Community members step up to finish home paint job for injured neighbor

The Cape Coral community is stepping up to help a family going through hard times after a father spent Christmas in the hospital. Now in a coma, he fell off a ladder while pressure washing his house in preparation for painting it.

The volunteers stepping up to help complete the project started painting the house early Thursday morning and they are already making plenty of progress.

Some 30 volunteers made up of friends and family showed up to help with the painting after they heard of the accident.

Chloe Newhard-Schellenberg told WINK News she would not have it any other way.

“I know they would do the same for me,” Newhard-Schellenberg said, “so it would be foolish of me not to do it for them.”

Volunteers say they plan to finish the painting by Thursday afternoon.

As for Eston’s current condition, the family says his brain pressure has gone down and he is making strides towards his recovery.

As Eston continues the fight for his life, people who either saw or heard his story decided they had to finish the job he started. Eston’s daughter, Katherine Means, told WINK she came by to help, but that was not to be.

“The amount of people that I see,” Katherine said while smiling, “I don’t even think there’s enough rollers for everyone.”

And when they are done, friends hope this small act of kindness lifts a weight off the family’s shoulders. It does for Eston’s wife, Shellie, and their daughter.

“It really was about the people that were here,” Shellie said. “It was thinking automatically, like, ‘oh my gosh, the amount of people that it took to do this.’ I am very overwhelmed with everybody coming out to support us.”

“People say oh we love them, we love them but to see an act of love in person is like a million times better,” Katherine said. “It’s just so incredible.”