Everything changed overnight for Columbus native Greg Mixon, when the Feb. 23, 2019, tornado hit his house on Seventh Avenue North.
“One day you have a house, and the next day you don’t,” he said.
Almost two years later, Mixon was the first beneficiary of Community Recovery of Lowndes County’s home-building relief efforts. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project’s completion, but Mixon received the keys to the new house Thursday at a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“It fills my heart with joy to see a whole city come together to make today happen,” said Rev. Anzette Thomas, the regional recovery manager for United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
She was one of several speakers at the ceremony, including other CRLC board members, some of whom are local clergy, and Columbus Mayor Robert Smith. Rev. Aislinn Kopp of First United Methodist Church is the Unmet Needs Chair for CRLC, and she read a blessing from chapter seven of the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the “wise man who built his house on a rock.”
CRLC is a volunteer organization under the umbrella of United Way and was formed after the tornado specifically to recruit volunteers to aid those whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the storm that ripped through Northside. UMCOR and Mennonite Disaster Services (MDS) worked with CRLC to rebuild Mixon’s house.
“The thing that makes this work so easy and makes it so enjoyable is that it’s faith-based work,” CRLC Board President Nicole Clinkscales said. “Everybody that has put their hands and hearts into this work has believed that except (for) God being the wisdom and guiding principles and all of those things coming together, we could not have done any of this.”
CRLC has repaired or is currently repairing 29 homes and has helped 54 families with rent, food, clothing and utilities, UMCOR Disaster Care Manager Vanessa Walker said.
The organization is working on rebuilding two other houses on 18th Street North in Mixon’s neighborhood. Clinkscales told the audience at the ceremony that CRLC needs at least $10,000 to complete the houses.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency awarded CRLC a $200,000 grant in July 2019 to help rebuild and repair homes damaged by the tornado and subsequent flooding. The grant was originally going to be $250,000, but MEMA redirected $50,000 to other areas in need of disaster recovery aid, Walker said.
The construction of Mixon’s house was close to finished but stopped abruptly in March when the pandemic limited social and business activity, and work did not resume until June, when a group of volunteers from Starkville decided to help, said Chris Adams, the volunteer coordinator for the Mississippi conference of the United Methodist Church.
“We weren’t able to bring out-of-(area) volunteers because we couldn’t safely house them,” Adams said. “We had to rely on local volunteers, and thank goodness that volunteers from First United Methodist Church in Starkville stepped up.”
About 12 youth group members and up to six adults worked on the house, installing kitchen cabinets, painting and doing trim work, said Don Fye, who works with both the youth group and the handyman ministry at Starkville First UMC. The volunteers wore masks and kept their distance from each other as safety precautions.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity, because at the time there weren’t a lot of opportunities to get involved and feel like you could help out,” Fye told The Dispatch.
Mixon’s new house is laid out differently than the old one, with the living room and kitchen as “one big open space” instead of walls separating them.
“It’s a whole lot different and I love it,” he said.
He lived with his mother, Johnnie Harris, while the house was under construction. Harris and Ashley Sanders, Mixon’s daughter, both attended the dedication ceremony and walked through the house afterward, taking it in.
“Thank you, Jesus,” Harris said repeatedly.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.