- April 19, 2024
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Marie and Bill Harrison sit on the front of their Ormond Beach home and watch Ormond Leadership XIV restore their landscape and fence damaged by Hurricane Matthew. Photo by Jacque Estes
Kyle Lamond and Dinah King join Marie Harrison and they check out palm fronds to be trimmed. Photo by Jacque Estes
Marie Harrison and Dinah King talk about trimming the palm trees in the Harrison' s yard. Photo by Jacque Estes
Kyle Lamond climbs a ladder to remove as many of the dead palm fronds as possible. Photo by Jacque Estes
Rev. Chris Chandler, a member of Ormond Leadership XIV, talks with Marie and Bill Harrison. Photo by Jacque Estes
Hurricane Matthew took a lot of fences down when he whipped through the area and the Harrison' s was no exception. Photo by Jacque Estes
Ormond Beach Police Sgt. Bill Warmington was one of the 22 Ormond Leadership XIV members who worked in the Harrison' s yard. Photo by Jacque Estes
Rebecca Williams helps clear out an area in the front of the Harrison' s home. Photo by Jacque Estes
Susan Hayes smiled as she weeded the Harrison' s yard as part of the Ormond Leadership XIV project. Photo Courtesy Rebecca Williams
“There must be 50 people here working in our yard,” Bill Harrison told someone on the phone.
Smiles could be seen crossing the faces of the workers in Harrison’s yard, members of Ormond Leadership XIV, as they heard this. There weren’t 50, the class size was only 22, but with one up a tree, others weeding, and still more in the backyard removing a wooden fence damaged by Hurricane Matthew, there was a lot of activity.
Each Ormond Leadership Class votes on a project to raise funds for and to complete by the end of the seven-week course. Class XIV voted to help Bill and Marie Harrison fix what Hurricane Matthew destroyed, and provide proceeds to the Ormond Strong Vietnam Summit planned for the fall.
“We really believe in the military in this family,” Marie Harrison said. “Bill served during Korea, and our son and daughter-in-law are in the Air Force in Korea.”
Rocking on the front porch, Marie in her camouflage T-shirt and Bill in his Korean War veteran hat, Marie Harrison talked about how she met Debbie Kruck-Forrester and became involved in Ormond Strong.
A retired home care health nurse, Marie Harrison had seen the Ormond Strong members trekking across the Granada Bridge and her curiosity was piqued. Last Memorial Day she learned more about the group and met Kruck-Forrester at the city ceremonies, and was soon walking with them every day.
Marie Harrison said having the Ormond Leadership class contact them about helping with some of the cleanup and repair from Matthew was a welcome surprise; just days before she had been asking if anyone at her church knew of someone to help with the downed fence. Her husband had health problems earlier in the year and fence repair was definitely not something the couple was going to be able to do themselves.
The couple has lived in their home since 1958 -- described by Marie Harrison as, “a little bit of land on a dirt road.”
“I have the same old man and the same old house,” Harrison quipped. “We are just so grateful to be having this done for us.”
