I’m a socially conscious real estate consultant and every day I hear hardships brought upon us by the present economic situation. A close friend recently shared a valuable story about, of all things, a house, and I thought I’d share the story with you. Following are the words of Cliff Custer from Grants Pass, Oregon:
The diagnosis has been delivered; Our nation is in critical condition, economically and militarily on life support. But our new physician-in –chief, Barack Obama, has assured us that there is great hope. We will survive, he affirms, when we assume personal and local responsibility for our recovery. (There is nothing like a near-death experience to reveal what is important in life.) Obama describes us as “neighborhood people.” This infers a radical new emphasis for the successful governance of our nation. The healing begins in our house, not the White House or Wall Street banking houses. This means the buck starts here, that we must stop pointing the finger at Washington and start offering a helping hand to our neighbors.
A recent Christmas miracle in our local Grants Pass, Oregon, community demonstrates how this home town good neighbor policy works and how it can help to heal this land we love. I know it is rather late to be sharing a Christmas story but this one is so timely it deserves a tardy telling.
This story doesn’t begin with reindeer on the roof but with rain pouring through a very leaky roof. The owner of the roof and the house it couldn’t protect is Cameron Renfro. When a group of his friends discovered his situation and that he was surviving on a six hundred dollar a month income we decided to try to help.
We contacted the Daily Courier, our local newspaper here in Grants Pass, and asked for their assistance. The Daily Courier ran a front page article about the project, describing the historic nature of the house, and according to the Historic Registry, the house is the second oldest standing residence in Grants Pass, Oregon. The Courier story included a picture of Cameron in front of his home with instructions on how to donate to the Cameron Roof Fund. In fitting fashion for this Yule Tide tale, there proved to be a whole host of “angels” who responded to the article. One in particular deserves honorable mention. An elderly widow from Grants Pass sent a touching letter. She said she was in poor health and had very little money. The envelope contained a one dollar bill and the promise to pray that enough money would be raised to repair his roof.
When all the donations were counted the fund had a little over two thousand dollars but the needed amount we discovered was over seven thousand. Now comes the miracle.
Just when it seemed Continue reading Grants Pass, Oregon, Man’s Plight Shows Yes We Can… and Did
150 years ago the State of Oregon joined the United States of America and beginning in the early 1880’s, Grants Pass began to grow as a community. Today, the Josephine County Historical Society keeps track of Grants Pass history, both past and present.
