Community Action Partnership of Riverside County contacted Habitat for Humanity Riverside a few months ago about helping the homeowner paint his house. HFHR Project Mgr Kathy Michalak met with a representative from CAP and the homeowner to see what we could do to help. We committed to definitely paint the exterior of the house, install the missing fascia boards and repair the siding.
A few weeks later, East Hills Community Church contacted HFHR about partnering up to do a project that would keep their member volunteers busy for about a week. HFHR proposed that the groups partner to work on sprucing up the exterior of the Harvard Way house. Once the two groups really scoped out the project, it grew to include some additional work in the front and rear yards, cleaning up the dead grass, trimming bushes and trees and replacing the irrigation system to make sure that the drought tolerant landscaping that was being brought in would be watered efficiently.
The church also volunteered to improve two rooms on the inside, the living and dining rooms. The volunteers did a great job cleaning and helping the homeowner organize several rooms, then painting the living and dining rooms. They also painted the exterior of the home, bought the homeowner a new bed, removed the chipping concrete covering on the stairs that were a trip hazard, replaced the fascia board on the roof line and repaired some of the siding. They cleaned debris and brush from the rear yard and installed the new piping for landscaping. As they were working, they found that the water main valve was actually leaking. We contact the City and they came out and replaced the valve as well.
The Home Depot in Riverside will be doing one more project day at the site in a week or two to install the actual plantings, irrigation systems and controllers and more DG to help prevent weed growth and minimize erosion on the property.
HFHR donated all of the paint, supplies and assistance with the project, East Hills Church arranged for all of the donations for landscaping materials and The Home Depot is donating the actual plants, trees and irrigation controllers as well as lots of volunteer labor. None of this could have been possible without the 100+ volunteers from East Hills Church who gave up their vacation time from work to help out and make a difference in the community as part of their annual One Summer program.
