The Chosen — 2026-02-21 (Patreon)

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Chapter 102: OUT WITH THE OLD by Noah Vale

Today is demolition day and if you ask me, Merritt and I have the best job.

We’re on the roof of a community center that provides important services. It’s part of this community's infrastructure, but it, like many such facilities in the U.S., is old and needs some help.

What we didn’t know until we got on the ground in Gulfport was that The Society had already arranged with a local contractor to come in starting tomorrow to fix the roof that had deteriorated and replace the recently deceased air-conditioning system.

Why does this matter? Well, Izzy will talk about that later.

Right now, Merritt and I are carrying stuff to the edge and tossing it to the ground. There’s something satisfying about yelling “lookout below!” and letting 200 pounds of scrap metal set sail! Of course, we wait for Addison to give the all-clear.

Kent is dismantling what Merritt calls a first-generation air-conditioning unit. Call him “tool man,” he’s got a gas-powered grinder and a portable plasma cutter to rend the mid-twentieth-century mass of metal into pieces we can toss down.

On the ground, Jacob, Emma, and Addison (and sometimes Izzy) are picking up what we drop and putting it into dumpsters. Metal in one… biodegradables in another… and if it's neither metal nor biodegradable, it’s getting piled up to be put into another dumpster later.

I’d like to add that Jacob is frequently solo-lifting stuff that Merritt and I elected to two-man to the edge and putting it in the dumpsters. Emma and Addison help when necessary.

Jacob’s days as a defensive lineman for Warren Central in Vicksburg haven’t been wasted. Go Vikings!

Hannah is on thermostat duty. This entails her getting four sets of wires run to different parts of the building and connected to state-of-the-art thermostats.

Kent told her to get all four sets ready to be pulled, then bend and tape them to the existing thermostat wires. When all is ready, the old wires can be used to snake the new wire into place.

So that’s what’s happening right now. Stick around, there’s a lot more to come.

Chapter 102: NOT JUST A BUILDING by Izzy Duffy

When people think about big give-back events, they probably don’t think of a little community center in Mississippi. But what they might overlook is that this building is infrastructure that this small Mississippi Gulf Coast community needs.

This mission is about what happens here—here and in thousands of other centers, churches, and local parks across the country.

Every weekday, seniors eat here for free—meals provided by a local interfaith association. After school, 10- to 14-year-olds come for tutoring and health programming staffed by the school district but hosted here because there’s nowhere else. Adults studying for their GED sit in classrooms that double as hurricane briefing rooms when the Gulf turns angry.

Back here near the showers are four small bunk-style rooms. They aren’t glamorous. They are for the family whose transmission failed on I-10. For the mom and son who need one safe night while paperwork catches up. For emergencies that don’t fit neatly into policy.

When storms hit, this center becomes a local Emergency Management Agency shelter. These showers—in addition to the ones in the locker rooms—run constantly. The kitchen shifts from senior lunches to mass meals. Phones charge. People breathe.

And here’s the part we don’t talk about enough: there isn’t a federal department tasked with keeping places like this operational.

There’s no “Community Center Administration” with a line item for aging roofs or failing HVAC systems. Departments of Transportation fund roads. Departments of Education fund schools. But buildings like this—quietly carrying the weight of a town—depend on patchwork generosity and any grants they can find that fit what they do.

Across the country, aging churches and community centers are holding communities together with duct tape and faith. They are the safety net beneath the safety net.

When the roof leaks and the air conditioning fails, it isn’t an inconvenience. It’s a barrier to programming.

That’s why this mission matters.

Because infrastructure isn’t always steel bridges and highways. Sometimes it’s a clean place to sleep, tile shower, a folding table, and a roof that has to hold.

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