HUDSON, Fla. — Nearly a year after flooding from Hurricane Helene destroyed their community center, members of First Baptist Church of Hudson haven't stopped serving people in need.
Watch full report from Tampa Bay 28 reporter Erik Waxler
Monica Wharton is not a member of the church, but she was struck by what she saw. “I pulled in and I could not believe what was going on here,” she said.
Wharton said what members at First Baptist of Hudson are doing is remarkable. “Food being distributed to hundreds of people of all kinds,” she said.
She later learned the congregation was continuing its work despite losing its community center building, which was destroyed by flooding from Hurricane Helene. “And my heart was breaking. I’m like we really need to get the word out to help them build a new community center,” Wharton said.
Wharton said she has followed coverage on Tampa Bay 28, highlighting recovery efforts after the hurricanes. She emailed reporter Erik Waxler to make sure the church was recognized. “That’s my passion. It’s really about seeing a void and trying to fill it,” she said.
Her email led Waxler to Hudson, where Pastor Steve Gerhart showed pictures of the building that took in five feet of water. “It’s destroyed. It’s irreparable,” Gerhart said.
Since then, the church has moved its weekly food pantry to its smaller facility on Fivay Road.
They also have showers, haircuts and medical services.
“In order for us to continue to minister the community as we had, we bought some containers and we are operating out of two containers behind our building out in the heat, handing out the food so that our folks in the community didn’t lose the resource that they had there,” Gerhart said.
About 50 volunteers help every Wednesday, including church member Kathy Cenzano. “We would never think of stopping. We do it for the glory of God and to help the public,” she said.
The church hopes to build a new community center on its property, but funding remains a challenge. Leaders are trying to sell the old building, but that alone will not cover the cost. “The need is great, we are all hurting. The economy is not exactly where we want it to be,” Gerhart said. “In the economy today we need this.”
Wharton said the church deserves more support. “I just really wanted to raise the level of awareness so that other people, other corporations, other businesses would step up and go ‘we are going to help build a new community center’ at this little church,” she said.
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