Project Firewood
We work very closely with the Jackson County Council on Aging – cutting, splitting and delivering firewood all fall and through the winter to older adults in our community who heat with firewood. In August, logs start showing up in our parking lot, which we chainsaw into blocks. On Saturdays Oct.-March, we split the wood and make deliveries. Our biggest wood splitting/delivery day is called IMPACT Day (usually in Sept. or Oct.). We will have over 200 volunteers in our parking lot working to help our community. Everyone is welcome to help according to their ability and comfort zone. Over half of the volunteers are Western Carolina University students.
Firewood for Spring of 2023 has finished. We thank all of you for your support of this program! See link below for a thank you letter from the Jackson County Department on Aging.
*Address for Mineral Springs Woodlot. The woodlot is located behind the Staffed Recycling Center on Oak Hill Rd. Oak Hill Rd. is next to “Disability Partners – Pathways for the Future” 525 Minerals Springs Rd., Sylva. Park in their parking lot and wait for directions to load your pickup and receive delivery site directions. Pickups are needed!!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Recently we were asked about the history of our Firewood Days.
In 2010 the United Methodist Church started a new initiative called “Rethink Church and IMPACT Day” which essentially meant ‘take church out of the church building and do something good in your community’. Each Methodist church in the USA, if they chose to participate, could IMPACT their community as they saw fit. In our case, in June 2010, our first “IMPACT Day”, we decided to cut, split and deliver firewood to the elderly in our community, have a free yard sale, build ramps, and have the children deliver cookies to nursing homes and wash their wheelchairs. It was a great success with more than 300 volunteers, maybe closer to +400 volunteers. We involved other United Methodist Churches in our county. Over the years, we have concentrated on the Firewood Project in partnership with The Jackson County Council on Aging. The last few years we have one big “IMPACT Day” in September or October and then in the subsequent winter months, on either the first or second Saturday of the month, (October-March) we have mini IMPACT Days because the Firewood need never goes away. As far as we know, we are the only church that still does IMPACT Day to this extent in our area.
Due to our reputation, tree removal companies in our county bring us hardwood logs. Our church is located in the middle of Western Carolina University. When the university has to remove a hardwood tree or when one comes down due to a storm, most likely it will appear in our parking lot. We have designated skilled people chainsaw the wood. We train volunteers on the splitters and anyone can load and help deliver firewood. The Council on Aging has about 8 splitting machines, and when we have the big IMPACT Day planned, we will rent splitters from the local rental shop, McNeely Rental, Sylva, NC.
We depend heavily on volunteers. Community organizations like Rotary, Western Carolina University clubs or sports teams (Equestrian, soccer, football, basketball, track), fraternities, sororities and other churches help on our IMPACT Days. Word gets out. We also feed the volunteers lunch.
How do we know who to deliver the wood to? That is where the Council on Aging helps. On the first day of cold weather, people start calling the Council on Aging for firewood. They have qualification standards – disabled, low income, at least 60+ years old, a Jackson County Resident, and low-income. On the Firewood days the Council on Aging director has individual sheets with directions for deliveries in the county. As each pickup is loaded, the driver and helpers picks up a sheet and off they go, and we love to hear the stories of their trip and about the clients that received a load of firewood