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Over the weekend, the Fuller Center and local churches organized hundreds of volunteers to clean up an area of Troup County destroyed by a tornado on March 26. 

It was an enormous undertaking, and somehow it was all organized in just a couple of weeks.

Of course, we’ve seen Kim Roberts of the Fuller Center work these kinds of miracles before. People in Beauregard, Alabama and the thankful residents of many Fuller Center-built homes will attest to that. 

Not to be forgotten was Randall Hamer of the Freedom in Christ organization, who helped Roberts and the Fuller Center organize the cleanup.

And while the organizers deserve a ton of credit, you can organize an event, advertise it and ask people to spend a beautiful Saturday cleaning up storm debris for the rest of the eternity, but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be successful.

For that to happen, you actually need the community to buy in. 

You need people to feel led to give up a Saturday. 

You need folks who are going to roll up their sleeves and help their neighbor, just because it’s the right thing to do. You need people who aren’t going to take a look at the tornado damage — which looks like a war site — and feel overwhelmed. 

Thankfully, there’s a lot of people who fit that description in Chambers County, Troup County and the surrounding area. 

Moments like Saturday prove over and over again how many are willing to give back to others who really need assistance.

More work is needed in the area off West Point Road where the tornado struck, and in other parts of Troup County.

That’s for sure.

But Saturday was a significant clean-up effort where a lot was accomplished as people work to get their lives back to normal. 

Thank you to everyone who played a part.