Makeover Madness to Ensue during National Rebuilding Day

What will you be doing on April 24? Maybe you will hit the park, go to a movie, run errands or even take a hike at Red Rock. While you are spending a lazy spring day enjoying yourself, more than 1,700 executives and other civic minded volunteers from around Southern Nevada will be painting, landscaping, and repairing homes throughout the Las Vegas Valley to make them safe, ecologically sound, and more aesthetically pleasing.

Rebuilding Together Southern Nevada is holding their flagship event, National Rebuilding Day, on the last Saturday in April. Almost 2,000 volunteers will descend on neighborhoods in Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas to make a positive difference in the lives of elderly or disabled homeowners.

Established in 1994, you may have known it by its previous name of Christmas in April. The charity organization will rehabilitate a total of 23 homes this year, one more than 2009, at absolutely no cost to the homeowners. All that is required of each homeowner is a simple thank you to the volunteers when the project is completed.

“Our average home project costs approximately $5,000 and is leveraged with volunteer efforts to provide more than $25,000 worth of repairs per home,” explains Therese Elliott, director of program development and marketing for the organization. “We cater to seniors, disabled people, and families with small children. Also, participants must own their own home for at least a year. We follow HUD income guidelines.

“Every year at least two properties are totally gutted. But most of the homes just receive a new exterior paint job and property clean up because there are generally unskilled volunteers who work on the homes,” continues Elliott.

The unskilled workers come in the form of employees from local corporations and civic groups, Boy Scouts and UNLV fraternities and associations. Each sponsor selects a home to adopt. The sponsor then assigns three team leaders, a house captain, and a home ambassador to the project. This year’s sponsors include such good corporate citizens as Southwest Gas, Citibank, Harrah’s, MGM Boys Foundation, NV Energy, Penta Building, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Bank of Nevada, and Nevada State Bank, all longtime supporters.

Willie Robinson, Consumer & Community Affair Administrator for Southwest Gas as well as a Rebuilding Together of Southern Nevada board member, has worked with the charity for the last 16 years.

Robinson got involved with Rebuilding Together because of her former boss Al O’Neal, also of Southwest Gas. “You just didn’t say ‘no’ to Al,” she explains with a big smile.

“It’s truly a team building effort for us. We have the resources to renovate a kitchen. We can pool our resources through our vendors and we do our best to leverage everything we can,” offers Robinson of the gas company’s efforts.

The Southwest Gas administrator recalls one of the homes they worked on several years ago. The father was in a wheelchair and his grown daughter who lived with him had cancer. They had a serious plumbing problem. “I didn’t feel good doing a property clean-up when their ceiling was caving in. That was one of the first homes where we did inside and out,” explains Robinson.

For in-depth work like the kind Southwest Gas does, it takes all year to plan. “We will even begin before the actual day and go out three or four days beforehand to start. Maybe we do a power wash so the house is dry before we do exterior painting,” explains Robinson.

This year Robinson’s role in Southwest Gas’ volunteer efforts will chiefly consist of “being an overseer. My biggest concern is safety,” Robinson explains of the approximately 85 volunteers she will take charge of during the daylong project of which you can tell she truly feels passionate about.

“It’s infectious, it really is. Once you bond with the homeowner you don’t want to stop doing for them. This is one project I never have a problem finding volunteers for,” Robinson says.

She goes on to tell about an employee to whom Robinson was recently explaining the mission of National Rebuilding Day. After hearing about Southwest Gas’ volunteer efforts, the employee commented, ‘We kind of do a higher power work, don’t we?’

Robinson beams with pride as she finishes the story and adds, “We keep in touch with a lot of the owners of the homes we work on. Our volunteers take a personal interest in our houses, even after the project is over.”

In addition to the national flagship event, Rebuilding Together takes on renovation and emergency home repair projects throughout the entire year. The biggest need they encounter on an annual basis is help with plumbing repairs. Heating and AC repair are next in demand. Additionally, they are the only organization to replace water heaters. In November the organization’s newest project, Heroes at Home, will help veterans in need of assistance. Last year they were able to take on four homes in the aid of veterans and currently deployed military.

Whether referencing National Rebuilding Day or the many other renovation projects they take on to help people throughout our community, Cynthia Baca, executive director for Rebuilding Together of Southern Nevada, sums up the mission of the non-profit organization best.

“We just want to help people and help their neighborhoods in the prevention of neighborhood blight. They are homeowners. They have made an investment in our community. For whatever reason, they can’t keep it up anymore.”