Shared by Ed Hultgren, SURV Firewood Bank | Ozark, MO
Like many other parts of this great country, here in our region, we have some kind hearted and giving people. One of these men who had been involved in giving away firewood before moving to our area wanted to "come and help me sometime". He misses running his saw. I said, "I only have wood to split at the moment, no saw work".
In early December, I had another friend come and help me drop about 20 long dead ash trees at a church property near our wood yard. I thought I'd have weeks before I needed to buck them up into 16" rounds but the pastor drug them all up into a pile surrounding my trailer. I asked the Lord for help and he answered me.
I reached out to this volunteer, who I hadn't even met yet and he said, "I'd be glad to come buck them into 16" rounds for ya."
I said, "There's a lot of wood there, just do what you can with the big logs and if you can, cut my trailer free but you don't have to do it all".
He went to the site while I was at work.
When he finished, I asked him to send a photo so I'd know how more there was to do.
He sent a photo of the many cord of 16" rounds! He'd bucked the entire pile of trees for us!
His name is Mike but I call him the mystery volunteer because I still haven't met him.
Is there any resources around Cumberland Virginia.
Here's what the stack of logs looked like when Mike, the mystery volunteer was done that day. We all know that things get done in the non profit wood world through wonderful volunteers. I'm grateful for so many over these 15 years and hope this short story encourages others and reminds them to cherish and thank their volunteers regularly. Stay safe out there.