Single Mom’s Dilapidated Home Repaired By Massachusetts Community

• A Massachusetts community rallies to repair the home of a single mom with three kids in Sudbury.
• A construction firm took care of the home repairs for free.
• A GoFundMe has raised more than $22,000 that would help the family with other expenses.

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The Cunninghams needed help.  Their house in Sudbury had external and internal damage.  It was rundown and unsafe. On top of that, they were dealing with medical issues.  Money was so hard to come by.

But a friend rallied their community to help them with their repair problems and medical expenses by setting up a GoFundMe page. Melinda Johnson wrote that Cunningham’s home was in “desperate need of a new roof and repair of extensive wood rot” after suffering water damage.  Critters have also been able to get inside the house.

Cunningham explained that their home’s entire roof was shot. “We basically had to board [the family room] off and couldn’t use it because a piece of the ceiling had fallen down and in with that came a giant squirrels’ nest, nuts and all,” she added.

Hundreds donated to the fund raiser and Dave Fenton, a fellow Sudbury resident who works as the Chief Operating Officer of Suffolk Construction Boston, was moved. He said, “So I dug into it a little more and figured out that we should be helping. I knew we had to jump in and help right away.”

Fenton called on his business contacts and trade partners, found workers to fix the roof and the rest of the home.

His contacts and partners took care of the mold, drywall, did some electrical work, and heating works. He also plans on painting the home’s exterior and landscaping.

The GoFundMe has already raised more than $22,000.  With the free repair work from Fenton and his contacts, the funds will “go towards any roof-related repairs” with future donations going “towards other home expenses or towards medical debt that has piled up,” according to Johnson.

Even in this time of the pandemic, a community still takes care of its own.

Cunningham said, “Everything they did was life-changing. I’m just blown away by the kindness and it really just changes our whole outlook on life and it changes the trajectory of our life as well.”

Source: PEOPLE