Shortly after the NOC’s founding, a major house fire occurred in the community, which “gutted the house top to bottom” and “peeled the tin [roof] right back”. The home belonged to a local woman named Mrs. Moore, who fostered nine children. The family was living out of a motel on Nine Mile Road following the fire when Butch and one of the pastors from Mechanicsville Christian Center visited her. 

An insurance adjuster appraised the house and determined that Mrs. Moore’s insurance would not fully cover the cost of the repairs. Teamed up with MCC, the NOC was able to raise enough funds, donate services and supplies, and rebuild Mrs. Moore’s house over the next two years. The family moved back in “with everything brand new inside those walls, including all the new appliances and everything.” 

Mrs. Moore’s home was the first big project that the NOC had taken on, and Butch remembers it as a huge first step toward improving the neighborhood. “[Homeownership] makes all the difference in the world,” Butch says, because it brings in people who “have an investment in the community.” The Richmond Free Press did a front-page story on the family, the fire that destroyed their home, and the nonprofit that put them back on their feet. The article brought a lot of attention to the NOC which allowed the small nonprofit to build up rapport among the residents of Highland Park and connect with churches in the area, such as Heights Church, Gayton Baptist Church, Grace Community Presbyterian, West End Assembly of God, and Mechanicsville Christian Center.

In 2006, the NOC sought to own a building rather than rent. 3076 Meadowbridge Road sat on the corner of the block, vacant and rundown. With “no money, just in faith”, Butch convinced the owner of the building to sell it. After the NOC had wrapped the project on Mrs. Moore’s house, “a lot of those same [volunteers] came over and helped [Butch] gut that place and restore it”. By 2008, the NOC had moved into its first official building where the clothes closet was expanded into a thrift store, and the afterschool program was held upstairs.

By 2014, the renovated 1600-square-foot house at 3076 Meadowbridge Road became too small for the organization’s needs. The thrift store was overflowing, the after-school program was growing, and the only room for the thrift store overflow storage and the food pantry was in rental spaces down the street.

Next door to the NOC, at 3080 Meadowbridge Road, was a property of run-down abandoned buildings. Butch was able to convince the owner to sell the property through owner financing. Believing that “if you’re faithful in the little things, God can trust you for more”, the NOC “stepped into it with no money, but just a promise that we were going to make payments”. 

And faithful the Lord has been. Sufficient fundraising covered every payment, and what was once a run-down city block has now been transformed into a revitalized section of Meadowbridge Road. Our current building at 3080 Meadowbridge Road, opened in 2019, has allowed us to expand our thrift store space to 700 square feet, bring our food pantry in-house, and allow an additional 30 kids to participate in the afterschool program upstairs.

Celebrating 20 years in the neighborhood, the NOC has firmly established itself as a stable and reliable part of Highland Park. Regulars will pop into the thrift store, and volunteers will greet them by name. The NOC’s neighbors “know we’re not here to scam anybody. We’re here to bless the community.” Our hope for Highland Park is that its residents can once again say that it is someplace that they can be proud to live in.

Isaiah 58:6-12

6 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”