When Charlie Ferrell comes home, friends say he pulls his truck right up to his front porch. Even though he walks only about 10 feet from the truck to his couch, he easily gets out of breath.
The 69-year-old disabled Marine veteran has spent his life serving others. Even as his health continues to decline, he spends much of his time helping out local charities like Toys for Tots. All the while, his house has fallen into disrepair. After contracting lung disease and only being able to use 10 percent of his lungs, he's unable to take care of his home.
Now, the community that Ferrell has helped so much throughout the years is helping him in return.
"There's so much to do, we're taking what people give us and try to match it with the volunteer labor," said Dave Parks, the man organizing a complete remodel of the elderly man's home. "We're in it for the long haul, whether it takes a week or five months.
"We're going to go until we're done," he said.
Volunteers from the city's police department spent Saturday morning and afternoon working on remodeling the man's house. The most pressing need, the roof, was the focus of much of the afternoon.
When all is done, Ferrell will have a completely remodeled kitchen, bathroom, new ceilings, new roof, central heat and air conditioning and a new and more powerful electrical system. With a flurry of activity at his house, over the weekend, Ferrell wasn't there to see it. He was admitted to the hospital because of his declining health.
"No matter what his health is, we're going to fix the house," Parks said. "Whatever time he does have left on this earth, whether it's five months, five years or 50 years, even, he's going to have a clean house. He does so much in the community, but he never did anything for himself."
Police officers had grown close to Ferrell over the years. As he helped out with the Toys for Tots drive, Ferrell became a welcome and familiar face in community service-oriented circles in the city. Parks said Ferrell never shied away from walking into a business, oxygen tank in tow, to ask for donations for whatever cause he was helping out at the time.
About five months ago, as one officer was driving Ferrell to his Garrison Avenue home after a community meeting, Parks said the officer noticed the home was in disrepair.
The heat wasn't working, the house lacked central air conditioning, the floors were damaged and the roof was in serious disrepair, Parks said.
During colder months, the man could only heat his home with a small heater powered by a propane tank, a potentially dangerous combination when used near his oxygen tank.
At night, raccoons would climb up into the roof through the back part of the house, crawl along the ceiling and drop down into the man's living through a hole near the front door. Not wanting to hurt the intruders, Ferrell used a cage to regularly capture the raccoons and release them up the road, away from his home.
"The roof is in pretty bad shape," said John Kopyscianski, the general manager of Builders FirstSource. "One whole side of the roof had to be re-sheeted. We're hoping to be done with it today. Charlie should have a new roof when we leave here today."
Kopyscianski's business donated more than $3,000 worth of materials to entirely redo Ferrell's roof. About 30 volunteers showed up Saturday morning to work on the roof and gut parts of the inside of the home.
"You hope that people will see this sort of project and they'll help others in their community," Kopyscianski said. "There's lots of people that are already helping their neighbors, we just hope there will be more."
In order to organize the project, Parks partnered with the Religious Coalition for Community Renewal, a faith-based organization that helps low-income people overcome obstacles to obtaining decent, affordable housing.
With all of the monetary and material donations, Parks said the biggest need the operation needs is manual labor. He's asking for people in the area skilled in electricity, carpentry, plumbing, dry wall and mudding, finishing, joint repairs, painting and general cleaning to contact him by email at david.parks@cityofcharleston.org or by phone at 304-348-8000 extension 317 to donate their time or money.
People can also make monetary donations by visiting their local BB&T branch and asking to donate to the Charlie Ferrell Project fund. Donations are tax deductible.
Reach Jake Jarvis at jake.jarvis@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939, Facebook.com/newsroomjake or follow @NewsroomJake on Twitter.