By Bisi Cameron Yee
Published in The Lincoln County News on November 26, 2025
The Bristol-South Bristol Transfer Station was a hive of more than the usual activity on Saturday, Nov. 22 as the Wood Chips, an all-volunteer offshoot of the Community Housing Improvement Project Inc., made a major push to split and stack cords of donated firewood that will provide essential heating assistance in the cold months ahead.
“Neighbors helping neighbors stay safe, warm and dry” is CHIP’s mission statement, and the Wood Chips are playing an increasingly important role in keeping Lincoln County residents warm.
‘Nobody wants to be cold’
“They’re heating their home with the oven or the irons or the space heaters or whatever,” said CHIP board member and Wood Chips volunteer Linda Shaffer of the people they serve. “And somebody from CHIP drives up with a truckload of firewood and they have instant heat, instant warmth once they get that fire going … Everybody in the northern part of this country can identify with that. Nobody wants to be cold.”
New volunteer Stephen Mischel delivered wood to a man who he said was “literally going into town and buying a gallon at a time to try to heat his home.” Mischel has never experienced heat insecurity.
“It just hadn’t occurred to me how much I take things like that for granted, you know?” he said.
“It’s enough to give people a real boost,” CHIP Project Manager Brittany Gill said about the organization’s heating program.
That boost can be critical, she added, for people experiencing a “life crisis or a big life change … And some people count on it year after year.”
Barbara Britt first requested wood last year and will receive another delivery this year.
“Like everybody else I’m going through challenging times,” she said.
The cord of wood she will receive is a difference maker.
“I think the program is absolutely amazing, what they do for the community,” she said. “And the volunteers, they’re all heartfelt. They really care … I think we’re pretty blessed to have them.”
Wood Chips coordinator Jack Meehan has a thousand stories, but the time he delivered to a 10-foot-by-12-foot shed outfitted with a stove pipe sticks with him.
“When I dumped my wood, somebody runs out … grabs a few pieces and runs back in. So you know they had no heat,” he said. “And now this is in December.”
Driving away from that delivery, Meehan said he felt like a part of something important, something bigger than himself.
“But about two miles later I’m going in my head, ‘What are they going to do next month?’” he said.