Volunteers

Ada Gets a HOBY Facelift!
by Stephanie Guigou

Over 200 high school volunteers took Ada, Ohio by storm this Saturday. The high school student ambassadors and facilitators were a part of the Ohio-West Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar, hosted by Ohio Northern University.

Many groups of ten or more traveled to local organizations and homes that needed help cleaning and organizing. Others stayed at the University to paint and sew projects that could be mailed to organizations that needed help outside of the town.

“I didn’t know it was this much fun,” Ron, an ambassador, said about volunteering at the Ada Fire Department. “When you first get started, you think, ‘Oh, it could be fun,’ but once you get started you see it is a lot of fun.”

Fifteen student ambassadors and three facilitators spent their five hours, from 10am to 3pm at the firehouse.

“It’s an all-volunteer staff, so they are never here except when they get called,” Kurtz said, “And they don’t want to have to come back to clean and wash the trucks.”

The volunteers washed the five fire trucks – inside and out – cleaned the floor and inside of the bay, and scrubbed the tall ladder on the truck.

“I like their attitude,” Andy Badertscher, a four-year volunteer firefighter, said. “These are definitely fine young men and women. The can-do attitude and willingness to make sure a job’s complete.”

He also added that they get along really well with each other.

“Would you believe they met each other 20 minutes before you saw them?” Kurtz said.

Another Ada couple had the same remarks about the HOBY volunteers that came to their house to clean up.

“They’ve been so friendly and cooperative, it’s just awesome,” Peggy Garbrecht, Ada resident said. Her husband said he didn’t think he’d ever see his yard in such great of shape.

“And all he had to do was show them what he wanted,” his wife, Peggy said, “and boom! It was done.”

The Garbrechts own a house and a rental property next door that had needed help for over a year, Dennis said. However with his heart surgeries and her two hip replacements, it made it difficult to maintain.

A couple months before HOBY ambassadors arrived, the contractor for the Garbrecht’s new garage stopped the operation after receiving his check. The garage not only was missing siding still, but there were still lumps of dirt, holes and rocks everywhere.

Ambassadors weeded around the two houses, broke apart the ground to level the dirt, trimmed bushes and swept their basement, which had recently been retiled after a flood.

“I think they’re a blessing from the Lord,” Peggy said, “They’ve done a marvelous job.”