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HARVEST, Alabama – Hundreds of volunteers were out again Friday in Madison County’s tornado-scraped northwest quadrant, and they’ll be needed again today and beyond for a task that isn’t nearly finished.

About 350 workers were dispatched Friday from the community staging area at Phillips Park, and another 300 went out from the main staging center at Huntsville’s First Baptist Church at 600 Governors Drive.

The Phillips Park operation is closed today, although some crews will meet at the Sparkman Ninth Grade Academy at the intersection of Jeff and Ford Chapel roads.

Beginning Sunday, all volunteers will be dispatched from First Baptist in Huntsville. The stack of property owner requests for help there was an inch thick Friday afternoon, waiting for today.

Most of the hardest-hit areas have had help, although they can all use more, so one focus Friday was the smaller areas not caught in the main twister’s path.

What’s still needed? United Way volunteer coordinator Todd Kirk listed chain saw crews, including “pullers” to haul sawed limbs to the street; recyclers to begin removing debris to central locations; and warehouse volunteers to sort donated items.

The volunteer effort cranks up at First Baptist this morning at 9 a.m., and volunteers will be dispatched Sunday morning as well.

The jobs volunteers are doing range from large to very small. At John Lee’s house on Autumn Lane, tasks went from moving large appliances to looking for Lee’s wedding ring. Volunteers were working hard at both Friday.

Nearly 80 volunteers Thursday and more than a dozen Friday made short work of the downed tree cleanup, but the ring remained elusive. Lee can’t wear it because various ailments have swollen his fingers, and he left it in the house when his family fled to a below-ground shelter the night of the tornado.

Volunteers did find several of Lee’s Army medals and decorations from his military service, and that brought a smile to niece Tanya Hendrix.

What does volunteer help like this mean to homeowners? It can mean the difference between giving up and deciding to start over.

Hendrix said her aunt and uncle, both senior citizens, were thinking of not rebuilding. The volunteer response gave them heart to start again, she said.

Friday’s volunteers looked like the cast of a Benetton clothing ad, just as they have every day since the storm. Workers came in every color, age and size in the human catalogue, and they took visible pleasure working together to help others.

Dang Coppock, a native of Thailand who lives here now with her husband, was typical. “We need to stick together,” she said.

A little more than a mile away, it was teenagers from Oakwood Academy in Anderson Hills hauling furniture out of the decapitated home of Oakwood University professor Dr. Derek Bowe’s family.

“I want to give back,” academy student Ben Brooks said. “So many people have done so much for me.”

Complete coverage from The Huntsville Times

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