Charity Abounds Through a Local Church

WEST SIDE EXTREME MAKEOVER

The tale of Delores Powell and her family will air for the nation to see this evening on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” The West Side family was recipient of Ty Pennington and crew’s promise to raze their decrepit dwelling and resurrect a new, fully customized home in just a week’s time.

Construction was led by local contractor David Stapleton and behind the scenes, my church, The Tabernacle in Orchard Park (thetab.org) was heavily involved in this Massachusetts Avenue resuscitation effort.

Thanks to a fiery Irishman named Jim McGinnis (ok, I don’t know his ancestry for certain, but with a name like McGinnis, I think Irish is a safe bet), who is on the board at The Tabernacle, the congregation was heavily involved in the Extreme Makeover project. In fact, countless volunteers from the community reached out, and an entire West Side neighborhood received a facelift, testament to the charitable spirit of Buffalonians.

McGinnis tends to be a windy guy. In fact, after hearing him drone on and on in church prior to Extreme Makeover, I’d say he’s all but eaten the Blarney Stone. So it surprised me how little of the media coverage was devoted to the effort my church put into the project.

Digging through Buffalo News archives I did, however, find one column by Donn Esmonde where he had interviewed McGinnis and talked about our church. (Esmonde is my favorite local columnist; I must’ve missed that one.) The tone of the column was disappointing. Esmonde, while praising The Tabernacle volunteers and outreach efforts, batters the community of Orchard Park for its perceived suburban snobbiness. This undoubtedly was fallout from the proposed senior-living facility that caused a stir in Orchard Park this past fall.

Sometimes I wonder, though, did my church go far enough to bolster the public relations potential of its involvement? This isn’t about looking for praise, but rather promoting a progressive church in the Buffalo community.

MY VIEW ON THE MAKEOVER IS DIFFERENT THAN DAVE'S

A week ago yesterday, Tonawanda resident and Meals on Wheels Volunteer Dave Hyzy was featured in the “My View” op-ed column. His premise? Questioning whether the lottery-style hand out of an extreme makeover was really the way to help a community with so much need. Maybe it wasn’t the “fairest” distribution of wealth, but Extreme Makeover is going to happen whether we like it or not. It’s sensational television; it boosts ABC’s ratings; it gets advertisers to air commercials. Take it or leave it, this was a community outreach like Buffalo has never seen before. I’m glad my church chose to use this event in a positive manner.

POWELL AT THE PULPIT

This morning at church we had some surprise guests including Delores Powell, her three children, and David Stapleton. Hearing Powell in her fluent, but unmistakably Caribbean English, tell her side of the story was quite interesting. Jim McGinnis was his usual boisterous self. Dad confused David Stapleton (a plainclothes, middle-class contractor) for Ty Pennington. It definitely was a service to not forget…

Tonight “Extreme Makeover” will air its two-hour Buffalo rebirth episode. It’ll be nice to see Buffalo get some national press that, for a change, doesn’t involve record-breaking snowfall.

(I took a cell phone photo of our unexpected church guests today.  Unfortunately, it was unusable.  Perhaps the punishment for playing with my phone during church?)