Habitat Riverside is always thankful for our volunteers that sign up online to give up their time to help homeowners in need. It’s especially gratifying to see so many give up a day during the long Thanksgiving weekend when most of them have this time off to spend with their families. On the 23rd, yes Black Friday, a great group of volunteers gave up family or shopping time and instead painted the home of Jorge and Leonor in Corona’s Country Wood Estates mobile home park. Jorge and Leonor had received a notice from park management to have the home painted, but unfortunately they could not afford the project. The couple ran a small tow truck service until July of this year when Jorge got injured. They had to sell their tow truck to cover their living expenses. He is currently disabled. Both of them are unemployed at this time and not eligible for unemployment insurance.
Once the 22 volunteers arrived, they enthusiastically dug into the task at hand. Many of the mobile homes we work on are pretty routine but this one posed some challenges with some high peaks and lots of trim work requiring a lot of work from ladders. The weather cooperated but it did get a bit warm as the day progressed so Lenore brought out Gatorade for the volunteers.
Everything was moving along right on schedule until we discovered one of the cans of trim paint was not mixed correctly. So we used every bit of trim color we had to finish all the trim except for the side of the carport cover and a few sections of the lower trim and patio rails. A gallon of paint was dropped off on Saturday and Leonor insisted they would take care of the low areas.
A few Habitat volunteers will go back to the home to take care of the high trim and some small repairs on the skirting next week. Jorge and Leonor were truly thankful for these volunteers who came out this past Friday to help them. What a wonderful way to start this time of giving and sharing!
