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The Rebuilding Together effort takes place mostly in April. But Executive Director Sandy Walton is hoping the group will soon be able to rehabilitate houses for low-income homeowners in Lynchburg year-round. “Our goal is to keep homeowners in their homes,” she said. Rebuilding Together began about six years ago, when it was called Christmas in April. Now Walton, is putting a call out for sponsors, homeowners in need and volunteers at every skill level. Rebuilding Together is a national organization, and has local has chapters in Amherst, Bedford and Campbell counties, in addition to the Lynchburg branch. Walton said the group has received about 80 applications from homeowners who need help with projects such as interior and exterior painting, deck building, and general repairs to make their home more livable. The group focuses on providing services for low-income elderly people or disabled individuals. There’s no catch, she said, and there are no costs to the property owner. Applications for interested homeowners are available at the city’s public libraries, Walton said. Rebuilding Together needs volunteers and sponsors to make it all work, she said. The group is looking for any “professional skilled workers,” such as plumbers or roofers, in addition to any laypeople looking to volunteer. Youth groups and businesses looking to “team build” are perfect candidates, Walton said. The group may seem similar to Habitat for Humanity, but Walton said the two aren’t competing. “They are trying to help people become homeowners,” she said. “We are trying to help people stay in their homes.” The main emphasis of Rebuilding Together, Walton said, will still be the final two weeks in April, when Christmas in April had traditionally been active. But Walton will be networking with various agencies, sponsors and homeowners with the goal of holding events throughout the year. Rebuilding Together will also host the 2007 Group Workcamps Foundation, the second time Lynchburg’s branch will welcome the faith-based organization from Colorado, Walton said. Roughly 400 people from the organization will set up camp at Linkhorne Middle School for one week in July and help rehabilitate about 70 homes or make improvements to local nonprofit facilities. Walton got involved with the group after moving to Lynchburg from Birmingham, Ala., about four years ago. She said that making sure people can continue to maintain and own their own homes is important for a couple reasons. “To keep a person safe and healthy is to keep a person happy and healthier,” Walton said. The home is usually the family’s biggest investment. Protecting that investment is good for the individual, but also reflects well on the surrounding community. “The more homeowners, the better the investment,” she said.
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High schoolers volunteer to repair homes for those in need By Christa Desrets cdesrets@newsadvance.com Wednesday, July 11, 2007
An eight-person crew of volunteers is working this week to get LaVonne Rose home from the nursing and rehabilitation center where she’s currently staying. “Right now she’s not even allowed to live at home because she has no wheelchair access,” said Chris Beck, an 18-year-old from Maryland. So the crew is building a ramp for her, at no cost. Hers is just one of about 45 Lynchburg homes that about 375 volunteers, mostly teenagers, are improving this week. The volunteers - who drove from as far away as Iowa - are part of Group Workcamps Foundation, a national missionary program that has been organizing large-scale renovation projects throughout communities nationwide since 1977. This summer, more than 26,000 teenagers and adult leaders are working in 180 communities in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and Belize. The volunteers, who typically travel with groups from their churches’ youth organizations, are sleeping in classrooms at E.C. Glass High School. The Lynchburg City School division’s cafeteria and custodial staff feed the volunteers and maintain the school, said the school division’s Rob Quel. John Fulton, director of the Workcamp group in Lynchburg, said the volunteers have been hard workers, even in the extreme heat that Lynchburg saw early this week. Fulton, who traveled from North Carolina, said group members have been “champs” for their hard work. “This community is just great.” Each day this week through Friday, the volunteers will lend a hand throughout the city. “Everybody has a job,” said Sandy Walton, executive director of Rebuilding Together Lynchburg, the organization sponsoring this summer’s Hill City-based camp. “They’ll carry what they’re learning this week into other things.” She began the process of finding homes that needed renovations in October, and recently narrowed her list of 90 homes to the roughly 45 that volunteers could handle. Interior and exterior painting and porch and wheelchair ramp construction at the homes of elderly, disabled and low-income families are the most common, Walton said. “I want these houses saved. I mean, they’re beautiful homes,” she said. “If everybody just did their part as best they could, so many of our needs would be taken care of.” In Lillie Glover’s eyes, she has one of the most beautiful homes in town. But the steps leading to her front door are hard on her 71-year-old legs. “I love this house - I’ve been here for so long,” she said of her 80-year-old home on Walnut Street. “I always wished I had a ramp to get away from these steps.” She’s getting her wish. By Friday, she should be able to bypass the steps and instead use the ramp now under construction by a team of Workcamp volunteers. “Everybody is so nice … just as sweet as they can be,” she said. “I think that it’s a wonderful thing what they’re doing.” The group also tackled a painting project at the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew building on Memorial Avenue. The once-white paint in the room that houses their rescue vehicles had turned a hazy gray from more than 20 years of soot, fumes and dust. “We are so helpful that these young folks have come to help us out,” said Kristin Morgan, captain of the volunteer rescue squad. Gaven Girton, a 14-year-old from Pennsylvania, was one of the volunteers painting the room. “I think it’s refreshing helping other people,” he said. “It just feels good.” As for Rose, the volunteers building her ramp hope to see her use it for the first time later this week. “When you look at the finished project, it’s definitely a good feeling,” Beck said.
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From WSET: |
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Helping others all year long Conor Reilly mreilly@newsadvance.com Sunday, December 17, 2006 |
