Kickoff to Rebuild
How Homebuilders Lend a Helping Hand
by Steve Carr
As the New York Giants and New England Patriots battled their way through the NFL roadmap that would lead to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale last February, another team was working just as hard laying out a plan that would result in even bigger smiles than those generated by a world championship. The path to both events started months before Super Bowl Sunday, one flooded in national TV exposure and the other in a south Phoenix neighborhood far from the limelight. And, while the New York Giants took home football's biggest prize, the real winners were Ella Hennix and the Valley Christian Center.
Hennix's home had endured years of neglect as she spent her time caring for a sister with Down's Syndrome as well as a 94-year-old family friend who also lived with her. Hennix not only cared for these two women, she provided for the entire neighborhood by preparing meals for shut-ins, the poor and those just needing a little help.
Around the corner from Hennix's home, the Valley Christian Center was struggling mightily. Founded in 1919 to serve the Valley's immigrant population, the center had evolved into a full-service nonprofit social services agency offering food, clothing, utility payment support, education assistance for young mothers and their babies, and a fall prevention program for seniors. The building was a mess with a bad roof and a barely-working air conditioner that resulted in a $5,000 per month cooling bill in the summer to cool a building with no insulation. In addition, the building had improper flooring and a kitchen in desperate need of work as well as a makeover. And those issues barely scratched the surface.
But the National Football League, Rebuilding Together Valley of the Sun, Homebuilders Care (the charitable arm of the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona), the Arizona Roofing Contractors Association and more than 40 contractors and vendors came together to make a change in the lives of Mrs. Hennix and the hundreds of low-income families served by Valley Christian Center.
Many Hands Make Light Work
Rebuilding Together, the nation's largest nonprofit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership through free renovations and repairs, organized the "Kickoff to Rebuild" program. In the last 20 years, Rebuilding Together has repaired 100,000 homes nationwide. Since 1988, Rebuilding Together Valley of the Sun has provided nearly $5 million in repairs to more than 900 homes and over 40 community projects with support from 42,000 volunteers and 600 sponsoring companies. The Kickoff to Rebuild collaboration began 13 years ago on projects in cities hosting the Super Bowl. The NFL project's primary sponsor in Phoenix is the American Petroleum Institute, and the Homebuilders Care and the Arizona Roofing Contractors Association are lead sponsors. Project sponsors also include Adams Bros. Interiors, Jim Brown Roofing, Chas Roberts Air Conditioning, Dalmation Roofing, Gothic Landscaping, Pulte Homes, Starkweather Roofing, Summit Builders and Sunstate Equipment Co.
"Nine months before the Super Bowl, I toured the Valley with Rebuilding Together's national president, Gary Officer, to find the right projects to take on," says Dennis Flynn, founder and executive director of Rebuilding Together Valley of the Sun. "We knew we could repair three or four houses, but with the Valley Christian Center, we were impacting hundreds of families."
Work on the Valley Christian Center began four months before the Giants and Patriots kicked off. "We gutted the building," Flynn says. "We left all the walls standing, but had to remove the floors, the kitchen and the offices. And that was only the beginning."
Major improvements included new heating and cooling equipment, all new roofing and flooring, new kitchen cabinets and equipment, complete interior and exterior painting, full landscaping, a new fenced play yard, repaved and restriped parking lot and new storage and library shelves. A key challenge in addition to those inherent in a major renovation was that the team had to keep the building open so they could serve their clients. "They scaled back somewhat, but never closed the entire time we were working," Flynn says. The end result was more than $200,000 in renovations and repairs.
The work on Mrs. Hennix's home, which started a month before the Super Bowl, proved so extensive that she had to move out of her house to live with a relative down the block.
While she was gone, the floors were leveled, new doors put in, drywall repaired, a new roof installed, extensive electrical and concrete work completed and a new kitchen with energy-efficient appliances installed. The total cost came to $30,000.
Building a Foundation
Volunteers from 23 organizations pitched in. Contractors did the specialty work "and everyone reacted quickly when something came up that we didn't expect," Flynn says. "If we forgot something or needed something, all it took was a phone call and it was delivered. It was a remarkable effort from start to finish." During Super Bowl weekend, NFL players David Garrard of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Thomas Tapeh of the Philadelphia Eagles and Brandon Jones of the Tennessee Titans, along with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, councilmen Michael Johnson and Greg Stanton and the Arizona Cardinals cheerleaders, paintbrushes ready, helped put the finishing touches on both projects.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano commemorated Kickoff to Rebuild Day with a proclamation, and children from across the neighborhood had pictures taken with the NFL players. "Being able to showcase this project at the Super Bowl as part of our longstanding relationship with the NFL helps bring awareness to the need to preserve affordable homeownership in America and give help to those who need it, so they can live in safe and comfortable housing," says Gary Officer, Rebuilding Together's national president. "It was a great day for everyone," says Flynn, whose organization is now preparing for its next event-the fifth annual Rock and Roll Paint-A-Thon on Oct. 24. Volunteers from around the state will paint 150 homes for low-income, elderly or handicapped homeowners. The Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona was the founding title sponsor of the first Paint-A-Thon.
In April, the annual Rebuilding Together renovation and repair effort will take place in neighborhoods in the Valley and around the state, once again, with support from Arizona contractors, homebuilders and volunteers. "We can't do what we do without their help," Flynn says. "And we can never understate or over appreciate their involvement."
Steve Carr is a partner in The Kur Carr Group Inc., a 20-year old Valley-based full service public relations agency with a diverse client base. His experience also includes nearly 15 years as a newspaper and radio reporter and edito, and six years in corporate communications management.
Infolink:
www.rebuildingtogether.org
