Sunday, May 09, 1999
Tornado victim repays kindness
BY MARK CURNUTTE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Jeff Spradlin of Symmes Township continues to feel the aftereffects of the April 9 tornado. Another experience — a good one — unfolded Saturday when he participated, along with seven Home Depot co-workers, in the 17th annual Repair Fair sponsored by People Working Cooperatively (PWC).
It is a local non-profit organization in its 25th year that provides more than 4,800 services a year to low-income and disabled elderly homeowners. More than 600 volunteers worked across the region Saturday during Repair Fair to clean and make free improvements on 125 houses.
Mr. Spradlin, 19, helped to install two doors, kitchen cabinets, a sink and countertop and smoke alarms in the home of John Thornton. The 73-year-old widower lives in a small ranch house in the southern tip of Symmes Township near the Little Miami River.
“It feels great to help,” said Mr. Spradlin, a 1997 Sycamore High School graduate who lives with his mother on Snider Road.
He was moved to volunteer for Repair Fair in response to the help he and his mother received from strangers and his co-workers after their home was damaged by the tornado, which struck a month ago today.
They lost several trees and roof shingles and suffered structural damage to their garage.
“I'm not the kind of person who asks for help. It's how I was taught,” said Mr. Spradlin, who works in the plumbing department of the Deerfield Township Home Depot store and attends Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
He didn't ask for help, but help came nonetheless. Co-workers showed up the morning of the tornado with garbage bags, pails and chainsaws to cut and haul fallen trees. Then they started helping Mr. Spradlin's neighbors, and he was swept up in the spirit and went with them.
“Just seeing how people helped each other and care affected me a lot,” Mr. Spradlin said.
Then he experienced another emotional jolt. He learned that the parents of a friend and former Sycamore football teammate, Ryan Cook, had been killed when the tornado leveled their Cornell Road home.
Mr. Spradlin attended the April 13 funeral of Lee and Jacque Cook and spoke briefly to Ryan Cook afterwards.
“I just said if he needed anything to call,” Mr. Spradlin said. “I lost my grandfather earlier this year and didn't want to talk. So I didn't want Ryan to feel like he had to talk to me.”
Participating in Repair Fair was a way that Mr. Spradlin plans to do his talking from now on.
“I volunteered once, delivering clothes, when I was a freshman in high school,” he said Saturday while helping to put up a screen door on Mr. Thornton's house. Earlier in the day, Mr. Spradlin helped to assemble kitchen cabinets in the garage and carry them into the kitchen.
“I was talking to Mr. Thornton when I got here, and he was saying how much he appreciates everything we're doing,” he said. “When you see how much you can impact people in a good way, it makes you want to help more.
“It hit home good.”
Mr. Thornton, an army veteran who served in Europe under Gen. George Patton during World War II, sat in a chair holding his 5-year-old poodle, Brandy. He's diabetic. His wife, Ruby, died eight years ago of cancer.
“I need a lot of repairs I can't afford,” said the retired welder. “I get a lot of help from People Working Cooperatively. They're helping me stay in my house as long as I can.”
Mr. Thornton lives on $8,000 a year in veteran's and Social Security income.
Ed Stoehr, a PWC supervisor, walked over and handed Mr. Thornton the keys to his new front door.
“Thank you,” he said.
“If I had a million dollars, I'd give it all to PWC for everything they've done for me,” Mr. Thornton said. “These people here are such nice people. I'd be hard pressed without them.”
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