Top: The destruction left by the April 2011 tornado in Harvest, Ala. Above: Kids participating in an after school activity at the Harvest Youth Club. Top Left: Melvin and Sylvia Allen, founders of the Harvest Youth Club.

Hope after the Storm

Posted December 9, 2011

MELVIN ALLEN grew up in a neighborhood in Harvest, Ala., that has one of the lowest average incomes in Madison County, and many who grow up and move elsewhere never come back. Melvin wanted to be an exception. After a long and successful administrative career with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Melvin and his wife, Sylvia, returned to Harvest with plans to retire and build their dream home on four acres of property they own.

But when that day came, in 2008, they had a change of heart. Melvin saw a need for a safe place for local boys and girls to come after school and during the summer. So instead of their dream home, the Allens built what is now the Harvest Youth Club, where young people can play, study, and spend time in a positive, supportive environment, with hopes of helping them stay on the right track and break the vicious cycles of teen pregnancy, illiteracy, and other problems that often plague poor communities.

Yet starting the Harvest Youth Club was only the first change of plans for Melvin’s life. In April 2011, disaster struck in the form of a F5 tornado that ripped through Harvest and tossed both him and the youth club into challenging new roles.

Melvin was already at work that morning when the tornado hit, and in its aftermath, he remembers running outside, seeing the devastation around him, and directing people to come take refuge at Harvest Youth Club—one of the only buildings left intact.

"Houses on both sides and in front and back of us were destroyed, almost all of the trees were uprooted, and the power poles blown down, but this old metal building still remained."

Though he had no experience in crisis management, Melvin quickly established an impromptu triage unit on-site, as well as a shelter and food bank for the local residents rendered homeless by the storm, and a command post for the nearly 5,000 volunteers who have passed through Harvest since that day to pitch in with the long-haul effort of recovery, from cutting trees off of houses and clearing roads in those first days to eventually doing construction, buying furniture, and doing whatever needed to be done to help families start over.

Through it all, Melvin, the community of Harvest, and the volunteers who joined in the effort showed a dogged determination not to let a the crisis go to waste. Just as a lot of homes and buildings are being built back with sturdier construction than in the past, there is a sense the very fabric of the community may emerge stronger, as well.

John Bailey is director of missions at nearby Asbury United Methodist Church, whose congregation is dedicated to helping Harvest recover over the long haul. He says the church is located in a community that is relatively affluent compared to the one served by Harvest Youth Club, and that in spite of their geographic proximity, there were socio-economic barriers between the two.

“It is our hope and desire that those kinds of barriers will come down as a result of this tragedy," he says. "This has given us the opportunity to intimately know the families there, and I don't know if we would have had the opportunity to build these relationships to this level otherwise.”

If people outside Harvest are finding their way into this neighborhood, Melvin is equally committed to helping kids find their way out—not permanently, but to go to college and explore their potential and, ideally, return to Harvest as he has with skills and experience to build toward the future.

He and Sylvia have been foster parents to about 20 children over the years and adopted two, and he is working to spread the word about the importance of other parents to step up to the plate and provide loving homes for children who need them.

Melvin also is a father figure to the children who attend the youth club, and he likes to take groups of them to his alma mater of Jacksonville State University, for instance, to help encourage them to aspire to a university education.

Like Melvin, John believes that all of these efforts, with the storm as a painful catalyst, can result in lasting change through stronger relationships. “I think it is Melvin’s desire to see other communities join with him and with Harvest to do the kind of work he has started,” John says. “And we want to be a part of that for years to come.”

THE HARVEST YOUTH CLUB is a Regions customer.

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