The shower ministry at Florence Christian Church is raising money to repair one of its walls after a driver crashed into it.
“I had a call about 10:30 at night from our facilities manager, who said that the police and fire department was here,” said Lead Pastor Susan Diamond. “Someone had lost control of their car, and it had gone into the wall of our shower ministry.”
“The way that it hit the building, thankfully, it did not take out any of our shower facilities, did not take out our little kitchen counter, kitchenette thing,” said Wendy Barnett Burke, the shower ministry’s resource connector. “It busted a perfect rectangle in the side of the wall.”
When LINK nky visited the church this week, the church had covered the exterior with a tarp and plugged some of the wider spaces of the interior damage with towels.
Most of the damage was to the masonry in the wall. The shelves and cabinets in the room had shifted from the impact and will eventually need replacing. Thankfully, Diamond said, no major structural or foundational damage occurred, and the accident hasn’t disrupted any of the church’s services.
Still, it’s likely going to take a pretty penny (and some time) to fix the wall. An exact monetary value for the damage has yet to be determined, Diamond said; they’re still waiting to get an estimate back from their contractors.
“That Monday morning as a precaution, we kept our both of our showers closed for about an hour until one of the structural engineers came to say, ‘Yes, it’s okay to use that. It’s safe, and mainly it’s just a little bit colder in there.'” Barnett Burke said. “We’ve gotten very lucky that it has not had a major impact. It’s just very unfortunate that it happened. We don’t know what the impact is going to be while they’re repairing it. What we do believe, they’re saying, is we will at least be able to still have one shower while they’re repairing it.”
Repairs are expected to begin after the new year.
The crash occurred the night of Nov. 30 when a driver came off the road near the intersection of Main Street, Dixie Highway, and U.S. Highway 42. Tire tracks from the accident were still visible in the grass when LINK nky visited. The temperatures had dropped that night, and police believe the driver may have hit a patch of black ice. The driver sustained minor injuries and was later transported to the hospital. The police report “does not have anything about alcohol or drugs,” Diamond said.
Florence Christian Church has numerous services available for people experiencing homelessness in the region. The area where the accident occurred is the church’s shower ministry, called Fresh Start. The ministry, which provides showers, laundry and similar services, provided 7,242 showers over the past year, according to the church’s 2023-2024 impact report. Barnett Burke said they aim to provide about 25 showers a day.
Usually, guests are given 30 minutes to shower, but “when we were down to the one shower that very first day, our homeless guests were wonderful and said, ‘We can cut our showers down to 15 minutes a piece, so everybody can get in,'” Barnett Burke said. “And that’s what they did, and we got everybody’s showers.”
Barnett Burke and the other staff members are also on hand to connect guests to other resources. Currently, the church is gearing up for its emergency shelter services for the winter months. The church also partners with other agencies, about 45 on a normal basis, Barnett Burke said, in hopes of becoming a kind of “one-stop shop for our homeless community.”
In spite of the damage, Barnett Burke said, it could have been a lot worse.
“Considering what it could have been, we’re very lucky and very blessed,” Barnett Burke said.
You can donate to Florence Christian Church’s repair efforts by visiting florencechristian.org, clicking the ‘donate’ button at the bottom of the page and then typing ‘shower ministry’ in the donation page’s memo field.