A hurting family is getting help from the Lawrence County TN community.  You can help too.  Links and more information can be found below.

Schankweiler Home

From the Lawrence County Advocate newspaper:

Tommy Schankweiler III shot and killed his father, Thomas Schankweiler Jr. March 21, after a typical day full of threats and abuse to Tommy, his three siblings, and their mother. The elder Schankweiler suffered from bipolar disorder, a mental illness that causes unpredictable and extreme mood swings.

The Tommy Schankweiler Jr. family has resided in Lawrenceburg, TN for roughly three years. Tommy and Sandee Jo, and their four children, “Bubba”, Timmy, Tonie Jo, and Tayler moved from Florida to this beautiful Tennessee community to slow down and raise a family.

James Crocker, president of Waterblasting Technologies, was a schoolmate of Mr. Schankweiler and after hearing about the tragedy he had an idea.  This quote is from the website dedicated to “Project Fresh Start”:

Their story is a long one and this website is likely not the best venue for discussing its’ details. However, with Tommy’s untimely passing, their family, friends, church and community are coming together to “plug in” and create a new set of surroundings and a “fresh start” by completely renovating their existing house. . .

. . .I fully believe that a complete overhaul of the house they are occupying would have an incredible long-term impact on this courageous family.

From what I can tell, Mr. Crocker has done an excellent job of organizing the local resources for this project. I felt that I needed to join the effort in some way so I volunteered to help with the remodeling and also to use a virtual tour to show the home before and after the remodeling.  A virtual tour is an excellent way to let those who have donated money to see what their generosity produced.

The Schankweiler project before virtual tour is complete.  Take a look at it here.  Then come back after the work is done to see how we did!  (See part 2 of this article here)The project will run from June 30, 2008 through July 5th 2008 when the Schankweilers will be presented with their newly remodeled home.

There is still time to make a much needed donation to Project Fresh Start.  Visit www.helpthisfamilynow.com and make a donation .

Brett Weaver

SpotLight Virtual Tours