Abram owns a garage here in Sderot; in fact he is the one who has maintained our van for us. When we needed space to stain the wood for the pergolas, he offered the yard at his shop. He moved cars around and set up tables for us to use and for almost three weeks our lumber and volunteers were there working. Abram’s mechanic Élan also helped by loading and unloading material and even helped with the staining. He even came in hours before the shop opened so that we could begin the staining before the sun became too hot to work outdoors and he stayed late so we could work late in order to complete the staining of wood for Afek’s park on time.

Avi and Moti are brothers who own one of the hardware stores in Sderot. When we had problems with the chop saw we had purchased from them, they gave us another one without any problems. When we were looking for a cordless drill for the team from America to use when they arrived, they gave us two to use free of charge. They also gave us two ladders to use.
On the eve of the park dedication, a back hoe was called in to help break up some of this ancient land in order to make planting a bit easier. In the process three sprinkler lines were broken. Being on a real tight time frame and having to wait until eight o’clock in the morning for the store to open was going to put us behind schedule. At nine-thirty that night a call was made to Moti and within thirty minutes he drove up with the pipe and all the fittings we needed to make the repairs that night so we could stay on schedule.

Daniel, along with his father, sister, and brother owns the lumber company where the material for Afek’s park was purchased. On more than one occasion, when we needed a special cut or just a board ripped, he has always been there to do it for us at no extra charge. On one particular day we needed some wood cut with a compound miter and our chop saw was just not big enough to make the cut. So I did what I always do… go to Daniel.
It was around five o’clock that evening by the time I got to him. I explained what we needed and that we needed it first thing in morning. Daniel said, “Let’s do it now.” He cut the first piece and told me to go back to the park to check it before he cut them all. It wasn’t quite right so I went back to re-cut the piece. It took two more trips back and forth to get it correct. The remarkable part about this is that the lumber yard had closed at five-thirty and he waited around until almost six-thirty while I went back and forth and never charged a penny (I guess I should say a shekel).