AmeriCares Program Brings Spring Renewal To Two Sandy Hook Homes

By Shannon Hicks

Two Sandy Hook homeowners benefited from the lobor of dozens of volunteers last weekend, when AmeriCares HomeFront Day was held. Senior citizens on fixed incomes and/or with physical limitations, disabled residents, and single parents were among the more than 90 homeowners across Connecticut and into Westchester County, N.Y., who had their homes transformed by volunteers of most ages on Saturday, May 2.

Marie Parker and her son Kevin began seeing vans and volunteers show up at their Alpine Circle home shortly after 7 last Saturday morning, and they were ready for them. The Parkers had asked for help with projects for the interior and exterior of their home, and members of First Congregational Church of Ridgefield were ready to help.

“We brought about 45 volunteers this morning, including a lot of our Confirmation class members, who are using this as one of their activities,” said Robert Arthur, the team leader.

Those teens, as well as all the adults who were also at the Parker home on Saturday, had plenty to keep them busy. The group signed on to redo the bathroom floor and vanity, paint the walls and ceiling in the kitchen and living room, sheetrock another room, do some electrical upgrades to the house, replace a window, and even tackle tree removal.

“That tree was 30 feet tall,” Marie said, standing on her deck and pointing toward a fresh-cut stump. Nearby a father-son team and a third man were working on replacing a deck step that had rotted away, which would make getting onto the deck even easier for the Parkers by the end of the day. “It grew over the house and rotted part of the roof, and it was interfering with our wires,” Marie added.

By midday three trees had been cut down and cleared from the property, and Marie and Kevin Parker were in awe of the work that was going on around them.

A small tent had been set up at the top of the driveway, which provided shelter for one teen as he sanded and painted a door that was going to be installed inside the house while also covering a table that had been set up to hold drinks and food for lunch. In the yard, other teens milled during their lunch break, some sitting and enjoying their break while others walked around to see what they could do to keep busy.

Dan McGinty served as the house captain for the Alpine Drive project, and said he expected everything would be finished by 4:30 that afternoon.

“There are some folks who are working shorter shifts, people who can only be here for the morning or the afternoon, but any way you look at it, there’s a lot of manpower going on,” said team coordinator Robert Arthur.

“We had so much that needed to be done,” said Kevin Parker , who could not stop smiling as he walked around and saw everything that was happening for his home. “This is just wonderful, phenomenal.”

Meanwhile, over at a home on Berkshire Road, another volunteer group was working on a HomeFront project.

About 20 volunteers from Newtown Lions Club, Newtown United Methodist Church, and Newtown Congregational Church helped replace part of the roof of the second home that was being taken care of on Saturday, and did a lot of yardwork for the senior homeowner.

“It was a smaller group than we usually get for this, but it went OK,” said Denny McLaughlin, who coordinated that property’s team. “It didn’t rain, which was very good, and we adapted from our original plan but still did a lot of good work for this lady.”

The group had originally planned to do some power washing and painting, but the homeowner’s son had decided to take those projects on himself. So the AmeriCares volunteers looked at other things that needed to take care of, including the roof.

“The shingles were old, and the way it had been put together it collected a lot of dirt and was attracting ants, so we rebuilt that over a small section of the house,” said Jerry Cole, a contractor and Lions Club member who served as house captain for the Berkshire Road house. “There was a new door put in, and a lot of yardwork was done. They also took out an old pool that was beyond repair, and we took the scrap metal from that to the dump.”

“It took three or four trips to the town dump to get rid of that pool,” said Mr McLaughlin. “It had been a huge pool, so that was a big accomplishment there.”

Volunteers were at that house as early as 7:30, said Mr Cole, and the last ones left around 5:30. Mr Cole and Mr McLaughlin stayed a little longer to visit with the homeowner.

“It was extremely helpful” to have AmeriCares volunteers at her house that day, said the homeowner, who has asked to remain anonymous. “They were all extremely competent, and the coordinate everything marvelously. They do a wonderful job.”

She loved her house captain, and was happy to have the chance to sit down with him at the end of the day.

“That Jerry,” she said. “He’s wonderful, just marvelous. He’s a great guy, a hard worker, and he wanted to get the job done. He’s very precise, and exact, and he knows what he’s doing and how to lead the others to get everything done.

“I didn’t have a chance to talk to much to [Denny McLaughlin], but they were both so wonderful,” she said.

The homeowner was tickled to learn that she had something of a local celebrity working in her yard for a little while.

“The first selectman and his wife were here for a little while,” she said. Joe Borst had initially gone to Alpine Circle to help out but there were so many volunteers over there, confirmed Robert Arthur, that the selectman went over to the second project site to volunteer. “It was neat to think that he was out there,” said the Berkshire Road homeowner.

“The whole crew, they were all very nice. It was a good day, and they did a wonderful job,” she said.

The Sandy Hook projects accounted for two of the 94 homes and community centers renovated this year on HomeFront Day.

“More than 4,000 volunteers helped in Connecticut, on 88 projects, and Westchester County, on another six projects,” Catriona Branca, a representative from AmeriCares HomeFront, said this week.