By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

Ron Osborne was a little worried.

The leader of this week’s Guilford College contingent of the Friends Disaster Service expected to be helping construct a new home for the Martinez family, whose house was destroyed in the Nov. 16 tornado in Riegelwood.

“I expected to be on a rooftop somewhere,” he said.

But the group’s leader had to bow out at the last moment when his wife was injured. Then weather delays and other problems prevented most of the work on the Martinez home. Osborne ended up being in charge of several home repair and construction projects, spending much of his time running between jobs scattered around the storm’s path.

“You do what you have to,” he said. “That’s what it’s about.”

Spring break at Riegelwood?

The Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, brought 75 college students and adult volunteers from Guilford College and Quaker congregations to Riegelwood last week. The Friends schedule disaster relief missions around spring break at Guilford College so more students can participate in the effort.

“This is an exercise in faith for them,” Osborne explained, gesturing at a nearby roof covered with workers. “They’re putting to use what they’ve learned about helping others, and they’re learning to get past their differences.

“We have students from everywhere here,” he said. “We have a student from Alaska up there, and one from Kenya. We have a wide spectrum of young people. They have to learn to tolerate each other’s differences, and they have to agree that a shingle is a shingle, and a chalk line is a chalk line, and the shingle goes here or there. It’s a start toward getting along.”

Some people think the students are paid for the work, Osborne said.

“This is all volunteer,” he said. “Some folks can’t understand how we will do that – maybe it makes them think.”

The spirit of cooperation, Osborne said, is an important part of the workers’ testimony as individuals and a group.

“People are going to disagree sometimes, and there will be some spats,” he said. “People are people. But by learning to deal with that, we can work together, and maybe somebody will notice that there aren’t many cross words, and no foul language, and it will make them examine themselves a little closer.

“St. Francis of Assisi said, ‘Spread the gospel, and use words when you have to’,” Osborne said. “We try to practice that. Actions speak much louder than words.”

Taking their time

Osborne said he began making contacts in Columbus within a few weeks of the storm.

“I knew there was little we could do until the damage was cleared out,” he said, “so we took our time. We like to have as many volunteers as possible available to work on a project.”

Osborne is no stranger to disaster relief – he has participated in recovery efforts for several hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina. Several of the Friends Relief Society who worked in Riegelwood last week –including Osborne, Floyd McBane, head of the N.C. Friends Disaster Relief Team – made multiple trips to Louisiana and elsewhere.

Max Carter, coordinator for campus ministries at Guilford, once worked at a Friends school in war-torn Ramallah, Israel, where destruction was a part of daily life.

Hurricane and tornado relief figure heavily in the experiences of the Friend’s crew who visited Riegelwood. After Hurricane Katrina, Osborne’s three children learned first-hand about helping others.

“They knew Daddy did these things,” he said, “but they’d never seen it.”

An engineer with Duke Power, Osborne helped restore electrical service in hurricane-damaged areas. His children accompanied him on a trip to Louisiana.

The two boys and their sister became more nervous the closer they got to Louisiana, Osborne said.

“We had heard of the crime and the other problems down there,” he said. “They began asking, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I told them, ‘People always say they wish they could do something – you’re doing it.’ That’s the difference, I think. There’s a point where you have to stop talking and start helping people.”
When weather and inspections kept the Friends from completing the Martinez home, Osborne said, the group didn’t give up.

“Sometimes things happen,” he said. “Sometimes, you have to adapt. There were still people who needed help.”

Instead, the group re-roofed three homes, repaired the floors and walls of a damaged trailer, built several stoops and performed other repair jobs.

They even repaired the ductwork under an elderly woman’s home. While the woman’s home didn’t have any major storm damage, she told the workers she had used a space heater since the storm, since some of her heating system was damaged.

“Some of these things might not be storm-related,” Osborne said, “but we have the time and the people to help.”

The students worked hand in hand with members of the Sophia, Chatham, and other Friends Meeting houses to get the subflooring installed on the Martinez home.

Most of the supplies came from the central relief warehouse in Riegelwood, Osborne said, but others “we bought as we needed.”

“It’s all about following the word of God and helping others,” Osborne said. “Besides, we didn’t want the kids to get bored. We can’t just reschedule 75 volunteers.”

“When you have a group like this,” Osborne said, “you have to keep them busy.”

Several members of the college group have also participated in other storm recovery efforts, Osborne said.

“We always seem to end up near a paper mill,” he laughed. “Louisiana, here in North Carolina. It’s getting to be a standing joke with our crews.”

‘Powerful’ experience

Laura Herman and Matt Blalock were just two of the Guilford students to participate in the week’s efforts. They were part of the group who moved into the sanctuary at Riegelwood Presbyterian Church last week, converting pews into cots, and the pulpit into a small social area.

Since the students spend so much time in the vaulted A-roof room every day, they’ve learned to take quick catnaps while waiting turns at the shower, or while waiting for meals. On Thursday, students arranged their clothes, napped, or talked quietly in groups, careful not to disturb others.

The scene was reminiscent of almost any college dormitory, except there was no loud music or alcohol. Most of the chaperones for the group stayed in the bunk bed-equipped Sunday school rooms in the other end of the church.
Herman said the working vacation was a “powerful” experience.

“Instead of serving yourself,” she said, “you’re serving others. It’s a very powerful, satisfying feeling.”

Blalock, who is a photographer for a weekly newspaper in Greensboro in his spare time, agreed. He took 1,500 photos of the week’s work, he said, to help document the group’s relief efforts – and hopefully encourage others to participate.

“There’s nothing like helping someone,” he said. “It’s hard, and sometimes we don’t have good places to stay, but I love it. I get a lot out of helping out.”

While the Friends supplied a big part of this week’s workforce at Riegelwood, a multi-denominational effort provided logistical support for the students and adults.

Three meals per day have been served at Riegelwood Baptist Church since just after the storm. A mobile shower unit from the United Methodist Church relief group was set up outside the Presbyterian Church in Riegelwood, which was converted into a dormitory to help house the students and their leaders.

(The dormitory will be featured in an upcoming issue of The News Reporter.)

Osborne said the entire community was “as nice as they could be.”

“People have reached out in more ways than one,” he said.

Students took the time to meet with youth at Riegelwood Baptist for a pizza social, and some of the Friends attended services at area churches. Osborne said it gave the group the chance to give people a better impression of the Society of Friends.

“Everybody thinks of the stereotype of the Quaker Oatmeal or the Amish,” he said. “It’s not like that. We have conservative, evangelical Friends, but not all are like that. We have a lot more in common with other denominations than people realize.”

The image isn’t as important as the result, Osborne said.

“We’re all here for the same reason,” he said. “To help someone out. You never know if you’ll need the same kind of help someday, or if someone you helped will make a difference in someone else’s life.”