“The groups get together and pick out a house that they think meets their level of skill,” said Dean Byers of Rebuilding Together. “They select a leader for the project called a ‘House Captain’ and then they meet periodically to answer all their questions and get materials together.”
Then at the end of April, the volunteers make a big difference helping others. Along with volunteer labor, the materials for each project are donated or used from the Habitat for Humanity Restore program.
“Year after year, a lot of the same people and service clubs come back and we always are looking for new ones,” said Byers. “Every-thing is volunteer, the labor and the materials. There’s no grant money or anything else to do any project. We estimate we have about 200 people every year who work on that Saturday.”
This year Rebuilding Together has chosen nine projects around the county for their work day, but as Byers points out, in the future could always take on more with the right amount of volunteers.
“We’re always welcome to new clubs or volunteers wanting to help with projects,” he said. “We can do as many as we have people to handle.”
Byers says that projects are based on need, and must also meet certain criteria – they must own their home and must be elderly, handicapped or a family with children. Projects are then chosen from the applications submitted.