The community is pitching in to help a Plant City mother of 14 with home repairs

PLANT CITY, Fla. — To say Andrea Hurt is sold out is an understatement.

“We have 14 children: two biological children and 10 of them from Florida foster care,” Hurt said.

Eleven are adopted or in the process of being adopted.

But running a home full of love has its challenges. Earlier this year, Hurt started AngeLink fundraising page to help his family pay for a new air conditioning system in their Plant City home.

“The cost was just out of reach financially, so I approached AngeLink, did a fundraiser and we reached our goal,” she said.

But after two hurricanes, her roof began to leak and her home needed even more repairs.

“We had to put buckets in several places in our house,” Hurt said. — In one of my child’s bedrooms, the ceiling collapsed from hurricane damage. The windows in the children’s classroom were leaking. There was water all over the floor and also in our living room.”

Now a team of assistants is coming to the rescue.

AngeLink helped put her in touch with a stranger who offered handyman services, and another good Samaritan, John Starry, owner of Steadfast Roofing, also came together to help with home repairs, all for free.

“The only thing bigger than her heart is her family, so if I have the opportunity to help someone like her, I will 100 percent,” Starry said.

It was a huge show of support for the mother of 14 as the community helped turn their house into a home.

“Things like this don’t happen very often, so I’m really glad people want to help,” Hurt said. “We were ready to try to do it ourselves in pieces and do what we could, but we’re just very grateful for the help.”