Fairview United Methodist Church scheduled a work day in their parking lot to help victims of the monstrous wildfires that torched land and buildings in Sevier County in December and took several lives.

Volunteers were there to prebuild walls that will become a home for a fire victim. People of all ages and denominations came together at 8 a.m. and, with grit and determination, completed the walls before noon.

The project is the result of a collaboration between the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church and Appalachian Service Project. Mission teams are now going out to help build a total of 25 homes over the summer and beyond.

Nancy Gregg is co-chair of missions outreach at Fairview UMC, a Maryville church and member of the Holston Conference. Her husband Duane is the other co-chair. She said this prebuild of the house walls had been in the planning stages for about four weeks.

In addition to the 90 people on site that Saturday, June 10 morning, there were others contributing in other ways. For instance, a Fairview Sunday school class made desserts for these hard-working volunteers. Some who came saw to it that workers had water and tools and were happy to be on the go-fer team.