6th Man Out providing neighborly service

Kenyon Ross, who helps organize the West Homewood Farmer's Market at Shades Valley Community Church, is launching a new community program that he hopes will help local men get projects done around their own homes and provide service to their neighbors.

The program, called 6th Man Out, will gather interested men in groups of five to commit to helping with one project per month at each other’s homes. On the sixth month, the group will work together on a home project for a resident in need.

“We try to do things that both benefit the people involved as well as hopefully the people we’d be serving,” Ross said. “… God has created us to receive and to give.”

While 6th Man Out is just beginning, he hopes it can reach the popularity of the Tuesday night markets.

“What we hope to see is a bunch of guys wanting to do this,” Ross said.

As part of 6th Man Out, each man commits one Saturday a month to complete a roughly three-hour project. They are responsible for providing lunch and materials for the project at their own home, though Ross said he has had some people offer to donate food for the groups.

The project for the sixth month will be chosen from requests made on social media or through contacting Ross. He’s hoping to complete projects for residents who are elderly, in financial need or otherwise just need extra sets of hands.

The 6th Man Out groups will mostly be working on simple handyman projects like yardwork, moving, painting or something “you’d ask your dad to come over and do,” Ross said.

“We probably will stay away from anything electrical, anything that could turn around and break,” he said.

In the first group that started, Ross said they worked on laying down sod and creating a small patio at his home. Their community service project was cleaning out the kitchen at Shades Valley Community Church.

The first 6th Man Out group started in January, and Ross said he will launch new groups as he gets enough participants. While he knows “weekends are precious,” he is hoping enough men will see the benefit for themselves and the community and decide to participate.

To join 6th Man Out or make a request for a service project, visit westhomewood.com/6th-man-out.