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Valley Home Fellowship Group - Heartwood Outreach

The Heartwood Outreach is an effort to serve members of our community who could use assistance with winter heating. After much prayer, thought, and procrastination, the Valley Home Fellowship Group began this outreach effort in the spring of 2006. Although this effort is very much in its infancy, we are prayfully hopeful that it will be a worthwhile effort. We believe that this outreach represents a common area between local needs and the skills God has blessed our group with.

Program Overview

Through donations, whole logs are purchased in the springtime; we then cut, split, and stack the firewood. After a summer of seasoning, the logs are ready for delivery to the Upper Valley Wood Fuel Bank (http://www.something). With trucks arranged by the Upper Valley Wood Fuel Bank, the wood is then transfered to their storage area in Woodstock Vermont. From there, the wood is distributed to local families and individuals who are in need of assistance. Typically, recipients recieve between one-half and one cord of wood. As the wood is intended to help people through unforeseen circumstances, ongoing reliance upon the fuel bank is generally discouraged.

Why?

Because there is a need and because we feel called to help. In rural New England, economic despair is real but often hidden. In the Upper Valley, poverty is frequently tucked away at the end of long driveways and hidden from the road by forested hills. Motivated by Christian love, we feel that we are best able to bear witness to our faith through our actions. We also feel called to serve those among us who truly need help.

Details

In 2006 we cut, split, seasoned, and transfered 5 1/2+ cords (4'x4'x8' of stacked wood per cord!) to the Upper Valley Wood Fuel Bank. This effort took place over one long day and two half days. On a scorching Memorial Day, nine of us labored all day long just managing to finish the job in time for an early evening swim in a nearby river. After gallons of sweat and a long day of lifting, splitting, stacking, and being covered in sawdust, the day's end was very welcome. Months later, on November 25th and 26th, five of us reconvened to load the wood into a truck supplied by Greg Murphy, of JSM Landscaping. In addition to trucking the wood to the Upper Valley Wood Fuel Bank's storage area in Woodstock, Greg and his wife Shannon, were also kind enough to help load their truck (all four loads!).