ARARAT — When Wiley Shore got a phone call from Paulette Welborn four weeks ago, he knew that this could be a good project for North Carolina Friends Disaster Service, for which he is a coordinator.

A week later, members of the Ararat community and Ararat Friends Meeting traveled to Greensboro to meet with the committee who would make the final decision. The committee talked it over and decided to help, provided the owner of the house could raise around $10,000 for the work.

Welborn and other members of Ararat Friends Meeting immediately got to work raising money with the help of other community organizations and now Sharon Goins and her children, Zack, Alex and Montana, are watching their house transform into a home.

Crews arrived at the site on Community Building Road on Monday and with more than 60 volunteers, they were looking to have all of the sheet rock hung by today.

“We have the sheet rock on the way toward finishing,” said Shore Monday afternoon. “The plumbing and heat and air are roughed in and we finished the electrical.”

When the house caught fire two years ago, it was completely destroyed. The family did not have the funds to completely rebuild the house so it has sat on the lot half-finished for over a year. The Goins have been living in a mobile home behind the house in the meantime.

For the next couple of days, the volunteers, will be working to put a railing on the porch, attach the vinyl siding to the outside of the house, hang sheetrock and pour the flooring for the basement. Once all of that is done, some of the crew will come in to case out the house and work on the floors.

The support of the community for the Goins family is one of the reasons Shore was anxious to see the N.C. Friends Disaster Service help with the house.

“The community seems to be behind this house. They are very much involved in seeing it finished,” he said. “Our main goal is to see the children in a warm house before winter.”

Not only did the community members help raise the necessary funds, but they stepped up to help once the volunteers arrived as well. The crews are staying at Ararat Volunteer Fire Department as well as at Ararat Friends Meeting and Anchor Baptist Church. Area churches are also providing meals for the crews during their stay.

One community member is even benefiting directly from the work crews presence. Shore noticed that a neighbor’s roof was in bad shape and sent a crew up to repair it since there are so many hands on site.

Twenty-five of the volunteers are students at Guildford College who are on fall break. According to Frank Massey, who works with the campus ministry at the school, the ministry tries to find students to volunteer for similar projects each year during fall and spring breaks.

“It’s always nice to see them involved in this type of work,” he said. “I was really struck by the need here so I tried to encourage them about getting involved here.”

The original plan was for the crews to work through Friday. However, with the number of people who showed up, many of whom are retired construction workers, Shore thinks they could be painting some of the rooms by Friday.

Welborn and Sharon are still working to raise money to help complete the house. Any donations should be made payable to N.C. Friends Disaster Service and mailed to Welborn at 673 Ararat Road, Pilot Mountain, NC 27041.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.