Angel in Baggy Shorts!

To school’s rescue, an angel in baggy shorts. A real life testament to “Scott Lemon” a real-life-hero!

He didn’t look like the answer to a prayer, the man who showed up at St. John’s church in Homestead a few days after Hurricane Andrew’s visit – baggy shorts, work-soiled T-shirt, a companion in low.
He acted like he meant business though, to hear Fr. Terry Harris, St. John’s Rector, tell it. He looked over St. John’s storm-battered school and the church grounds, strewn with debris.

Would a couple of chain-saws be enough to do the outside cleanup, he asked his companion. Nope, it’d take more than that. Probably better bring a front-end loader too, for the big stuff. Okay, the man said. “We’ll bring our kids too. They’ll line up and walk through here, and anything that God didn’t put here they’ll pick up,” he told Fr. Harris.And it happened.

The man was Scott Lemon… who operates Scott’s Professional Services, a grounds maintenance business which has a client, The Benjamin School, a non-denominational private school in West Palm Beach. The principle of the school, Don Kehl, is vice-president of the Florida Council of Independent Schools. When he made some calls to find out what schools might need help in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, he found out about the damage at St. John’s School. With the support of his own school’s board of directors for providing hands-on help for St. John’s, he sent Scott Lemon to see what would be needed.

On Tuesday September 1, eight days after Andrew’s visit, Mr. Lemon and his crew and an enthusiastic team of seniors from the Benjamin school, led by Mr. Kehl, arrived at St. John’s.

Soggy rugs were dragged from the classrooms, floors cleaned of broken glass, furniture wiped off, windows boarded up, and the church grounds picked clean of debris. It was a major first step on the road to recovery for both the school and the parish.

Then William Sparkman “Sparky” Witte of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, S. C., a general contractor, moved in with equipment and helpers he brought to Homestead to volunteer in assisting churches and families in repairs. They made temporary fixes to the school as well as St. John’s parish hall, making roofs and windows secure and making the buildings operational again.

It was the visit from the cleanup crew from the Benjamin School, along with Scott’s team which ignited the spark of hope that put St. John’s school back on it’s feet. ” It gave us hope that we could open,” said Fr. Harris. ” It was something very positive, it turned things around for us.” On September 9, operating with a leased 3000 kilowatt generator, the school- which normally has an enrollment of 185 in preschool through eighth grade- became the first school to reopen in the area struck head-on by Andrew.

Thanked by school and parish, Mr. Kehl said, “It was a two-way deal. It meant a lot to us to be able to help. It made our kids feel good about themselves.”

- Andy Taylor