News

The Need That Found Us

Wouldn’t it be good to…

How would you finish that sentence? Wouldn’t it be good to—what?

Harvard University’s recent commence­ment speaker, Bill Gates, asked the ques­tion, “Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?” His message to the young graduates was that we all have a role in helping others, and that the “highest human achievement” is reducing inequity.

Todd and Emily Abedon agree. Ten years ago, feeling grateful while walking with their first-born child, the couple was thinking about ways to give back, when they envisioned a creative way to address a community-wide problem: emergency home repairs for those who could not afford them. So the couple sought the advice of Coastal Community Foundation’s program staff who showed faith in the project at the outset. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Operation Home, the grassroots nonprofit the Abedons decided to establish in 1997 to respond to housing issues.

Over the past decade, Operation Home’s mission to provide safety, handicapped accessibility, and dignity to disadvantaged residents of the Lowcountry - particularly disabled children and the elderly - has become the driving motivator, not just for the Abedons, but for hundreds of donors and volunteers, who are commit­ted to addressing the issue of inadequate housing for poor residents of the greater Charleston area. To date, Operation Home has received nearly $100K in grant support from ten CCF funds.

“The response from our friends, and even from strangers, was instant and over­whelming,” says Todd, a real estate investor who has served on the Mayor’s Council on Homelessness and Affordable Housing. “In a community like ours, everyone is truly looking to help a neighbor, which is the most amazing thing to be a part of. The fact of the matter is, Operation Home has been a gift to us.”

Operation Home’s first project was a volunteer-led extreme makeover of the home of a battered and abused elderly woman. In 2006, with referrals coming in from over 40 agencies - including DSS, DHEC, the Red Cross, and numerous churches across the tricounty - Operation Home assisted more than 100 families by building wheelchair ramps, replac­ing roofs, repairing faulty plumbing, installing safety handles, and helping to prevent homelessness and restore dignity for those most in need.

“We honed our mission as we grew to understand where the need really lies and what kind of repairs make a tangible, sustainable differ­ence” says Emily, a journalist, home editor for Charleston Magazine, and mother of the couple’s four children.

For more information on Operation Home, visit www.operationhome.org or contact Executive Director, B. Elaine Faithful at: belainefaithful@operationhome.org