Our Impact

Real stories of neighbors helping neighbors across Hale County — restoring homes, reconnecting families, and meeting urgent needs with compassion.

Hope that shows up in real life.

Friends of Hale County has stepped into practical, personal needs throughout the Black Belt — from water lines and septic systems to mobile homes, furniture, wheelchair ramps, deposits, power bills, and home repairs.

This page turns the original stories into a cleaner, easier-to-read impact page while keeping the heart of the work intact.

What Friends of Hale County Has Helped Make Possible

These stories show the kind of practical, neighbor-to-neighbor help that has defined the organization.

Homes Replaced

Mobile homes were purchased, delivered, repaired, and set up for families who lost homes to fire or were living in unsafe conditions.

Families Reunited

A wheelchair ramp allowed a husband and wife to live together again in their own home after accessibility barriers had separated them.

Basic Needs Met

Volunteers and partners helped with plumbing, water lines, power bills, deposits, furniture, appliances, and everyday household needs.

Community Partners

Churches, local leaders, businesses, families, and volunteers worked together to meet needs that were too large for one person to solve alone.

Elmira Horton & Sawyerville Families

Volunteers Fred and Helen Crayton helped connect Elmira Horton with someone who could install her septic tank and connect water lines to her mobile home in Sawyerville. They also alerted FOHC to three families who had lost homes to fire, leading to a partnership with Oak Mountain Mission Ministries to provide needed household items.

The Bryant Family

FOHC purchased and delivered a mobile home to replace the Bryants’ fire-damaged home. Donations and help came from many places, including Auburn University students from The Navigators. Cara Lee Bryant later “paid her debt forward” by teaching quilting classes in her community.

Katherine & Jo Ma Williams

After Mr. Williams was not allowed to return home from a nursing home because their house was unsafe and had no running water, FOHC purchased and delivered a mobile home so the couple could be reunited.

Frank Cottrell

A donated mobile home was delivered and set up for Frank Cottrell. Volunteers cleaned and prepared the home, gathered kitchen supplies, furniture, bedding, curtains, towels, appliances, and built a porch and wheelchair ramp.

The Tubbs Family

After Barbara Tubbs lost her husband and then her home to fire, FOHC and community partners helped remove an unsafe mobile home, prepare the property, purchase a better home, connect utilities, and furnish the space for her family.

The Watkins Family & Rosa Long

FOHC helped the Watkins family work out housing and Alabama Power deposits so they could move into public housing. The group also helped Rosa Long, who had fallen behind on her power bill while caring for her sick son at UAB.

Accessibility & Home Repairs

Volunteers built a ramp that reunited a married couple in their own home. Members also repaired Sally Madison’s roof and helped keep her longtime Greensboro home livable so she could remain where she was born and raised.

Help continue the work.

Every gift helps Friends of Hale County continue responding to urgent needs with dignity, care, and practical support.