A kindhearted electrician from Massachusetts has rallied his community to help an elderly lady repair her crumbling home for absolutely free.
As CBS News reported, John Kinney was fixing 72-year-old Gloria Scott’s lights when he realized her home needed many more serious repairs. But when he learned she didn’t have the funds for those renovations herself, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
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Last month, Kinney was stunned to see all the work that needed to be done in Scott’s home in Woburn.
“No lights, running water,” he recalled to CBS News .
On Facebook , he went into even greater detail on the state of the woman’s home, recalling that her ceilings were falling apart, her kitchen sink was broken, and she had to constantly deal with “critters” coming inside her house.
When he voiced his concerns for Scott’s safety, she admitted she had neither the funds to fix the problems, nor the family to help her get it all done.
But even after he’d left, the electrician was unable to stop thinking about all the serious issues the elderly woman was dealing with.
As he told CBS, “I think I seen her on a Friday and it stuck with me over the weekend and I said, ‘I got to go back there.'”
Although he’d only been hired to repair a broken ceiling light, Kinney returned to Scott’s home and fixed the rest of her eletrical issues for free.
However, he knew he wasn’t the only person she needed to get her home back in order. So he put out a call to rally as many local contractors as possible.
Now that he had the help, he just needed some money for materials. So Kinney started a fundraiser on Facebook he titled, “Nice old lady needs help” .
As of writing, that campaign has raised over $100,000 to be put towards repairing Scott’s home.
In the span of a month, Kinney and his crew of volunteers from all over Woburn have installed all new electrical, plumbing, walls, windows, and ceilings. Even the outside of the house is getting a much-needed face lift, with a brand new porch and a new lawn in the backyard.
Any community members who want to help but aren’t exactly handy have been providing the volunteers with plenty of food to keep them working hard.
Scott has been understandably touched by all the helpers, who Kinney has appropriately dubbed the “Gloria’s Gladiators”.
“Look at these people,” she gushed to CBS . “I mean, I can’t even comprehend the gratitude that I have.”
Kinney added that he was equally moved by everyone’s efforts, and admitted that he hopes one day to have different chapters of “Gloria’s Gladiators” all around the country, working to help out seniors in situations similar to Scott’s.
h/t: CBS News
