NEIGHBORS...
One of the very first neighbors that started coming to the fish fry back when it was at the Mackin was our neighbor Danny. Danny lives on St Cecilia St right across the street from the church. He and his wife bought the house decades ago because his wife liked to sit on the front porch and see the stained-glass windows of the church across the street. His wife passed away many years ago leaving Danny on his own. He kept himself busy volunteering at the Portland Museum, the Portland Festival, being active in community organizations, but the house fell into disrepair, a combination of Danny not having the means to fix it up, and memoires of his wife being too heavy to work on her favorite thing, their house.
Toward the end of last year, codes and regs had started giving Danny fines for the look of the exterior of his house. There were overgrown bushes in the front yard, overgrown trees on the side which had started pulling down the siding along the length of the house. Danny is in his 70s and doesn’t have the capacity to take care of the yard or the exterior of his house. Danny has been such a fixture in the community that we wanted to help him out. Our first task was to tackle the yard and the trees. In the fall last year, we had some volunteer groups come through and clean out all the overgrown bushes, weeds, and trim the low hanging branches on the trees. Danny was amazed when he came home from the Museum that day.
Danny's house before.
We also contacted a tree company based in the neighborhood and had them come out and take out the trees that were tearing up the side of his house. In the middle of the process of clearing out the trees, a storm came through and one of the trees fell across the back yard. If we hadn’t started taking down the other trees before the storm, the one that came down would have most certainly pushed some trees into his house. Once the trees were all down and cleaned up we called some more friends that worked on siding. We were able to come together as a community, replace the falling down siding on the side of Danny’s house, as well as fix all the siding around the porch that codes and regs kept issuing fines.
Danny was blown away at how the community came together to help him fix up his house. He didn’t know what to say. One of his favorite past times is to go to yard sales and thrift stores. Every time he sees something that he thinks we would like; he brings it in to Porkland. Books, pictures, games, toys, you name it. Over the years we started putting up some of the pictures that Danny brings in at Porkland. Danny’s favorite type of picture to bring in is drawings, paintings and artwork depicting Jesus. We decided to display all these different pictures on one wall inside Porkland, creating what we call the Jesus wall. What started as a small collection of Jesus pictures on the large green wall to the right side of Porkland has now spread to almost over the entire wall.
Volunteers painting Danny's porch this week.
This week we were able to put the finishing touches on Danny’s house. We had a volunteer group (pictured in front of the Love mural above) come in on Wednesday and paint Danny’s porch. He was blown away by how good it looked. He called Shawn later that evening to say thank you. Shawn told Danny we’re all just one big family and are thankful for all the work he’s done in the neighborhood over the years.
Danny still comes in every Friday and gets two chicken tacos for dinner and drops off his latest treasure finds. Even though he doesn’t need to, it’s how he shows us love for being a part of his community and family.
Danny's house complete with new siding, and a painted porch.
FISH FRYDAY!
Today is Friday and we have the fish! Be sure to stop by today and get a fresh fish sandwich and side at the fishfry! We're open until 7pm!
2519 St Cecilia St
11am - 7pm
(502)-890-5988
CLASSROOM SCHOOL SUPPLY NEEDS...
We do need help with specific school supplies for our classrooms to get ready for school. We have set up an Amazon wishlist to make sending supplies easy. Just click on the link below to select items from the list and they will be shipped directly to the school.
Mighty Oak Academy Supplies Wishlist
If you are interested in volunteering or to find out more information about supplies needed please email: info@lovecityinc.org or call (502) 272-078.
Please consider partnering financially with Love City. We are looking for sponsors for students at Mighty Oak Academy as well as partners to help fund construction of our new preschool. Click the button below to donate today.