By J. David Derosier

The Orange Leader

“Ms. D” (not her real name) is now 73 years old and, together with her son, lives in a small house on a quiet side street in Orange. There is limited income and no car to drive to the store for groceries, so it’s walk to Wal-Mart, the Dollar Store, or convenience store. Unfortunately this is not an unusual or isolated instance in Orange.

What is unusual is that the house became the target of an extremely heavy infestation of termites; so heavy that the siding on the house was eaten through in many places – on three sides of the house.

With no money to remove the bugs, let alone repair the damage to the house, it just got worse. Without knowing who or where to turn to, they learned to live with what they had.

Fortunately the situation was noticed and an action plan put into place.

The first step was to get rid of the termites. Bill Clark Pest Control, headquartered in Beaumont and with an office in Orange was approached and stepped up to the plate.

The “Bugsperts” at Bill Clark Pest Control have a long history of both controlling pests and of serving their community in other ways. This time, they stood up and offered to eliminate Ms. D’s termites at no charge to her. Because of the unusually wet weather, it took a couple of months to actually complete the work, but no more termites. Just holes in the walls.

The next step was to do something with the exterior walls through which the termites had eaten. Stepping up to the plate this time was G&G Enterprises Construction Corp. of Orange with administrative offices in Beaumont. When the situation was explained to them they sent out a project manager to scope out the work and volunteered to repair the exterior of the home, except for the painting – again, at no charge to the homeowner.

The exterior repairs were completed in May and for the first time in many months the wind did not come through the walls.

The Orange Lions Club has picked up the final step. (Both mother and son were former members of the Pinehurst Lions Club.) They agreed to raise the funds to purchase the paint and supplies, and put together a working party to spend the day painting, to finish the job. The Lions’ motto is “We Serve”. Especially, as in this case, they take care of fellow Lions, even though painting is not in the usual menu of things they do for the community.

But wait…that’s not all. Each of these Local Hero Organizations recruited others to help. Ritter Lumber of Buna, Nederland, Beaumont, Hemphill, and Lufkin donated materials for the exterior repair. Sherwin-Williams donated the paint for the Lions Club.

These organizations and the people that run them are the unsung heroes that coexist with us here in the Golden Triangle, quietly performing heroic acts within the community.

I salute these heroes and ask that you readers do the same. They give back to the community; we should be supporting them whenever we can – by using their services for the fair price that they charge.

 JDavid Derosier consults with small business on planning and marketing issues, and provides web design and hosting services through OhainWEB.com. He can be reached at JDAVID@Strategy-Planning.info.