Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MENTONE - Community action can be a wonderful thing - especially when it involves helping friends and neighbors in need.
This Saturday, the friends, co-workers and members of the Warsaw Bible Church will put that community action spirit into high gear to help Mitch and Pam Hunsberger of Mentone.
The Hunsbergers were forced to move from their home in July, after an entire wall of their basement collapsed during the heavy thunderstorms that rolled through the county July 20 and 21. Their insurance company refused to pay for repairs because the basement walls were not constructed according to acceptable building codes. There was no steel reinforcement in the walls.
The employees of Chore-Time Brock in Milford, where both Hunsbergers work, are sponsoring a raffle of a TV and VCR to raise funds to help the couple and their five children get back into their home, according Gary Tenney, supervisor for CTB.
"This has always been a company that has cared for the people working here," Tenney said. "The company is going to provide a hopper tub for hauling out the debris and I-beams to prop up the home until they can get the wall rebuilt," he said. "I've also talked to a guy who owns an excavation company and he's going to help us out."
Tenney said the 12 to 15 employees of the maintenance department have volunteered to work the clean-up and support work.
Pastor Doug Fritzel of the Warsaw Bible Church said he is recruiting volunteers from his congregation to help in the samaritan work. The Hunsbergers were members of the church prior to moving to Mentone.
"We're hoping we can have some people go and help them out," Fritzel said. "We were totally shocked after we read the story in the paper. Then I ran into them at the grocery store last week and they were just devastated.
"We'll do what we can do to help them. It's a shame this has happened to them," he said. "I've heard more than one horror story of people being victimized by the situation of the county not having any oversight of construction standards. It's really ridiculous to have as prosperous a county as we have - with the orthopedics industry and all - that we can have this type of thing happening."
Tenney said that he will gladly accept the help from Pastor Fritzel, and anyone else who'd like to lend a hand.
"We'll be glad to see people come out to pitch in a hand, because I'm sure that by noon, those of us who will have been there since 6 a.m. will be pretty tired," he said.
Tenney added those who would like to help can meet his crew after 6 a.m. this Saturday morning. The Hunsbergers' home is at 3895 Viking Drive in Mentone.
