What a week of volunteer activity at the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio! The summer heat and humidity subsided enough to enable us to get some yardwork done in relative comfort. Our faithful readers will recall that a group of students from Capital University embarked on Operation Fence Rescue last Wednesday.
Frequent visitors to this site will also recall that this is not a task for the faint of heart! Nonetheless, another group of fearless volunteers agreed to play farmhand for a day and continue the good work started on Wednesday. Nationwide Insurance generously lent FBCO seven lucky workers from their Dublin offices on Friday, August 27. The group picked up where Capital left off and helped turn this…
…into this: 
Mind you, this did not happen without a lot of hard work. Taking a cue from their company slogan, our friends from Nationwide were on both sides of our fence clearing the brush.
Part of the group did some groundwork inside the fence, while others attacked the big stuff on the outside.
This tree didn’t stand a chance against our volunteers!
Thanks to last week’s volunteer groups, 200 linear feet of fence is well on its way to a healthy recovery. Left unchecked, the trees and brush surely would have destroyed our fence.
Our pals from Nationwide were a little weary after working outside all day, but their toil in the soil really paid off. How valuable are volunteers like these? Mere numbers do not begin to quantify the impact that volunteers have on FBCO and the greater community, but we will give it a try. The crack research staff at FBCO estimates that replacing that much fence would cost at least $3,000 in materials alone. The Furniture Bank can turn over 13 empty houses into homes for that amount of money. On behalf of those 13 families and the FBCO staff, we say thanks to Nationwide for continuing the success of Operation Fence Rescue.
Can your volunteer group or gardening club help us clear our fence line of brush and debris? Call Community Relations Manager Sean Becker at 614-272-9544 x212 or e-mail sbecker@FurnitureBankCOH.org to schedule volunteer time.
