Three volunteers arrived early on Saturday morning to help a local homeowner repair a set of stairs and landing on her front porch.  Norma, a local Riverside resident, inherited the mobile home from her parents several years ago.  The stairs on the home had not been maintained since their installation and due to years of weathering and use, the wood had rotted and weakened resulting in a potentially serious injury hazard which had to be fixed.  This small handful of volunteers worked diligently all morning to repair Norma’s porch so she and her family could walk safely on it again.  In addition to restoring her porch, the volunteers worked quickly enough to even help install brand new outdoor carpeting to the stairs and landing.

Due to the size of the project and the small number of volunteers, as they worked together to complete their tasks they also learned a lot about one another.  One volunteer, Randall, was originally from Texas and had just moved to California the previous week.  With only a week in California under his belt, he had already decided to volunteer his time to help revitalize communities near his new home.  He knew that giving ones time to help others was one sure way to make you feel like a part of a new community.  Another volunteer, Bryson, had decided to give his time to help Norma that morning before going to work in the afternoon.   He worked closely with Randall using different tools to help repair the steps and landing.  Courtney, another volunteer who was in school to become a physician’s assistant had never used a power drill before.  By the end of the day she had become quite skilled with it and helped install most of the new carpeting.

When the porch was finished, Norma came out and thanked the volunteers for their time and effort.  “Oh my goodness, you guys are so awesome, the porch looks beautiful!” she exclaimed.  The volunteers were proud of their work that morning and all left that day knowing they played an important role in their communities by helping to revitalize a local neighborhood.   Tired and sweaty, the volunteers left but were happy to have helped Norma and her family.  Norma and her family can now feel safe when walking on their beautiful new porch.