Group "Raises the Roof" in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A group of students, leaders and community volunteers are raising the roof in the South Broad Street area of Mobile. It’s a project geared toward helping folks around town with roof problems and home repairs.

One home is on Kentucky Street. Justice Evans grandmother, Shirley Evans, lives there. Evans is getting a helping hand from the group of students. Evans said his grandmother’s roof has been leaking for years.

"We tried to fix it, and we didn't put shingles on it. We put tar paper, and that didn't work. So we started pilling paper up on it, and that didn't work. And it kept raining inside," said Evans.

Shirley Evans works at the Inner City Mission and spends her free time working on home repair mission trips.

Lydia Johnson with the “Raise the Roof” project said she was a deserving candidate.

"She is a great woman who just needed a little bit of help," said Johnson.

Dauphin Way Methodist Church heads up the project but students from all over have joined the effort. Johnson said it started with a mission trip to Tennessee.

"The students said, ‘This isn't so unlike our own home. Why are we driving so far away to serve people?’" said Johnson.

The work they have done is greatly appreciated.

"We had fixed the door, and she ran up to the steps and started screaming and jumping up and down and putting the key in the door. And she started just closing it back and fourth, and she was just happy to see a door on the hinges," said Evans.

This home is one of the three the group has worked on throughout the summer.