Neighbors help neighbors clean up
By Linda Alice Dewey
Sun contributor
“It’s hard seeing all the trees broken,” comments Dianne Nichols of Arbor Pines. “It reminds me of broken legs and broken arms.”
Nichols and her husband, Fred, are among numerous Glen Arborites whose woods suffered from the Aug. 2 storm. The second week after the storm, a team of seven retirees from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) of Michigan arrived to help those who, like the Nichols, had applied for that help at the Glen Arbor Township Hall. Afterwards, Dianne describes them and the work they did.
“These people do this all over the country,” Nichols says. “Some of them had just come from Colorado the week before. They got the call and came up here.” Every volunteer on the team was dressed in chaps and carried a chainsaw. “There were two women,” she adds, “And the oldest person that was working was in his 80s — I think he was 84. They were professionals; they knew what they were doing,” she observes. “You could tell they’ve done this in other places.”
That said, the SBC team could only do the small stuff. “To us it was pretty big,” she remarks, “but they got a lot of the smaller stuff done. They left the piles nice and neat.”
Nichols is especially impressed with the team’s attitude. “We told them several times, ‘Thank you so much.’ They said, ‘No, we should be thanking you. You’re allowing us to do God’s work. So thank you for allowing us to do this.’ That was pretty touching,” she acknowledges. “All that they asked is, ‘When we’re done, can we all pray together?’ When they were done, they asked for us to all hold hands. We all got in a circle. They said the nicest prayer, thanking everybody. And then they provided us with this Bible; every single one of them signed it. It brought tears to my eyes. And then they all hugged us. They were just very nice people.”
After two weeks in Glen Arbor, the Southern Baptists went home. Continuing that work now is a local crew that originated with a men’s Bible study group that meets Saturday mornings at the Glen Lake Community Reformed Church (GLCRC) in Burdickville.
“The [SBC]…did a lot of work after the storm,” notes Dale DeJager, a member of the Bible study group and of Bay Pointe Community Church on Secor Road near Traverse City. “We realized there was still work to be done. The guys from Saturday morning felt we wanted to minister to the community the way Jesus would. A lot of us have resources that others don’t, so we wanted to help them.” At least three more from Bay Pointe have joined in the effort, which they’re calling, “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” (NHN).
DeJager, who helps organize the work, says that the GLCRC helps the community in several ways. First, there’s Helplink, the Tuesday afternoon operation where people needing help come in and work with someone who connects them with organizations and resource people in the county. Second, the church offers a free community dinner on a Tuesday evening once a month. “The people who usually come are also the people who come to the food bank on Tuesdays at the church. A lot of people don’t have resources,” Dajager points out.”
A third way the church helps the community is through the men’s Bible study group, which includes men from all denominations. Once the men’s group decided to help with the storm cleanup, their representative contacted Glen Arbor Township Supervisor John Soderholm, who shared a list consisting of 19 homes in the community that needed work.
Alan Janulis on Deer Haven near the D. H. Day campground was second on that list. Janulis was worried about three trees close to his home that appeared ready to come down; two threatened his neighbor’s structures. A team of five from the NHN group showed up, among them DeJager, an octogenarian named Homer, and Homer’s grandson.
“Homer is one of the guys who comes regularly on Tuesday night,” explains DeJager. “We found out that for 40 years he had worked in logging.”
“This guy is amazing with a chainsaw,” DeJager exclaims. “He goes in there, looks at trees, says, ‘I need to cut here and here,’ and the tree falls. We just sort of watch him and do what he says and carry the logs away.”
“One tree was really precarious,” Janulis recalls. “It was leaning one way and they wanted it to come down another way; so it was just a narrow area where they planned to fell that tree. They attached cables. One of the guys shimmied up the tree, put chains on it, and attached it to the small bulldozer. Homer’s grandson said, ‘I don’t know about this — I give it a 50/50 chance.’ The tree came down exactly where Homer said, and the grandson said, ‘I guess it was right.’”
Many others from NHN help in various ways. For instance, “John Depuy is renting a chipper and rented for an extra day,” says DeJager. “So we’re going to do some chipping. Another key partner helping us out,” he adds, “is Advanced Tree Removal (ATR) out of Traverse City.” The owner, Rob Mummey, also attends Bay Pointe. His company owns heavier, professional equipment—cranes, a heavy-duty chipper, and trucks—and can help on jobs that are too much for chainsaws.
Here’s the thing. Before NHN was conceived, Mummey was already helping in Glen Arbor. The day after the storm hit, Mummey drove out to Glen Arbor — led, he says, by spirit. “I’m one of those kinds of guys that wakes up in the morning and pray and read my devotional and spirit told me to go,” he explains. He was driving his ATR truck slowly down the street. “There was a lady in distress, and she told her neighbor, ‘Just call any tree company.’ The lady looked up, and I was driving by. She called my name, and I stopped. It was really a God-incident thing. I helped her get that tree off her house.”
He says that, once he helped her, “It just went from there. Then people wanted to pay me to do things. I’ve been doing both paying and non-paying work there. Some people paid and some people couldn’t. I’m not about getting rich,” he points out. Instead, he’s more interested in “helping people and living my faith.” When asked what inspired him to help in the first place, he answers, God.
Mummey, who has been attending Bay Pointe for a year and a half and teaches Sunday school to second and third graders, mentioned his work in Glen Arbor to one of his church elders, who put him in touch with NHN. DeJager says that Mummey called, saying, “I’ve been so blessed around here, I just feel like I want to give back to the Glen Arbor community. If you know anyone who needs the work, please send me the list.”
Mummey is also involved in the Bay Pointe’s disaster relief team and the Freedom Builders ministry. “They build wheelchair ramps, insulate houses, do things for people who can’t afford it,” he explains. When congratulated on his contribution here in Glen Arbor, Mummey replies, “Praise goes to God, because without his help, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. I’m just happy to serve.”
On Saturday, Sept. 26, the men’s Bible study group will offer a “Neighbors Helping Neighbors Free Community Dinner” at the Glen Arbor Township Hall from 4-8 p.m. Food will be provided by Cherry Republic, Anderson’s IGA, Boonedock’s, Western Avenue Grill and Art’s Tavern. Employees of the utility companies, the Leelanau County Road Commission, sheriff and fire departments, the many tree services, as well as businesses and volunteers who helped out the community after the storm will be present.
“The purpose,” reports Bible study group member Bob Johnson, “is to thank the various organizations that worked so hard to restore the community during the first couple of weeks — they will all be invited — and to gather as a community to share storm experiences, discuss continuing needs and give thanks to and recruit volunteers who will be needed to continue with the cleanup for months, if not years, to come.”
“Neighbors Helping Neighbors” will offer a free community dinner on Saturday, Sept. 26, from 4-8 p.m., to celebrate the resilience of the community and thank those who served following the storm. The event is organized by Leelanau HelpLink and Saturday Morning Men’s Bible Study.