When Anne Glancey, a retired teacher, received notice from the city that she would be fined up to $3,000 per day for code violations and repairs that needed to be made to her home, she didn’t know what to do. She did not have the money to pay for repairs, and she had no family or friends to whom she could ask for help.
The only contact she regularly made with others was with her neighbors of five years, Adam and Kristin Polhemus.
“Until my wife and I moved in, no neighbors had a conversation with her,” Adam said. “She had no relations with anyone in the neighborhood.”
Anne showed the letter from the city of Hamilton Township explaining that she needed to scrape and paint her house, remove the abandoned and rusted car in her yard, and cut the grass. These were three violations total, each with a fine of “No more than $1,000, per day, per violation,” the notice read. Anne had grown up in the house, and called the letter “very upsetting.”
“She said, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do, I can’t do this myself.’ And I said, ‘Anne, we’ll help you get this fixed,’” Adam explained.
Kristin posted a call for help and volunteers to help make repairs and paint Anne’s house on Facebook:
Anne, Adam, and Kristin were overjoyed at the response, as more than 25 kind neighbors showed up over several weekends to volunteer and donate supplies.
Photo credit: Kristin Polhemus
“To have people show up because it’s in their heart to do that, to be there and help a stranger, that’s truly remarkable,” Adam said.
Photo credit: Kristin Polhemus
Volunteers brought their supplies and tools, sanded the old paint off of the exterior of the house and repainted it, repaired broken siding, landscaped the yard, fixed the porch, and removed and donated the old and rusty unused car to the Purple Heart Foundation charity.
Photo credit: Kristin Polhemus
Estimates of the work done put the entire project at around $10,000 to $15,000, all of which were done for free by Anne’s kind neighbors.
“I’m grateful for their helpfulness, generosity, and caring…They’re good neighbors,” Anne said.
Anne spent the weekends making and serving homemade orange juice and her family’s special carrot cake to the volunteers.
The Hamilton Township officials reviewed the work and confirmed that all property violations were erased.
Photo credit: Kristin Polhemus
“I appreciate their generosity,” Anne said about her kind neighbors. “They are good Samaritans, really wonderful and thoughtful. Not everyone would rise to the occasion and I am grateful for it.”
To Adam and Kristin, this is what being a good neighbor is all about.
“To see the joy on our neighbor’s face, I think the biggest thing is Anne’s happiness and her kind of restored life,” Adam said as Anne has now developed new relationships with her other neighbors. “Her outgoingness to other neighbors is based on her house being improved.”
“A little love goes a long way, and just a little scraping, primer, and light carpentry have done a world of difference not only for this little historic home but for a neighbor’s heart,” Kristin wrote.
Anne’s kind neighbors show us how much of a beautiful difference we can make when we come together to love and help one another. If you would like to see more kindness happening in your community, consider starting a small group with some neighbors where you regularly seek out and support those who may need some help. Simple things such as home repairs, mowing lawns, taking out the trash, preparing meals and even socializing can be difficult for our older generation, and a little support and kindness goes a long way.
Be a difference in your community.
You are Loved.
