As the winter chill settles over the northern Shenandoah Valley, a simple stack of firewood represents something bigger: the generosity and collaboration of community members helping one another.

“It’s just neat,” said John Fogle, pastor of Seven Bends Church as he stood next to the wood piled outside the Auto Care Clinic at 861 S. Main St. in Woodstock. “To see so many different people in the community say, ‘Hey, let’s do this together instead of just one entity.’”

Fogle said the idea came to him thanks to inspiration from his aunt, who spent most of her life in Montana.

“She was connected to a church that started, or what I know to be the first in the nation, a wood bank,” Fogle explained. “It’s like a food bank, but for firewood.”

Fogle said the need for firewood increases each wint

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