A group of volunteer carpenters from Beaufort County has a new trailer to carry supplies, thanks to a donation from a local business.

In March, Lee Chevrolet donated $5,000 to Caring Christian Carpenters for the purchase of a trailer and to outfit the inside to hold materials. The carpenter’s old trailer they had been using since the group was founded in the 1990s.

“The one we had been using had been around since the 1990s,” said Richard Jones, a member of the group. “I started talking to a friend of mine who was a Chevrolet dealer in Greenville about the need for a trailer. They told me to talk to Lee Chevrolet, and they gave us $5,000.

“This is pretty significant because we can put everything in the trailer,” Jones said. “Our tools are going to be out of the way and locked up and we won’t have to worry about anything happening to them.”

Recently, Caring Christian Carpenters began researching the expansion of its services to other states to help those in need, another reason they needed the donation for a new trailer.

“We had a couple of guys that moved here from outside the area,” said Jones. “They had been involved in these early response teams for tornadoes and hurricanes and they wanted to expand our services for tornadoes and hurricanes.”

The group provides services for Beaufort County residents who need a wheelchair ramp built at their house. The person in need of the ramp pays for the materials, while the Caring Christian Carpenters provides free labor.

The group originally began as a summer program for teens who assisted with fixing peoples homes in the community in the late 1980s.

After phasing out the teen program in 1990, Caring Christian Carpenters started building ramps. Each Monday, the group of volunteers builds a ramp for residents of Beaufort County. They average around 40 to 50 ramps a year and have built nearly 1,000 ramps since 1990.

Caring Christian Carpenters is affiliated with the First United Methodist Church in Washington.