South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Cleaning up the neighborhood
Volunteers attack blight with paint, smiles on MLK Day of Service
A small army of volunteers waged war on blight by attacking a Fort Lauderdale-area neighborhood, armed with paint brushes, rakes, shovels, trash bags and enthusiasm to accomplish their mission on Martin Luther King’s Day of Service.
Close to 300 volunteers were painting and landscaping seven homes and adding a butterfly garden around Northwest 29th Terrace and Fourth Street on Saturday morning.
Among the volunteers was U.S. Army Sgt. William King, who is no relation to Dr. King but feels compelled to follow his example.
“I’m big on Dr. King,” he said. “My last name is King so I did some research trying to see if we’re related, so anything involving his name I try to get involved in.”
Owen Alleyne, 66, has lived in his modest home for nearly 16 years but he could never afford a paint job until the volunteers showed up.
“It’s a dream come true because the house needed painting and I was wondering how I was going to get it painted with no money and no paint,” he said. “I was praying to God and God answered my prayer and here I am today. I couldn’t be happier.”
Projects like this are not reserved just for the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Rebuilding Together of Broward County does this about six times a year, according to Executive Director Robin Martin Jr.
“We find a community, shut down a block, we all come together on one day of service and completely paint and landscape from five to ten homes in one day,” he said. “In 15 years we’ve probably done 700 homes [and] last year we worked on 150 homes.”
The group partners with various organizations to help senior citizens, the disabled, and veterans upgrade their property and homes, inside and out.
“We’ve painted a lot of houses in my 30 years,” said Joe Santelia, with Home Depot. “We’ve put in flooring, appliances, help with kitchens, we don’t stop at paint.”
Santelia said fixing up a couple of houses creates a great feeling of accomplishment but the payoff comes weeks and months later.
“We see these homes are still kept up and the homeowners are appreciative and they don’t backslide,” he said. “That’s a warm and fuzzy feeling.”