Rebuilding Together Announces Plans for "Fifty for Five"

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Mar 19, 2010, 01:16 ET

Major Week-Long Katrina 5th Anniversary event will rebuild 50 homes and offer a major community celebration of renewal

WASHINGTON, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rebuilding Together announced plans today for "Fifty for Five." This anniversary event, which will start on August 24 and culminate with a major celebration on August 28, will showcase and celebrate Rebuilding Together's commitment to Gulf Coast rebuilding and renewal. Rebuilding Together will rehabilitate fifty homes in New Orleans on the eve of the fifth year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in a week long effort and finish with a community block party and all-welcome major community evening outdoor celebration.

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Celebrities, media and partners of Rebuilding Together will congregate with over one thousand volunteers from Rebuilding Together affiliates across the nation, many of whom have participated in our Gulf Coast work weeks in past years, to celebrate five years of recovery and to showcase a collective determination to rebuild the Gulf. Rebuilding Together New Orleans, the Rebuilding Together affiliate who will co-host and provide major support during this event, has to date provided more than $40 million in construction investment in the New Orleans area. But there are more homeowners who remain in need.

"Fifty For Five" is slated to be Rebuilding Together's biggest community service celebration and housing rehabilitation project in its 21 year history as a national organization. Since the devastation in New Orleans caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita five years ago, Rebuilding Together has had an indelible role in helping to rebuild the city of New Orleans and the Gulf region. Rebuilding Together's pledge to "Rebuild 1000" homes throughout the Gulf Coast is well on its way to completion; a total of 700 homes have been rehabilitated to date. To mark the success of their work, Rebuilding Together is planning mass extensive rehabilitation in a single week to continue the momentum of recovery started five years ago.

Fifty homes in the historic Gentilly neighborhood have been chosen to receive extensive rehabilitation and energy-efficient appliance upgrades to ensure a safe and healthy home for low-income homeowners.

The event will take place over the course of a week, August 24-29, with a thousand volunteers, major corporate partners, community partners, vendors, and celebrities rallying the neighborhood and celebrating the future of New Orleans. All will be present throughout the week and host the culmination of the work-week with a block party, a time for the community to together and generate optimism for the future of their beloved city.

"The Gulf Coast represents the needs of so many struggling homeowners and families across the country. Fifty for Five will bring new attention to the need to help homeowners nationwide and especially in parts of the country where natural disasters and additional devastation has been experienced," said Gary A. Officer, President and CEO of Rebuilding Together. "Our housing organization has the commitment, capacity and passion to host an extraordinary rebuild event that will raise rebuild project attention to the national level and forever change the lives of homeowners."

This is also an opportunity for the Rebuilding Together network to come together as a team. With over 200 affiliates from across the country, Rebuilding Together is the nation's leading nonprofit focused on home rehabilitation for low-income homeowners in the United States. Many of the affiliates are planning to travel to celebrate the major milestone in Rebuilding Together's work history.

About Rebuilding Together:

Rebuilding Together is the nation's leading nonprofit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods by providing extensive rehabilitation and modification services to those in need at no cost to those served. With the help of everyday citizen volunteers, skilled trades people, the support of local business and major corporate partners, Rebuilding Together affiliates in America's largest cities and smallest towns make life considerably better for thousands of low-income homeowners and the communities in which they live by completing 10,000 projects per year. Rebuilding Together has programs dedicated to, energy efficiency, veteran's housing, aging in place and gulf coast reconstruction.

For more information, visit www.RebuildingTogether.org. You can also follow Rebuilding Together on Twitter @rebldgtogthr or become a fan on Facebook at Facebook.com/RebuildingTogether.

Rebuilding Together New Orleans:

Rebuilding Together New Orleans, a local affiliate of Rebuilding Together, inc. has restored and revitalized more than 1,200 homes over the past 22 years in the New Orleans area. Utilizing volunteer labor, Rebuilding Together New Orleans allows low-income families in communities across the city to live in comfort, safety, and dignity. Rebuilding Together New Orleans is a program of the Preservation Resource Center, an organization devoted to promoting the preservation, restoration, and revitalization of New Orleans' historic architecture and neighborhoods. For more information, visit www.RTNO.org

SOURCE Rebuilding Together