Volunteers revamp homes on National Rebuilding Day

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By Mary Louise Speer | Saturday, April 26, 2008 9:19 PM CDT | () comments

Volunteer Dave Beeson, an employee with Russell Construction, repairs a ceiling in a house on LeClaire Street, Davenport, using a section of drywall and "mud" after water from the second story bathroom had destroyed it. He is working with Rebuilding Together Quad-Cities, a volunteer-based rehabilitation group, during National Rebuilding Day. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

Debra Morgan of Davenport couldn’t hold back the excitement as she watched volunteers planting flowers in a bed of fragrant cypress mulch.

“Flowers. They’re putting in flowers. That’s so nice,” she said.

Inside the house, she had water bottles available for volunteers who worked on a variety of projects from heater ducts to shoring up basement steps and repairing water-damaged flooring.

Volunteers, connected through Rebuilding Together Quad-Cities, rehabbed between 16 to 20 houses on Saturday as part of National Rebuilding Day. The home improvement projects benefit individuals with health, age or income issues and the Quad-City organization is a volunteer-based, home rehabilitation group.

Morgan welcomed the opportunity to show appreciation for the group that is helping rejuvenate her house. A few years ago, she traveled to New Orleans as a Red Cross volunteer and cared for Hurricane Katrina victims. Those people were so grateful to get water, she said.

And on Saturday that blessing traveled forward to help her in the form of

people from Harvest Bible Chapel, Davenport. “To come over to help someone you don’t know and give up your Saturday, I just feel like I was so blessed,” she said.

Morgan’s adult daughter, Shanna Wanton of Davenport, appreciated the opportunity to learn small tricks of the trade that she can use in her own home. “Nobody liked to use the bathroom (at her mother’s house), because the water came out so slow,” Wanton said. A volunteer cleaned out the aerator, which improved the pressure.

Workers discovered the house’s heater ducts had either rusted out or were no longer there. Morgan looks forward to actually having heat in the upstairs rooms now.

“This is my fifth year of doing this,” house captain Frank Martin said as he popped a plant into the ground. “This is the first year that my church is involved.” Harvest Chapel has a tool team ministry and the men assist elderly and single moms with home repairs and non-profit community organizations, he said.

Jim O’Neill, a commercial painter, and volunteers from Deere & Co and Valley Bank, freshened up a small house that belongs to Essie Golden of Rock Island.

Golden said she felt good about the assistance.

Fortunately the weather warmed up enough to allow people to paint outside. Crews also tackled the kitchen and porch. “It was really cold when we got here. It was actually too cold to be out here, so the first couple of hours we scraped paint. That’s all we could do,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill began working with Rebuilding about eight years ago after seeing an ad for a house captain, or project leader. “We just try to do the best we can and the quickest to help people improve their lives a little bit,” he said.

Volunteers renovate homes on both sides of the Mississippi River, he said. Rebuilding is supported through donations from corporations, organizations, religious groups, service clubs and individuals.

He recalls a project last year where volunteers put in a ramp for a homeowner in East Moline.

It’s tough “when you’re in that state and you’ve always been self-sufficient and you need help,” he said.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.