When one thinks about Habitat for Humanity Riverside’s A Brush With Kindness program, usually an image of volunteers painting homes and climbing ladders comes to mind. However, this is just one of the multiple aspects that this program entails. Another aspect to ABWK is landscaping and our volunteers on last Saturday’s project day found this out rather quickly. As I began emptying the truck and laying out the materials, with the help of volunteers of course, they began to notice tools such as: rakes, shovels, trimmers, bags of mulch and a wheel barrel. This was definitely not a paint day, but that did not hinder the volunteers because they were eager to help the homeowner in any way they could.

Carol the homeowner has lived in her home since 2001 and enjoys her community and her home. Carol enjoys have a garden of lushes flowers and fruit trees; however, some of the plants and landscape were in dire need of trimming and removal. Carol loves tending to her garden but her age, 84 years old, and her health has halted her beloved past time. Carol is receiving social security and some retirement funds but that is not enough to purchase supplies or hire someone to tend to her landscape. She reached out to HFHR and we responded by supplying all the tools and volunteers needed to aid Carol.

The volunteers arrived right on time and after our safety briefing, a brief description of the scope of the work and our traditional devotional prayer, we all began pulling weeds and trimming hedges. The team of volunteers pulled dead branches and vines from Carol’s fence and removed the dead plants from her flower bed. A female volunteer cut a dead tree and the men pulled out its stump. It felt as if once the day began we were already cleaning up the site. Although we only had six volunteers, three of which were working on their sweat equity, the job was finished and the site was cleaned in no time.

Carol was so thrilled at the work the volunteers had accomplished in such short time. Her smile was from ear to ear and her words were kind and sweet. The volunteers definitely realized that a job well done is satisfying; however, getting to know the homeowner and seeing her joy and happiness is the real satisfaction point once an A Brush With Kindness project goes so smoothly.