Ohio Church Volunteers Finish Hurricane Helene Home Repairs

When five members of St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church in Medina, Ohio pulled up to a Tennessee home in mid-July, they knew they were finishing what hundreds of hands had started two years earlier.

Hurricane Helene had flooded the basement back in 2024, leaving the homeowner with a gutted, unusable space. Volunteers had been trickling in for months, each group tackling a different piece of the puzzle.

Bill Knaggs, Bob Maas, Julie Shrader, Julie Simko, and Pastor Steve Mahaffey spent July 12-17 working under the Carter County Long-Term Recovery Group. They cleaned and painted floors, installed a drop ceiling, wired ceiling lights and smoke detectors, and handled final touch-up painting.

One volunteer painted a vivid picture of the invisible army that came before them. "There were those who did the initial cleanup from the flooding, tore out water-damaged materials, reframed walls, patched flooring, did electrical work, hung drywall and painted," she said. "We were told a group of high school boys on a previous mission trip had the onerous task of breaking through a portion of the cement block wall to make an opening for an appropriate egress window."

The Medina team imagined those teenagers swinging sledgehammers like it was a sporting event, turning backbreaking work into a mission of hope.

Why This Inspires

This story captures something powerful about disaster recovery: it's a relay race, not a sprint. The St. Matthew volunteers didn't swoop in to save the day alone—they were the final runners crossing the finish line after dozens of teams before them.

Project leader Bob Maas kept repeating a quote attributed to St. Francis of Assisi throughout the week: "A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows." Each volunteer group, each painted wall, each installed light fixture was another sunbeam pushing back the darkness left by the storm.

Pastor Steve Mahaffey said the experience reminded the team why they serve. "It's such a blessing to be in relationship with one another and connect, pray and serve as a part of the Body of Christ," he shared.

Before heading back to Ohio, the volunteers renewed their baptism and shared communion beside a flowing creek, listening to the water that once caused so much destruction now offering peace.

The church is already planning a September return trip, this time partnering with volunteers from Bay Village to help more families still picking up the pieces.