Volunteers from all over HFHR’s service area joined together Saturday at Mission Village mobile home park in Riverside. They came to help Craig and Janie, disabled homeowners of a mobile home in Mission Village that was in need of a new paint job. Craig’s uncle and aunt had helped the couple purchase the home in 1998, and that was pretty much the last time it had been painted. Neighbors helped the disabled couple with a lot of things, especially since neither of them drives. But on Saturday, it was Habitat’s volunteers who took a turn at helping them out by painting their home.
It’s been a bit on the warm side over the last week so we started out early Saturday morning to get a jump start and try to beat the heat. Most of the group had painted with Habitat before, so setup and orientation was quick. Carol, one of our senior volunteers, said the devotion before starting, and then the fun began. As usual we broke into groups to tackle all four sides at once and we had plenty of volunteers so everyone got right to it.
Deb and Josh, both experienced Habitat volunteer painters, went right to the trim to make the job go faster. Matt and Lu took charge of cleaning and painting the three awnings. As is usually the case on these projects, everyone worked together well and it didn’t take long before everyone felt like old friends. They made it look easy and the entire project was finished right at noon.
Craig and Janie’s home was the first home that Habitat has been involved with painting inside this mobile home park. The management team and many of the neighbors were very happy with the work done to help their residents. They look forward to help for more residents in the future. Craig and Janie are both deaf, so we all learned some sign language from them. The homeowners gave the volunteers us a big thank you sign and just walked around the home smiling. It a plus that the community, homeowners and volunteers assist each other. Our smiling homeowners are a universal sign when it comes to Habitat projects. Our volunteers get a lot of smiles, hugs and thanks from the people they help and that’s the way it should be.
