Emerge Chosen for CLC’s Love Dayton Outreach Project

As part of the massive community-wide annual Love Dayton Outreach Project, Emerge was chosen as a volunteer site by the Christian Life Center on June 11.

As part of this extensive one-day work project, workers dismantled the old greenhouse at the back of the 2960 W. Enon Road campus and removed ceiling panels inside the facility, in the Men's Recovery area. Those panels can be re-purposed in other parts of the facility. The work was also a tremendous help in furthering Emerge’s mission to get the men’s side open.

Additionally, volunteers were able to generate $800 from the recycling metal and take a positive step in preparing the campus garden area for the coming phases.

Working on behalf of Emerge, Jacob Shelley headed up the project and partnered with Blake Filburn, who was the CLC volunteer coordinator, to coordinate all the volunteers. Love Dayton is a large outreach project that has helped countless organizations and individuals throughout Dayton for many years. CLC is located north of Dayton, with Patrick McKee overseeing all their ministry outreach projects.

“Love Dayton is a big weekend in which we have a lot of volunteers going to different sites to help all sorts of people,” said Blake Filburn, a volunteer who owns his own construction company in Brookville. “Because I own a construction company (Structurally Sound), we can get a lot done. We are able to help a lot of people. Although I am the project coordinator, I also enjoy getting in there, getting my hands dirty, and doing the work myself.”

Filburn said Emerge was chosen as one of many projects. He said there were around 20 people helping when the work was performed.

"We are grateful for the annual Love Dayton event,” said Elaine Bonner, Director of Philanthropy
At Emerge Recovery and Trade Initiative. “The Christian Life Center volunteers are living out God's call to all of us to 'be His hands and feet.' It was a great day of creating community and building our mission."

Filburn said he was impressed by the size of the facility and campus.

“That building is big enough to make a huge impact on a lot of people,” he said. “I think the mission behind what you all are doing is great. Once it is opened up and they are helping people, it’s going to have such a big impact, especially with having the trades already there. It’s going to help a lot of people.”

Although volunteer crews started the work Saturday morning, they were able to finish for the day around noon.

“It was a really great experience and they were happy with how much we got done and with how everyone jumped in and worked together to get everything done,” said Jacob Shelley of Emerge. “Everyone was very organized and that made it easy to coordinate. We got a lot done. It went beyond our expectations.”

Filburn said he enjoys using his God-given ability to help people and serve the Lord.

“We do the Love Dayton one or two weekends a year, but we do projects all year,” he said. According to CLC’s website, CLC is a church where they are passionate about becoming an accurate representation of what Christianity is meant to be when it is lived out among a community of believers.

“We appreciate Christian Life Center for choosing us and all the volunteers for taking time out of their busy lives to help us,” said Kip Morris, one of the three founders of Emerge. “They were able to get a lot of work done in a relatively short period of time. It just goes to show what people of like-mind with that spirit of service can accomplish when they work together to the glory of God.”