'Mission Muskogee' Works To Make Community Improvement

A non-profit is pulling together hundreds to help make their town a better place to live.

Mission Muskogee is fixing up more than a dozen homes this weekend. The goal is uplifting Muskogee. They're doing everything from minor construction work to paint jobs and yard work.

These are just a handful of the 250 volunteers driving projects forward at nearly two dozen houses. Dorene Harris is one of those homeowners and says today has been surreal.

"There's so many people, I'm so happy," Harris said.

Harris bought the home 30 years ago with the money from her son's death.

It has a lot of value and meaning to her and just like their family it has survived a few rough decades.

"There's houses all around me that have been torn down, and I've struggled and prayed to keep this one," Harris said.

It's why today is quite literally a dream come true. More than 20 volunteers with Mission Muskogee are helping to give her home a complete home makeover.

 "I used to be able to tell my children they'd be able to pull up in front of my house and say 'move that bus', I kept believing someday it would come true and it did," Harris said.

This is the reality for nearly 20 families living in Muskogee getting a hand-up this weekend. Daniel Foster with First Baptist Church says seeing relationships form between their volunteers and families is more than worth it.

"It's Muskogee helping Muskogee, and that's what's so neat about it, instead of spending all the resources to go to another city or another country, we can invest all of that right here in our own city," Foster said.

Mission Muskogee is in its third year and Foster says the event keeps growing exponentially. Several churches in the area come together along with 20 sponsors.

It's all to make life a little better for people like Dorene Harris.

"This is a dream come true, because I've been struggling, trying to keep things up around here for a long time, and it's hard when you're single and doing it on your own, but God was with me the whole time, and I just want to say faith is real," Harris said.

They'll be working on the homes again on Monday and Tuesday. If you want to help, you can reach out to them on Mission Muskogee on Facebook.