Harrisburg Tornado, follow-up

Work is underway at the Tolbert House in Harrisburg Illinois. Volunteer teams have been working to transform this house into a home for Rita and her three beautiful girls (Bri 5, LeLe 3 and Khloe 17 months). Karen Foster, who was instrumental in bringing Rita's plight to our attention as well as organizing local donations of goods and services has been working to find interim accommodations for the Tolberts as well as helping with the coordination of the skilled labor and structural work completed to this point.

Approximately 80% of the demolition work has been completed, but we are still in need of volunteers to help finish the removal of damaged materials. You can volunteer for general demolition work by emailing us here. As soon as the demo work is complete we can move forward with the base service restoration and repairs, consisting of rewiring where necessary and the replacement of the water heater along with minor plumbing repairs. While we have received donations from local people and churches and generous offers from others nationwide, project donations are still needed in the form of supplies, labor, money, etc. We are specifically in need of donations of carpentry and dry-wall labor and supplies as well as volunteers later on for painting and finish work.

There are still numerous tasks to complete, and your help is still needed. Our volunteer coordinator Dylan Stanek has finished his spring term at Cornerstone and will begin volunteering full time for the Tolbert House Project. He will be returning to Harrisburg, IL on May 11th and plans to remain there until the project is complete.

If you would like to donate or volunteer to this project please contact us. You may contact Dylan Stanek regarding any questions, donations, and how to get involved volunteering by clicking here. We appreciate all of your donations, support, help, and prayers. On behalf of the Tolbert family, the town of Harrisburg, IL, and our volunteers, Portlight Strategies Inc. would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to you. Your support is a key element in our ability to continue helping the Tolbert family and those we haven't identified yet. Please keep checking in to our blog and website; more updates will be on the way.

Harrisburg Tornado, follow-up

(L) Rita Tolbert and her three daughters. (R) The house donated by the community.

While Portlight lends itself to disaster relief, generally in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, in keeping with service to the un-served and underserved, we try to help specific people when a pressing need becomes apparent.

Thanks to the hard work and diligence of one of our volunteers, Dylan Stanek and the tireless efforts of Karen Foster, a business woman in Harrisburg, one such case has come to to our attention and we are moving forward to help the community and this young woman.

Rita Tolbert is the single mother of three who lost everything in the tornado; she and her children are staying with friends while they try to find someplace to live. They lost all of their clothing, toys for the kids, furniture, appliances...all of those things most of us take for granted. Rita works as a home health care worker for the elderly and while she has been working steadily since the tornado, she can't seem to find anything affordable and has been relying on the kindness of friends (she has no close family in the area) to have a place to stay.

Enter Karen Foster and Dylan Stanek. Dylan volunteered for Portlight in the immediate afetrmath of the storm, helping with clean up and relief work, where he met Karen Foster, a local business owner, who tols him about Rita and her plight. Through Karen's diligence a house was found that could be had for the cost of back taxes and closing costs. The house is in need of repair, having suffered a minor fire and some years of neglect, but the structure is sound and very reparable. Several churches in Harrisburg have committed to paying the tax bill and the closing costs. Several volunteers, including Dylan, have stepped forward to pledge assistance in repairs.

That brings us to Portlight, and what we can do. Rita and her daughters (Bri 5, LeLe 3 and Khloe 17 months) need our help. The repairs will require money and materials to complete, we'll need volunteers to help with the repairs and Rita and her daughters will need all the little things that make a life. The Tolberts are counting on us...

Anyone interested in volunteering for repairs should email us here or comment on our Wunderground.com blog. The need is immediate; we want to start work as soon as possible. Stay tuned here and our blog for updates.

The email address and blog will be monitored closely and any volunteers will be contacted as quickly as possible for further information and instructions.

Portlight Strategies, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit organization dedicated to meeting the specific needs of un-served, underserved and forgotten people.

Portlight Strategies, Inc.
60 Fenwick Hall Allee Unit# 721
Johns Island SC 29455