support from concerned people both inside and outside the area.

Among needs are:

Donations to pay for, or the service of sanitation pumping to, the community Porta Jon at least once a month.

A shed (Wash Hut), preferably large enough to house a minimum of four donated washers, to help address the issue of clean clothing.  Donations to pay for hooking up the washers, electrical outlets, laundry detergent, bleach, stain remover, etc. as well as funds to help pay with the electric bill on the donated site.

If you can assist Good Works In Western Charles County with your tax-deductible donation, or to obtain more information, for any of its projects in the western Charles Communities, please e-mail info@goodworkswc.org – Thank You.