Last Tuesday night 
at First United Methodist Church, a Great Days of Service meeting took place and most of the meeting was dedicated to the discussion of whether or not to spend volunteer hours and funds on the beginnings of a complete rehabilitation of the old First Christian Church on the southeast corner of Denny and O’Connell Streets. The Great Days of Service committee chairs Clyde Hepner and Bruce Evans had previously met with Keep Howe Beautiful President Monte Walker to lay out a plan to complete the restoration in several phases. Due to support from the Great Days of Service committee, the first phase will be completed this weekend.
The old church will get new paint and the windows and doors will be covered temporarily until phase two begins. All of the weeds, trees and brush around the structure will be removed and the landscaping will be beautified by Keep Howe Beautiful.
The window coverings to protect the interior will be painted to simulate windows until the new glass is ready to go in. The City of Howe obtained two quotes for renovation back in 2009 and 2010, but both estimates were over $450,000 and the highest was $693,000. $11,500 was factored in to the remediation of the removal of asbestos from the outer layer of the shingles. These estimates were to completely renovate the building to one of the finest structures in the city.
Walker, who is also the Director of Economic Development is putting together a committee to start phase two of the project which is to renovate the building with a price tag that is a fraction of the previous quotes. He has recruited local pastors and members of each local church to start a community rally effort to “Save the Church.” After talking with the leaders of Great Days of Service and the agreement was made for phase one, Walker scheduled estimates from three foundation companies to fix the flooring, which would make the rest of the restoration feasible.
“I would like this to be a community vested project. It’s already being jump-started by one of the best community-based groups – Great Days of Service.” said Walker. “I’m envisioning a rally of “Save the Church” with fundraisers such as t-shirts sold, engraved bricks and other ideas to raise the funds necessary to get the old building back to being structurally sound and ready for use for various different ideas.”
Walker sees the building used for shared church needs as well as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, weddings, rehearsals, dinners, civic clubs, or even private businesses such as florists or coffee shops.
“This will involve sweat equity from community members as well as monetary donations from community members. We hear and read about people’s frustrations with the current status of the building and now is their opportunity to help. ” said Walker.
Great Days of Service is looking for volunteers to help with various projects this weekend. Several sponsors have donated money to the project such as SmithGarner, PC, AAAA Automotive, Baker Heating and Air, GCEC, Howe Family Dentistry, Sonic, Neil Plumbing, Number 1 Fitness and James W. “Dub” Hall.
The work will start on Thursday and go through Saturday with a breakfast each morning to start the day.
The committee has identified several homes and yards that need cleanup and will be working in these locations on these days. In order for Great Days of Service to consider a project, it must meet their criteria of a non-rental property. It also has to be someone in true need of help outlined by the organization guidelines.
The organization started in 2005 and have had over 200 projects since then. It has been under the leadership of Don Hurst for the past six years, but he has stepped aside and now is a committee member while Hepner and Evans lead the efforts.
“I don’t think you can drive on a street in Howe that we haven’t worked on.” said Hurst at last year’s closing luncheon.
The organization patterned themselves after Sherman, who had a Great Days of Service organization. The First United Methodist Church of Howe had a minister who was interested in the program and chartered Howe’s group and created an alliance with the First United Methodist Church in Sherman.
Great Days of Service raises all of their own funds. They don’t ask FUMC to support them, but they do have a lot of contributors from the church.
“As far as the jobs, the person must be physically or financially unable to take care of their place. A lot of these jobs are given to us by the code enforcement office here in Howe.” said Hurst. “The reason they give us these jobs is that the office feels that the people are worthy of receiving help or needing help. The city is not interested in fining the residents, but rather helping them out.”
The organization is looking for younger help as the majority are 65 and older. One man of 82, did most of the brushwork on last year.
For the past several years, Great Days have been building wheelchair ramps that have to be built to standard code by the American Disabilities Act. They are now constructing aluminum ramps and they can be transported and re-used when the house no longer needs the ramps.
Hurst says that the most rewarding project he ever worked on was on Duke Street on a house owned by widowed Dorothy Emmons.
“The roof was completely gone. Buckets were everywhere and the floor was caved in and the ceiling was about to collapse.” said Hurst. “She was such a jewel. I approached Lone Star Roofing in Van Alstyne and because we were with Great Days of Service, they put a new roof on for her. They did everything and it was at least $8,000 of work. But just to see her happy was worth everything.”
Hurst says that the only way the organization will survive is to get some new people involved and in particular, young people. They are looking for 30-50 year-olds to help.