It was Monday, April 18 after the tornados rolled through Raleigh 2 days prior.  I received a call on my cell phone from the Director of the Salvation Army, Christine.  Although we had never met, she had heard about the Green Chair Project and wanted to see if we would be willing to partner with the Salvation Army to help refurnish the homes of so many who had just suffered losses.  I quickly explained to her that we had no experience with disaster relief but she assured me that we were really quite uniquely suited to rise to the challenge.  Well, with their help and God’s provision, we surely did.  The empty warehouse attached to the space we were renting, quickly became a community donation center for everything from water, food, clothing and diapers to furniture and toiletries.  Supplies and volunteers poured in to our warehouse and back out to the community as band-aids for the horrific devastation left by the tornados.

Early on the first morning that our efforts began, I pulled up to the Green Chair to open up the building and there was already a man waiting in his pick-up truck in the parking lot.  He explained to me that he had been a flood victim in years past and so many had helped him that he decided to drive from his home in Goldsboro that morning to help out the tornado victims in Raleigh.  As I took him in the warehouse, he helped me turn on the lights and open the loading dock doors that we had never done before in the unoccupied space.  He asked if we had a forklift.  You see, Mike was a licensed forklift driver and he was pretty sure that we would need one since we were expecting several large deliveries of supplies throughout the day.  ”Mike, as you saw, I barely know how to turn on the lights in this warehouse, yet alone have a forklift!”  And, just as I finished saying that, Mike and I saw a truck pulling up to our warehouse with not just one, but two forklifts on it.  ”Mike, this is just how things happen at the Green Chair.  As soon as we find we have a need, a solution always appears.”  And that’s how things roll at the Green Chair everyday!

Uniquely qualified volunteers like Mike have come along so often.  We have regular-as-clockwork volunteers who are so loyal to show up 2 and 3 times a week and volunteers who drop in every now and then…..but all make an impact and help us achieve some amazing results. Can you imagine cleaning, sorting, organizing and moving donations to make up 50 households?  Well that’s what we’ve been up to since April 16th – that averages out to furnishing almost one complete household a day.

The ReBuild Raleigh Team: The Green Chair Project & The Salvation Army

Since those April tornados, Beth and I have gone from part-time hours to very full-time hours to manage the 4,000+ volunteer hours, nearly 500 furnishings donations, and continue to serve the agencies we partnered with prior to the tornado.    God’s plans for the Green Chair are big – and we are sure of that because we are watching these plans unfold for the Green Chair that are so much grander than we ever imagined them to be.  There is a great need in this community for what this project accomplishes and we expect that this “new normal” will continue on even after the tornado relief work is done. So, please forgive us for phone calls not returned on time, thank you notes not quite completed yet, and mistakes we might make along the way.  We’re learning to adjust to this new pace and even hiring some help to help us keep up.  But what continues to energize us the most, is the great amount of heart and enthusiasm our community has shown by wanting to donate and volunteer and help support our tornado-stricken neighbors.  Your time, furniture donations, and dollars are helping them receive a jump start to new lives with furnishing assistance from The Green Chair Project. It’s exciting to watch for all the good that happens after the storm is gone!