Community in Action-American Owned Ingles “Pays it Forward” in Gilmer County

Special volunteers joined forces to create the best in America in Gilmer County this week-end to “Pay it Forward”! Advance teams arrived early in order to begin the project. They were joined by hundreds more traveling from all across America starting this past Thursday to hold a barn raising for Build an Ark Animal Rescue, which was this year’s project picked by New York Says Thank You. Hundreds of volunteers working together sharing a common American Spirit is a wonderful event!

Fetchyournews.com heard numerous comments expressing the amazement of how our local community companies stepped up. So we decided to say a special thank you to our local heroes by highlighting their willingness to do what they can (in no particular order). It seems fitting to see this sort of willingness since the week-end was in honor of our local 1Lt. Noah Harris and his dedication to the sentiment of “I do what I can”! Our first special thank you goes to an American owned company, Ingles, that really went above and beyond in so many ways. Ingles was on the scene before there really was a scene. Initially Ingles came out and set up shade tents, ice, water, and more for the advance team. Representatives for Ingles, Melissa Leavell, Joe Reynolds, and Michelle Jones made an advance visit to the Build an Ark – New York Says Thank You Barn Raising project to determine the needs and see how they could help.

This was followed by Ingles feeding delicous meals to hundreds of hungry volunteers at various times. Ingles even jumped in with no complaints as a last minute issue created a need for a meal. Ingles immediately began preparations and before we knew it folks were sitting down to tasty ribs, delicious sides, and fresh, sweet, cold watermelon.

Sunday morning brought the closing ceremony for the event and hundreds gathered to say temporary good-byes and talk about plans for the next “Pay it forward” trip! Guess who prepared brunch-yep you got it-once again Ingles fed hundreds of hungry volunteers very well.

So many heartfelt thanks go out to Ingles from all who enjoyed your willingness to “pay it forward” by doing what you can!

Jeff Parness lovingly calls this group the “dysfunctional family” and speaking as someone that had the privilege of getting to know these traveling volunteers; I can tell you they all put the “fun” in dysfunctional. I am so overwhelmed by the love and healing brought by these unbelievable heros that I have already begun figuring out how I can go on the next trip. Who knows maybe Ingles will come too!