Pictured are Sofia and John Taylor of Vass, N.C.
John
and Sofia Taylor of Vass plan soon to work as volunteers in hurricane-ravaged South
Florida, they say.
Experienced
at lending a helping hand, the Taylors lived in Harrisburg, Pa., when they
assisted folk affected by Hurricane Katrina (the fifth hurricane of the 2005
Atlantic hurricane season).
“We
made eight different week-long trips, beginning in 2006, to work on houses
damaged by Hurricane Katrina,” John, age 71, says. “We’ve been blessed and want
to ‘give back.’”
The
Taylors moved to Vass from Harrisburg, Pa., in Sept. 2012, and are members of
Sandhills Assembly Church in Southern Pines
The
couple graduated from Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, W.Va., where
John (6’4” tall) played basketball on scholarship after serving four years
active duty in the Air Force.
“I
needed a tutor in Spanish during my third college year,” John says. “That’s how
I met Sofia.”
He
graduated in 1972 and she in 1973; both earned degrees in social work.
John
spent 34.5 years as a “labor relations specialist” and retired in 2004 from the
Pa. department of education. He retired in 2000 from the Air National Guard.
Sofia worked intermittently as she and John raised three daughters. She served
with the Pa. Civil Service Commission and in the education field; she retired
in 2009.
“After
Katrina hit, we trained for a day with the Red Cross,” John says, “but we
volunteered with ‘Lend a Hand,’ a non-profit Presbyterian group in Camp Hill,
Pa. We helped hang dry wall, assisted in electrical repair, food service,
cleaning, and such.”
In
Aug. 2016, rainfall in Louisiana flooded thousands of houses and businesses. In
June 2017, the Taylors worked in Lafayette, La., with “Eight Days of Hope,” a
Christian, non-profit organization associated with American Family Radio.
“The
water was devastating,” John says. “We tore dry wall out of a house that was 50
yards from a river – four feet of water had come in. It’s very humid there.
Lots of people had no flood insurance.”
He
worked with a crew of five or six.
“One
lady’s roof had holes,” John says. “Her house was ruined – mold everywhere. She
had a baby and sons, ages 14 and 12, and they’d been staying in a motel or with
relatives. We put on a roof and dry-walled the house. We got her a couch, bed,
etc. We made her house livable. I wish we could have done more.”
Sofia,
who worked “mostly in food service and cleaning up” in La. says, “I’m always
impressed with the resilience of the human spirit and how grateful people
are.”
John
says that La. people would help N.C. folk if help were needed.
“If
we were suffering and ‘the shoe was on the other foot,’ they would come here
and help us,” he says. “And remember that the Lord said, ‘If you have done
it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.’”
