What started out as one man’s quest to find resources to aid someone in need has blossomed into an eight-year tradition of helping the less fortunate in North Texas.

The Servolution Network Azle branch just finished hosting its eighth annual neighborhood blitz, which helped revitalize 15 homes in several area communities.

Jason Malewiski, Servolution Network Executive Director in Azle, said all the homes that were worked on during this blitz belonged to a veteran, a widow, someone with a disability, or an economically disadvantaged family or individual.

The blitz is a biannual event that has occurred every April and October for eight years. However, the work is year-round for Malewiski and his team of volunteers.

Among the projects Malewiski and his team tackled this year were yard cleanup and building a wheelchair ramp for an elderly man who could not get in and out of his home safely.

“One ask can create a string of resources for people in need,” Malewiski said. “Sometimes within an hour of me posting a request for supplies on social media, I have the very resource or resources I asked for.”

Malewiski’s involvement began eight years ago, when he was part of a pilot program headed by a nonprofit agency called 6 Stones, which mentored him along with several other volunteers.

“This agency said Azle was too far out for them to render aid, so they mentored a few of us on how they would select and provide resources to the less fortunate,” he said.

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Malewiski wanted to head a Servolution Network, he said, because of his experience with the organization at a church he attended in Oklahoma City.

The Servolution Network is a non-denominational global nonprofit outreach program with hundreds of locations that build alliances among churches, businesses, governments and others to provide solutions to meet the needs of the community, according to the organization’s website.

The name Servolution, the site explains, comes from the idea of the revolution of serving others.

“One day I wore one of their T-shirts to church when my pastor asked me what it stood for,” Malewiski said. “That question sparked a conversation and the next thing you know we started hosting Wednesday night dinners for people in need.”

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Now, Malewiski’s team consists of a database of nearly 400 volunteers that includes local business owners and contractors who can help restore entire homes and clean large properties.

One such volunteer is George Berry, owner of Junk King, a waste removal company in the Fort Worth-Dallas area.

“Jason asked us for some dumpsters one day, for a project he was working on, and I just steadily stayed in the loop from there,” Berry said.

Since then, Berry has helped find and donate resources to the Servolution Network Azle Branch for the last four years.

“It just feels good to help,” he said. “It is indescribable, the feeling I get when I can help a person in need.”

In 2021 alone, Malewiski said, the SNAB had over 1,100 volunteers who worked more than 13,000 hours, which comes out to just over $350,000 in work costs.

To date, the SNAB has helped revitalize 155 homes since 2014, 19 of which were done in 2021 in a five-day period.

But the stats don’t end there. In 2021, the nonprofit rendered aid to just under 2,500 people, 543 of whom received new furniture or appliances. Another 1,900 people were helped with clothing via the organization’s clothing section called the Fig Leaf Boutique.

For those in need of assistance, there is an application process in place on the Servolution Network’s website called the Good Neighbors Program.

“We used to go to a place because of word of mouth or an alert on social media, but now we ask that everyone apply online for resources,” he said.

Most of the cases, he said, are on a first come, first served basis, unless the need is an emergency.

“The responses we get from the people we help are of humble gratefulness,” Malewiski said. “And the feeling we get for helping is way better than any other feeling in the world.”

Grapevine made its debut in Dave Campbell’s state football poll this week coming in at No. 8 in Class 5A Division 2.

The Mustangs proved last week’s drubbing of Frisco Wakeland was no fluke as Grapevine scored on its first five possessions to run away from Azle 58-14 on Thursday night at Mustang-Panther Stadium.

The game was shown live on television as part of the High School Football Showdown on CW33.

Grapevine quarterback Evan Baum accounted for five scores with three coming through the air and two on the ground. Baum completed 8 of 12 passes for 230 yards and was a perfect 5 of 5 in the second half.

The senior rushed six times for 18 yards, but his only two attempts in the second half resulted in touchdowns of eight and 10 yards. The latter gave the Mustangs a 51-14 lead with 6:56 left in the game.

“We talk about it all the time about being the one-eleventh of the team and having trust in each other and that’s how we get going,” said Baum. “It feels good, but at the end of the day we really don’t care about rankings. We care about our team and how we’re performing.”

After a 30-yard field goal by Hayden Rhoades gave Grapevine (2-0) a 3-0 lead with 8:06 left in the first quarter, it was time for the Mustangs’ defense to shine.

A misplayed kickoff return by Azle (0-2) pinned the Hornets at their own 5-yard line. Azle went three and out, but the ensuing punt was blocked at the goal line by Gray Whitsett who pounced on the ball in the end zone for a quick 10-0 lead.

Azle had a couple of drives in the first half that penetrated deep into Grapevine territory, but both times the drives were halted by lost fumbles.

The first came after an 11-play, 59-yard march at the Grapevine 20. Tristan Sneed jolted the ball loose and Dalton Knapp picked it up and returned it to the Mustangs’ 47.

Five plays later Parker Polk darted 36 yards up the middle to give Grapevine a 17-0 lead with 18 ticks left in the first quarter.

“Our offensive line was just dominating up front,” said Polk, who comes in at No. 82 in the Star-Telegram’s list of the area’s Top 100 players. “At first I was pressing it and it wasn’t there, but then it started popping when our o-line started getting to the right guys.

“That one touchdown I had it was like the Red Sea opening up, it was a huge hole. I just followed my blocks and trusted my line.”

The second came late in the first half after a 10-play, 53 yard drive. A fumble at the Grapevine 1 was covered by Mustang linebacker Latham Wai.

The majority of Baum’s eight completions came to wide open receivers. Baum hit a wide open Hank Miller down the right hash for the 76-yard score to up the lead to 24-0.

On the next series the Mustangs ran the same pass play and got the same result when Polk raced 39 yards for a TD. Baum’s final TD pass came with 7:10 left in the third quarter to Sammy Kelley from 33 yards out to give Grapevine a 38-7 lead.

“Our coaches do a great job of preparing us,” said Baum, who guided Grapevine to 519 yards of total offense. “If we just keep running it and running it then they’re going to bite on that run and we’re going to step up and make that throw. My teammates just did a great job tonight.”

“It’s just a testament to how well we run the ball,” added Polk, who finished with 115 rushing yards on 14 carries. “Being consistent and disciplined in the run game opens up the pass game and when we do pass it then it’s wide open.”

The Mustangs’ defense allowed 89 yards of total offense in the first half and 291 for the game.

Azle ran 70 plays to Grapevine’s 49.

Azle linebacker Drew Dorris, No. 69 in the S-T Top 100 and son of Hornets’ head coach Devon Dorris, made a lot of plays, but he and his Hornet teammates couldn’t solve the Grapevine running game. Hornet wide out Tyler Akers, No. 98 in the Top 100, had six catches for 32 yards.

Grapevine’s Demontrez Dunn had 99 yards rushing on four carries in a mop up role, including breaking free for a 78-yard gain to set up his 3-yard scoring run.

“It was very important to play well after getting into the Top 10, but honestly we try to not look at the rankings,

said Polk. “Our coach tries to keep us focus on just games so we just wanted to come out here and play our best game. We didn’t play our best, we had a lot of penalties, but we’ll get that cleaned up.”

This story was originally published September 1, 2022, 10:20 PM.

Will Norman started listening to others after what he says was the "hardest year of his life."

AZLE, Texas — It had nothing to do with the pandemic, but Will Norman says 2020 was the hardest year of his life.

He was struggling personally and just needed someone to talk to, but nobody would listen.

“I felt alone,” he said. “I felt like I was in a hole, just kind of by myself. I felt like there was no one.”

For this cancer survivor, it was the most painful time of his life.

Rather than wallow in self-pity, he took it as a sign to put up his own sign.

Under a banner that reads, “Need to talk? I’ll listen. Confidential/no judgment,” Norman offers to listen.

Pretty much every day, sometimes up to nine hours a day, he sits in the parking lot of the local liquor store in Azle and invites anyone who passes by to talk. He chose the spot because it’s one of the busiest intersections in town.

He’s been doing it for three months and people he doesn’t know have told him things he can’t believe. They talk about everything from cancer diagnosis to drug addiction to alcohol abuse.

“It’s not like one or two beers,” one man told him. “I’ll drink a six-pack, eight beers.”

Some people have wondered why passersby would share such things with a total stranger.

“Cause they have no one,” he said. “People say, ‘Nobody cares about me, they don’t care what happens to me.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I care what happens to you.’”

Norman isn’t a trained therapist, but, under his tent, he has become a trusted friend and companion.

He tells each person he meets the same thing: ‘No one can help everyone, but everyone can help someone.’

For many people, he’s heaven-sent.

“Anybody that’s willing to give up their time to help other people is a saint,” said one man who stopped by to talk.

Norman doesn’t know these people, and he'll never see most of them again. It made him wonder, was being out there really helping anyone? That’s when a man sat down and told him something he’d never forget.

“He said, ‘I was on my way to kill myself and I just saw you and I felt that I had to stop,’” Norman recalled.

Norman encouraged the man to get help and he did.

Norman said the man checked himself into the hospital and when he got out a week later, the first thing he wanted to do was say thank you.

“And he turned around and started walking off and he just stopped and turned around and said, ‘I love you.’ And I said, ‘I love you too,” Norman said.

It still brings a tear to his eye each time he recalls that story.

That moment was the confirmation Norman needed and also, the closure.

“Last year was the worst of times for me, but at the same time it was the best of times because it led to what I’m doing now,” Norman said. “It’s given me a purpose to do. A purpose in life.”

Everyone wants to be heard, but those who speak the loudest are those who are willing to listen.

AZLE, Texas (KXAN) — A 13-year-old at the center of a Thursday Amber Alert was found, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

The teen was last seen Wednesday night in Azle, Texas, which is about 17 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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