Nearly 300 Volunteers Join Rebuilding Together Boston to Renovate Homes and Non-Profit Facilities on National Rebuilding Day

Volunteers, including New England Patriots employees and alumni, are repairing four homes as well as renovating nonprofit housing and community centers at eight sites across the City.

BOSTON, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Saturday, April 27, Rebuilding Together Boston (RTB), an affiliate of Rebuilding Together,  a Safe and Healthy Housing organization that believes Community Starts at Home, is engaging nearly 300 local volunteers and civic leaders to rehabilitate eight sites including four homes in Mattapan, Dorchester, Hyde Park, and South Boston, three non-profit-owned facilities in Jamaica Plain (Pine Street Inn, the United Cerebral Palsy of Metro Boston housing facility, and the Boston Center for Youth and Families-Curtis Hall) and the Ellis Memorial Childcare Facility in the South End.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090421/REBUILDINGLOGO)

This work is made possible by the generosity of sponsors: Blue Hills Bank, Bank of America, Jacobs Family, Booz Allen Hamilton, Pro Teck Valuation Services, Sears Holdings- Heroes at Home Program, BNY Mellon, Gilbane Building Company, The Home Depot Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Greenpark Mortgage, a Division of Berkshire Bank, Starbucks Coffee Company and DiMella Shaffer.

Projects this year include the renovation of a home in Hyde Park, where the disabled homeowner, who is a single mother and has lived in her home for twelve years, has been unable to make critical repairs to keep her family safe. The homeowner has suffered from an accident eleven years ago when she broke her back and has had four major surgeries.  Skilled laborers will make interior and exterior repairs to her home including installation of a new porch.  In Mattapan, a widow who has lived in her home for 41 years where she raised her two children will receive repair work on steps, walkways, decking and gutters; installation of new doors; and, home modifications for the elderly such as installation of handrails, which will improve her safety and security thanks to the sponsors and volunteers working on the home.   

In addition, in Dorchester, volunteers will make interior and exterior repairs to the home of a single woman who lives in her home, which was left to her and her siblings by their mother who also took in foster children and was active in her community. Due to financial setbacks and illness, the homeowner has not been able to maintain the home. Volunteers will paint the interior, install new and safe doors, provide roof and shingle repairs and undertake bathroom modifications.

"Last week's tragic events remind us how important it is for us to join together to help others in need, and to join together to rebuild our communities by repairing homes and facilities for those who cannot afford to maintain these due to financial and health-related concerns," said Simone Auster, President of Rebuilding Together Boston. "Without the terrific support of our sponsors and volunteers, Rebuilding Together Boston could not help these families in need and non-profits that deliver critical services to our community."

"Thanks to the service of hundreds of volunteers on National Rebuilding Day, homeowners in Dorchester, South Boston, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain and Hyde Park will have essential repairs made to their homes to keep them living safe and healthy in their community," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said. "It is during these trying times that our compassion and commitment to rebuild has never been stronger. Thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors who support Rebuilding Together Boston and our neighborhoods." 

"Pine Street Inn is extremely grateful to Rebuilding Together Boston for their support," said Lyndia Downie, President of Pine Street Inn. "It is this kind of generosity from friends in the community that makes it possible for us to help those most in need," she added. 

Rebuilding Together Boston will be assisting Pine Street Inn at a site which is a former school the non-profit converted in the late 1980's into permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless people. People in their 20's to 80's, some handicapped, live in rooms at the site with shared kitchen and living room on each of the three floors. There are 50 tenants currently, both men and women. Volunteers will be painting the common areas (living rooms, hallways, stairwells, etc.), undertaking garden clean-up, landscaping and other tasks.

Rebuilding Together Boston, along with nearly 200 fellow Rebuilding Together affiliates and their more than 50,000 volunteers across the country rehabilitate and improve the houses of low-income homeowners at no cost to the chosen recipients each year. Recipients include the elderly, physically challenged, veterans, families with children and others in need. 

"Rebuilding Together is dedicated to safe and healthy homes and  revitalizing communities by providing free critical home repairs to low-income homeowners and free renovations to community centers," said John L. Fiegel, interim President and CEO of Rebuilding Together. "National Rebuilding Month raises awareness of our neighbors in need and impacts countless communities across the country."

National Rebuilding Month is a month long call to service during the entire month of April, culminating with National Rebuilding Day. It is the culmination of a year's worth of planning, volunteer recruitment and sponsorship partnerships to change hundreds of homeowners' lives across the country. Rebuilding Together affiliates nationwide will instill newly restored hope and memories in communities as numerous rehabilitations occur on a single day to create high-impact momentum for the rest of the year.

About Rebuilding Together Boston:

Rebuilding Together Boston is an affiliate of the nation's leading non-profit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods by providing repair and renovation services at no cost to those in need. Through support from foundation, corporate and individual sponsors; local businesses; skilled labor; and, the hands-on work of nearly 700 volunteers each year, Rebuilding Together Boston renovates and repairs homes for the City's economically-disadvantaged homeowners and nonprofit facilities across the City. To date, the value of Rebuilding Together Boston's work has totaled over $6.5 million, repaired over 350 homes and non-profit-owned facilities and involved over 20,000 volunteers in its work.  More information is available at: www.rtboston.org

SOURCE Rebuilding Together Boston

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