May 3, 2007

Christmas comes early for elderly woman facing hard times

Dozens turn out to help make her home livable again

By Julie Davis Berry
Executive Editor

On an overcast Saturday morning in April dozens of volunteers descended upon Lillian Woodward’s Blossom Valley home to help the 64-year-old woman make it livable again.

District 10 councilmember Nancy Pyle poses with homeowner Lillian Woodward and volunteers from Ernst & Young who performed numerous chores for Woodward. “They are doing an amazing job,” said Pyle. Photos by Julie Davis Berry

Altogether 38 volunteers from Ernst & Young’s San Jose office and a few from the San Francisco office painted the outside of the house, remodeled bathrooms, rebuilt steps to her patio and shored up a shoddily built overhang.

The volunteers were participating in the countywide event put on by the non-profit group Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley. The group organizes volunteers who performed repairs to 31 homes and 7 community facilities during the annual rebuilding days on April 21 and 28. Over 1,400 community volunteers performed home repairs to ensure low-income (primarily elderly and disabled) homeowners can live in warmth, safety and independence. Sponsored by Silicon Valley businesses and organizations, volunteers complete all repairs and improvements at no charge to the eligible recipient.

Woodward, a caregiver to the elderly, had fallen on hard times. Last fall she had to take three months off from work to take care of her 29-year-old daughter, who died of cancer on Christmas Eve, and she almost lost her house. Fortunately the people at the Southside Community Center heard about Woodward’s plight and were able to raise enough money to cover her mortgage and saved her house.

At right: Jodie had her first lesson with a skill saw under the watchful eye of retired contractor/volunteer Bob Pizzo.

Then to make matters worse, a contractor took off with $2,000 after improperly installing an overhang over her patio. “After she fell through her rotting deck and injured herself a few months ago the county came out and condemned the deck,” said Carol Gustaveson, and Almaden resident who worked as the homeowner liaison on the project. “We’re building new steps and shoring up the overhang that the contractor didn’t attach so that it will be safe.”

The home had fallen into such disarray that rats were coming in through holes in the wall under the sink. The volunteers plugged those holes and performed countless other chores.

Some of the volunteers had never done such household chores before. “People would sign up by skill level and there were all skill levels,” said Gustaveson. “What’s really neat about this is there are kids out of college up to partners in the firm here and they are all working together.”

Bob Day, who is on the board of directors for Rebuilding Together, said, “This is a very impressive job they are doing. They had a variety of problems to fix and these types of projects truly make a difference for the homeowner.”

Day commended the crew for ‘doing it the right way’ by building enthusiasm within the company to which Gustaveson responded, “My goal is to get twice as many volunteers involved next year.”

“They are doing such a fantastic job,” said a smiling Woodward as workers buzzed around her.

Founded in 1991, Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley (formerly Christmas in April) repairs or rebuilds homes and community facilities for low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly, the disabled and families with children.

For more information visit www.rebuildingtogether-sv.org.