Seventeen members of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill, along with nine volunteers from Rebuilding Together, participated in the spring Rebuilding Together workday April 22 in Morgan Hill.
The work project that day was to paint the home and build a new carport for a residence on Longview Drive owned by Abode Services, a nonprofit that provides housing for six women who were previously chronically homeless.
Splitting into two teams, work started at 8 a.m. on painting the full outside of the 1,500-square foot home and preparation to build a new carport.
With the hard work of those present, the home had a full coat of paint by the end of the day.
The carport proved to be a much more challenging project, according to the Rotarians. In order to build the carport, preparation for the eight supports to hold the carport required cutting concrete, digging out eight postholes that were 42 inches deep.
By the end of the day, eight posts were ready to be secured by pouring concrete. The following week, a handful of Rotarians followed up the work by pouring the concrete. The carport was built out on the following Saturday.
This was the second Rebuilding Together workday that Rotary Club of Morgan Hill has participated in.
Throughout the Bay Area, 900 volunteers spent the day April 22 repairing 35 homes and nonprofit facilities, according to Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley spokesperson Terry Gallo. The homeowners and residents in need of repairs were low-income residents, including seniors, veterans and people with disabilities.
The volunteers in fact made repairs at two homes in Morgan Hill during the April 22 Rebuilding Day. The other was a home built in 1935 on Sanchez Drive, where the homeowner is a 77-year-old widow. She has lived in Morgan Hill for 38 years, and her husband inherited the home from his parents.
Work at that site included painting, repairing loose tiles, a leaking window, gutters and screen doors, among other improvements.
“We are committed to helping homeowners in need maintain their housing, ensuring not just housing but a safe and healthy home,” said Beverley Jackson, Executive Director of Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley. “We do more than fix houses—with the help of our volunteers, we rebuild lives.”
Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley is a Safe and Healthy Housing organization with about 160 affiliates nationwide. The organization completes about 10,000 home rebuilding projects for lower-income Americans every year, with the help of about 200,000 volunteers.
