Saturday, October 21st, 2017, was a big day for Habitat for Humanity Riverside’s “A Brush with Kindness” program. We were scheduled to complete home preservation projects on three different homes all in one morning. Fortunately, we had the helping hands of four groups—Kaiser Permanente, Hillcrest High School AVID, Centennial High School Campus Chapter, and UC Riverside Alpha Delta Pi.
Volunteers gathered at the community center of Village Mobile Home Park at 7:00am around warm coffee and fresh donuts. After filling up on the refreshments and getting everybody signed in, Russell of Kaiser Permanente’s Capital Projects gave a speech on the importance of service within the company and the community. Russell’s speech was followed by a morning prayer where everyone bowed their heads in silence for a brief moment to pray for strength to carry through the projects, grace while painting under the hot sun, patience for the minor details, and for new friendships to be formed. We concluded by splitting the large group into three smaller teams. Each team was led by several Kaiser Permanente volunteers who have not only volunteered with Habitat Riverside on multiple occasions in the past, but who are also professional painters, construction crew members, engineers and electricians.
Team leaders advised volunteers how to set up tarps around the home, showing them which areas to paint and not to paint, as well as briefing them through the different paint supplies. A couple of volunteers from Kaiser took on the task of making continuous rounds in their truck to all of the homes to drop off ladders and to make sure the volunteer groups had all the supplies they needed. They had everything from extension poles, to paint grids, to tray covers, etc.
In no time, the three homes underwent a transformation. Some worked diligently to apply a clean coat of fresh paint to the walls, while others worked on finer details of the home such as the trim. Each volunteer played an instrumental part in making sure each area of the home was newly painted.
John, a retired veteran and one of the homeowners, needed his ramp replaced. The wear over the years caused by usage and weather conditions made the plywood of the ramp unstable and ultimately a safety hazard. However, this task did not faze the group of Kaiser volunteers who came equipped with carpentry skills. They cut the plywood to the appropriate size, installed it, and coated it with a textured paint to ensure it would be slip resistant.
By noon, all three home preservation projects were completed. Volunteers assisted in cleaning the paint brushes and folding up the tarps. Afterwards, everyone headed to the community center where Kaiser’s group graciously had lunch prepared for every volunteer.
This project could not have been done without the help of all our volunteers from Kaiser Permanente, Centennial High School, Hillcrest High School, and UCR Alpha Delta Pi. Thank you all so much for coming out to help our community members preserve the look of their homes!
