Murphy – When Sarah Thomas and her husband, David, realized a friend of five years was having trouble with leaks coming through the roof of his house, the couple knew they wanted to do something to help.
Sarah decided to try and start a fundraiser on gofundme.com for their friend Keith Ledford, a lifelong local resident, to see how much they could raise. With Ledford’s health issues and limited income, their decision to help was born out of love.
It took just 10 days to raise the money needed for a new roof.
“The community just went crazy. We raised $8,550. I also had $480 in private donations, so we were close to $9,000,” Sarah said.
She then spoke with a contractor friend, Mark Kephart, but he was no longer doing roofing. He referred Thomas to Eddie Eller in Murphy, who owns E&E Roofing in Warne. Eller gave Thomas a quote of $7,850 to redo Ledford’s roof, which would include removing the damage, repairing the wood, adding new sub-roofing and shingles.
Any money left over would be put into a fund to help Ledford with needed expenses, such as insurance, taxes and plumbing issues.
Ledford has lived in Murphy since he was a child and use to work at the Henn Theatre downtown. A lot of folks who donated money for his roof, including those doing the work, as kids used to go to the theater, where he would take their movie tickets at the door.
On the morning of April 5, a crew from E&E Roofing climbed onto the top of Ledford’s house and began taking off the old and worn roof so they could lay the new one. Ladders were propped up against the house and the men were busy moving about the roof as old roofing debris was being tossed to the ground.
Charlie De La Cruz, an employee of E&E Roofing, said of the task at hand, “I want to do a good job.”
“It really feels good that I can help somebody I have known my whole life who really needs a new roof,” Eller said.
Ledford, a man of few words, added, “I just want the community and everyone involved to know how very grateful I am.”
At one point, Ledford didn’t hear someone from the crew knocking on his door in an attempt to run power cords from inside to the outside so the men would have power for their tools. Kephart brought a generator to the residence so work could continue without delays.
“It’s absolutely amazing. This community is so giving and I just don’t know how to describe it. A lot of retired people, military and others came out and gave from the heart,” David said of the time and donations that took the project from start to finish.
When all was said and done, Ledford was under a new roof free of leaks and worry. E&E Roofing also donated woodwork for the job.
“We’ll make sure it gets done properly,” Eller said.
The roof was completed the following afternoon, and not a single piece of debris was left in the yard after the crew cleaned up. For details, call E&E Roofing at 828-389-0986.