Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Volunteer Mark Rodriguez helps landscape Barbara Regan's yard by shoveling gravel in the garden.




Building Community

Volunteers dedicate a day and help improve a neighbor's life

By Kelly Wilkinson

While most people have probably endured a drippy faucet, overgrown weeds and the occasional peeling coat of paint, the reasons for the lack of attention to our homes differ widely among us. There are the familiar complaints of not having enough time, enough inspiration, or enough discipline. But more affecting and far more justifiable are those without the means or physical capabilities of maintaining their homes.

Once a year, in answer to the latter category, bright-green-shirted Christmas-in-April volunteers swoop into people's homes offering free repairs and home improvements to low-income homeowners who might otherwise be unable to afford the repairs.

This past Saturday, as part of the Christmas in April national effort that rehabilitated more than 7,000 homes across the country, 30 volunteers descended upon Barbara Regan's trailer home on Tasman Drive to repair the roof, replace the kitchen cabinets, add more shelving, replace some ceiling tiles, paint the fence and landscape the garden.

The group couples volunteers with low-income homeowners--particularly the elderly, disabled, or families with children--so they can continue to live in safety and independence.

Regan, who has lived alone in her home for almost 27 years, said she never knew about the organization until her case worker told her about it.

After Regan applied, a Christmas in April representative came to look at her house and evaluate the kind of work that needed to be done. The home improvements Regan previously thought she wouldn't be able to afford became a reality.

"I have as many good words about them as you could say," she says, referring to the volunteers. "A big part of it for me has been getting to know them because they're all so friendly and so giving."

She says the experience has been so positive that she hopes to be on the volunteering side next year.

Loretta Cullinane, executive director of Christmas in April Mid-Peninsula, said nine homes in Sunnyvale have been repaired since her chapter was incorporated in 1990.

"I think people get to see the benefits of their labor in just one day," Cullinane says of the reason Christmas in April is attractive to volunteers. Over 21,000 people have donated time and various levels of skill to the organization since 1990.

"And it's a short period of time which is important [in Silicon Valley]. People come out and get to work hard with other people and see the difference that they make."

David Dean, who is leading the effort to spruce up Regan's home, is one of those people. As a union carpenter, he's been volunteering to head groups of Christmas in April volunteers for the past three years. He fills the "captain" position--a role that requires a skilled tradesman to oversee the work and provide a certain level of expertise. Dean works in conjunction with the point person from the group--often companies or churches--that sponsors the clean-up of a home.

"It's quite a deal," Dean says. "It's one thing when I normally have a couple guys, maybe a plumber and hopefully a happy customer on the job site. But here, you have over 30 people there who show up, and you have to get it all together."

In his experience the concept works and works well. And that's in no small part because of the collective spirit that grows between the volunteers.

Photographs by Skye Dunlap

The Perry siblings (left to right) Nick, 6, Amy, 10, and Matt, 13, help by wrapping fragile items in newspaper and packing them up.




"It's wonderful--and not just at the end of the day," he says. "There's a relationship that forms between all of us, and the week before and then a couple days before, we're all so jazzed and excited."

Michelle Boucher, who coordinates Christmas in April volunteers at her company, Greater Bay Bancorp, agrees wholeheartedly. She's been recruiting and organizing workers three of the seven years the bank has been a sponsor.

"It's a ton of fun," she says. "It's the most uplifting, wonderful experience, and we all get to work together in a much different way than at work, where we're dealing with computers and paper and the bank. [At Christmas in April], we get to be outside, talking, and helping."

"There are always a lot of people who are really fulfilled," she adds. "You're able to reach out in whatever way you're able to. Not everyone can write big fat checks--or even any kind of check--but no one can't paint a fence."

She credits Dean, who she says she roped into the project after he did some work remodeling her house, for providing the supervision and more technical direction.

"It really helps to have someone with skills so that we can perform work beyond the weekend warrior level--for those of us who work in a bank."

But Boucher isn't the only one who's been recruiting workers to improve Regan's home. Regan herself has signed on volunteers from the restaurant where she works as a hostess; and in keeping with the spirit of the day, the restaurant provided pizzas and salad for lunch.

Regan's caseworker Julie Irvin says that the positive effects of Christmas in April's work will hopefully topple into other areas of the recipients' lives.

"This really gives people a lot of hope in situations where there may not have been any before," Irvin says. "All of a sudden, here is this program to help and when one thing begins to improve, other things might follow."

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