Everyone deserved a high five today! Many of our volunteer days are filled with companies or church groups. But, our Habitat volunteers hold a special place in our heart, so when we can we try to get them out on a volunteer day as much as possible.
That’s how we got a great group together last week on Thursday the 14th to paint the home of seniors Dave and Arlene in the Corona Palms Mobile home Park in Corona. Arlene is disabled and needs routine in-home dialysis. Their home looked pretty good in some areas but the sun exposed walls and trim were all bleached out and needed attention. Doesn’t take too many years here for thee sun to take a toll on any paint job!
Even though the calendar shows March 20th is still winter, it sure felt like summer with record breaking temperatures for the day. Almost half of the group had painted with us before and helped the new volunteers pick up the finer points of painting a mobile home.
Before long, the group was working together as if they had known each other for a long time. It’s amazing how great teamwork develops on a Habitat volunteer day! The day continued to get warmer so one of the biggest challenges for the day was making sure that everyone stayed hydrated and to keep playing hide and seek with the sun so the volunteers didn’t spend the entire day painting on the hot side of the house.
Dave, the homeowner, has a green thumb and volunteers made sure that they carefully moved his flowers and potted plants out of harms way so they were not damaged. During the move, Dave lost one of his hearing aids. He asked all them to try and find it. He even offered a small reward. Hearing aids are not cheap after all. All the volunteers were happy to look for it but did not find it. Later in the week, Dave called Habitat Riverside to tell us he had found the hearing aid. That was good news!
It turned out to be a great day for painting and the group did a great job. Dave and Arlene were so happy with the completed project.
