CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – “God tells us where he wants us to go,” said Tim Pride, group leader of the Ohio Mount Carmel Christian Church volunteers.
The group has been in Clarksville for almost a week, helping members of the community who are still suffering the effects of the December 2023 tornado with some much-needed home repairs. Mount Carmel, in a joint effort with their partner, 3C Community Christian Church, took on 17 projects in the Clarksville area, bringing in over 100 volunteers to help.
Why Clarksville?
“It started out as a youth trip at our church,” Pride said. “It’s ballooned into something way bigger than we ever thought.”
Their efforts began with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when a group of Good Samaritans from Mount Carmel took the initiative to help the survivors in New Orleans. Since then, they’ve grown in volunteers and have travelled to cities like Joplin, Missouri, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to assist victims of natural disasters with rebuilding and recovery. Pride tells Clarksville Now they brought almost 100 volunteers to Clarksville.
He said they are blessed to have several construction and blue-collar workers attending their church that were willing to volunteer. Each year, Pride and his church look for areas where natural disasters have struck. He heard about the December tornado here and reached out to the United Way to get the ball rolling.
“I look for long-term recovery organizations that we can partner with,” Pride said. “I always tell them, ‘If you give us the jobs and the materials, we’ll take it from there.'”
Long-Term Recovery Group
Kristen Jaggers, manager of the Long-Term Recovery Group for the United Way of the Greater Clarksville Region, said the Ohio volunteers’ presence has been a blessing. “Tim reached out to us in March, and (the volunteers) came highly recommended,” Jaggers told Clarksville Now. “They’re very active in disaster recovery.”
According to Jaggers, when disasters happen, the LTRG makes sure survivors have utilized all available steps in the process, like insurance claims and loans, before stepping in.
“There’s a process they have to go through, and if there’s a funding gap or any type of gap in services, that’s where Long-Term Recovery Group comes in and we can help in that capacity,” Jaggers said.
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She said survivors are vetted by UMCORE (United Methodist Committee of Relief) through disaster case management to assess their needs. Funding for projects is case-by-case since survivors come to LTRG with very specific needs.
“We’re looking at a $5 million recovery that has to happen (in Clarksville),” Jaggers said. “The funds have not been raised, and we actually have a gap in funding for where we currently are based on the need of the survivors that we currently have.”
Jaggers says that LTRG has been trying to do a lot with the money they have, which is why groups like Pride’s are such a blessing. “It allows us to stretch our dollars by having skilled, volunteer laborers come in and help with these projects,” she said.
Unbelievable transformations
Pride said the group was split up into teams to tackle the 17 projects they were assigned in Clarksville. The volunteers have been doing roof repairs, siding repairs, and installing new windows, flooring and even handicapped ramps. A few of the groups focus on beautification, conducting debris removal and chopping fallen trees.
Pride calls the total transformation of their projects “unbelievable.”
For more on getting help with tornado recovery in Clarksville or donating to the cause, go to the Clarksville-Montgomery County Long-Term Recovery Group website.
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