Los Gatos Morning Club member Bob Delgado saw this as an opportunity to connect the Willow Glen Rotary and three other small clubs that lack the manpower on their own to take on large projects.

Willow Glen Rotary president Dan Foss said the collaboration was a wonderful fit for the club's community service goals. Since the club has only 15 members, it lacks the manpower to take on the large projects it envisions doing.

"It's perfect for us," said Foss, a Willow Glen resident.

With the Los Gatos Morning Rotary leading the project, the Willow Glen chapter signed on with the San Jose East/Evergreen, Campbell/San Jose West and Almaden Valley Rotary clubs to remodel one of the ALLIANCE for Community Care residential treatment centers, Goveia/Zeller.

Delgado, a member of the ALLIANCE board, thought the nonprofit would be a good fit for the Building Bridges Award. The money would help refurbish the residential treatment center's aging facilities.

ALLIANCE administrators decided Goveia/Zeller was in greatest need of an overhaul. Located on White Road in East San Jose, the facility houses 16 patients for 30 to 90 days to help them transition back to their normal lives after a psychotic breakdown. Patients suffer breakdowns due to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression, according to ALLIANCE Director of Development and Communications Kaye Steinback.

For patients, the center becomes their temporary home, said facility manager Scott Colanino said. But the furniture and walls were weathered and they had no DVDs or VCR player to aid in passing the time. In short, it looked and felt like an institution, Colanino said.

The clubs submitted a 10-page application to the Rotary Club of San Jose and received the award last fall. "This was far and away the strongest application," said Rotary Club of San Jose member Carl Cilker.

The clubs planned two workdays out at the center--Jan. 15 and Feb. 26--to paint, sand and move in new furniture. About five members from each club, totaling about 50 workers a day, worked a four-hour morning or afternoon shift to renovate the facility's community room.

The club and ALLIANCE were able to buy Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn furniture and Benjamin Moore paint at wholesale prices, which enabled the volunteers to purchase additional paint for the dining room and hallways.

Nine Rotarians from the Willow Glen chapter attended both work dates. Foss particularly liked the project because , he said, it was about more than donating money. It was about putting in "sweat equity." This hands-on work, he said, was an inspiration to everyone.

Along with the Willow Glen Rotarians, the group's talents included Los Gatos Morning Club member and contractor Lee Smith, who coordinated the workdays. And Campbell chapter president Kit Whitney, who showed up for the January workday in pearl earrings and casual clothes, anxious to get her hands dirty. "It was a very rewarding experience," Whitney said.

At the center, Colanino said patients have already commented that the facility reminds them of home. The volunteers, he added, worked like a "well-oiled machine."

"It felt really nice that everyone was coming together to transform the building," Steinback said. "It's really wonderful to work with [Rotarians] because things get done."