Crossings Church completes service spree

WEST ORANGE — As part of the All Serve project, The Crossings Church had about 120 volunteers and 35 professionals helping to spruce up local buildings April 18.

Among recipients of this service were a Winter Garden woman at her house, a day care, an adoption agency, an elementary school and various lots in need of landscaping.

The Winter Garden woman has lived at the corner of North Park Avenue and West Bay Street for 77 years, said Joy Tewson, director of student ministries.

“Mrs. Bean … mentored John Rees in the citrus industry when he was a teenager,” Tewson said. “She was instrumental in developing better bookkeeping for the industry. Everyone who has lived for the past five decades or more in Winter Garden knows Grandma Olie.”

About a dozen volunteers helped the Bean family set a new patio, clean gutters, build raised beds for flowers, wash windows and fix some things around the home, Tewson said. Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and Heichel Plumbing replumbed the home pro bono, Stone Import Solutions installed new pavers on the porch, Winter Garden City Commissioner Bob Buchanan donated bathroom repair supplies, Sorenson Construction donated lumber and coordinated contracting, and Power Time Electric performed some electrical repairs, she said.

With Bean’s 94th birthday a few days away, volunteers also planned a party with her family, cake and a Squeals on Wheels barbecue. The wheelchair ramp team of Winter Garden Rotary will install a ramp for her April 25.

Around 40 volunteers continued work on the Play & Learn Day School on South Dillard Street in Winter Garden, which 30 volunteers and roughly 15 professional painters worked on April 11 and some will continue to work on through at least April 24, Tewson said.

“Play & Learn kind of looks like a convenience store; it’s not been updated,” she said. “We’re updating the outside with new graphics. Pro painters came last Saturday, and then builders will help replace some of the rotten wood beams in the back porch area, and they’ve also built shutters. That was all pro bono.”

A crew including Dalton & Son Painting painted murals and the inside of the facility, built new furniture, revamped the logo, installed a new sign and put in new fencing and playground equipment, as well.

At the Bethany Christian Services office on the corner of South Boyd and West Smith streets, volunteers planted and trimmed plants and cleaned windows, fences and gutters, and a pair of pressure washers from FourEver Cleaning passing by chatted with volunteers before offering to pressure wash the driveway for free, Tewson said.

“The team (helped) to beautify the home of this wonderful ministry, where babies find families through adoption and couples’ dreams come true as they find their children here,” she said. “The landlord for Bethany contributed $450 for supplies.”

The program provides respite for children in crisis and recruits families to care for them for up to three months, said representative Gina Magrino.

“This project helps getting people to stop by and ask what Bethany is about, the recognition,” Magrino said. “Just bringing awareness to Bethany. Bethany itself has been around for 70 years. Our branch here in Florida has only been here 15. But there’s so much more we can do if we get more people involved. I’m an adoptive parent myself, and I didn’t know until last year this adoption agency was right in my backyard.”

The Spraggs, a family volunteering at that site that day, had just been approved to house  an infant this week until the mother can take it again and can be a mentor to that family, Magrino said.

A team of roving landscapers including Tewson Landscaping Company met in the morning at the post office on West Plant Street and started with areas behind The Sacred Olive, ultimately covering four locations, Tewson said.

Thirty volunteers painted and cleaned Westbrooke Elementary School in Ocoee.

Ace Hardware donated mulch, soil and flowers; Hodgskin Outdoor Living offered carpenters and supplies; and Lowe’s contributed and discounted many supplies to the projects, Tewson said.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].