ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701270063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
PROJECT W.A.R.M. (Wood Association of Roanoke Metro) has served 63 needy families in Roanoke since it began last fall.
Ellen and William Hagy's wood-burning stove crackles and fills the kitchen of their Southeast Roanoke house with warmth, providing welcome relief from a damp and foggy morning.
The cast-iron stove in their kitchen and another in their living room are their main sources of heat. Firewood becomes a necessary commodity during the most severe months of winter.
When the Hagys had trouble finding wood, they called the Salvation Army. Project W.A.R.M. (Wood Association of Roanoke Metro) came to their assistance.
Marc Wilson began Project W.A.R.M. in Roanoke last fall with support from fellow members of the Church of the Brethren. So far, the project has served 63 needy families. Of the 13 Churches of the Brethren in the Roanoke Valley, 10 participate in the project.
While Roanoke's project is new, the fuel-assistance program has become a winter tradition over the past 21 years in Richmond (where W.A.R.M. stands for Wood Association of Richmond Metro). Wilson's father, Louis Wilson, began the Richmond group after he saw a TV news clip about a woman burning her clothes to keep from freezing.
"I didn't see why anyone should have to live that way," Louis Wilson said.
So the retired Navy chief petty officer, who has also worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency at several disaster sites, went to work. He borrowed a wood splitter and started to make deliveries.
As his donation list grew, he began using the Salvation Army as a referral service and clearinghouse for potential clients. The city of Richmond ultimately purchased a splitter for the group and donated wood.
In 1995, Project W.A.R.M. served 127 Richmond families and delivered 407 truckloads of wood, Louis Wilson said. Over the years, more than 700 volunteers have helped out, many of them young people who had never before ventured into the depressed areas of the city.
"The residual results of this program are unbelievable," Louis Wilson said. "It gives people the opportunity to work and do something for someone else besides themselves."
The Wilsons hope to bring that same sense of selflessness to Roanoke. They started in October and have faithfully continued each Saturday since then.
Asplundh Tree Service rents the project a wood lot in a Southeast Roanoke industrial park for a dollar a year. Roanoke city has donated fallen trees culled from parks and residential areas. Wilson hopes that a fence around the wood lot will be the association's next project, especially since three truckloads of wood were stolen just last week.
By accepting wood donations from the city, Wilson said, he saves Roanoke the cost of dumping them at a landfill. He estimates that the project saves the city of Richmond about $20,000 a year. (Wilson can't accept tree donations from residents because he lacks the manpower to pick them up.)
The hum of a wood splitter and buzz of a chain saw echoed from the wood lot Saturday, piercing the cold, quiet morning. Volunteers began loading wood at 8 a.m. and started on a route that would take them to 13 families in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem.
"We like to share with other people who don't have as much as we do," said Wayne Garst, a volunteer and Church of the Brethren member.
By midmorning, two of the volunteers were on 10th Street Southeast at the Hagys' house, making a delivery under the vigilant gaze of the family's two pit bulls, Baby and Max. Inside, Ellen Hagy basked in the warmth of her toasty kitchen and wood-burning stove.
Nodding toward the stove, she said, "It makes a mean pan of biscuits."
Anyone interested in finding out more about Project W.A.R.M. should call the Salvation Army at 343-5335.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. 1. Volunteer David Cossaboon,by CNBabove, unloads wood for a Project W.A.R.M. recipient on Arbutus
Avenue Southeast on Saturday. 2. At left, Sam Garst (left) and
Carrol Kessinger deliver wood to a home on Murray Avenue Southeast
on Saturday. 3. William Hagy shows a visitor an antique Mealmaster,
one of the two wood stoves used to heat his family's home on 10th
Street
Southeast. 4. (headshot) Marc Wilson. color.