Getting it done: 15th Rebuilding Together Day April 30
by Margaret Hurlbert
April 22, 2022

MUSCATINE, Iowa–For 15 years, Rebuilding Together Muscatine County has helped low-income older adults stay in their homes by helping them complete home improvement projects both large and small. In Rebuilding Together Muscatine County Executive Director Frank Iliff’s words, “Rebuilding Together fills a need that no other organization does.” April 30, they will host their annual Rebuilding Together Day, completing a total of eight projects plus four ramp removals, and they will need the help of many volunteers to make each job a success.

To help people stay in their homes and lead healthier, happier, and more independent lives, Rebuilding Together takes care of home improvement projects for low income older adults who could not get the work done otherwise. Along with completing numerous projects on Rebuilding Together Day, Rebuilding Together also constructs ramps throughout the year to help people who sustain an injury or have an illness that requires they use one. Rebuilding Together provides all of their services for free, using donations and volunteer labor to complete the projects.

This year’s Rebuilding Together Day projects will include all different kinds of work, including replacing a conventional bathtub with a walk-in model, repairing a ceiling, replacing a roof, painting, siding, and building four new ramps. Volunteers will also deconstruct four no longer needed ramps. Because Rebuilding Together uses a modular ramp system, they can simply save the components from the old ramps and use them to create new ones as needed. Throughout the day, landscaping work will take place at each project site, giving each homeowner’s yard a good tidy up and some new plants to beautify it.

Because Rebuilding Together has so many projects lined up for this year’s Rebuilding Together Day, they will need a lot of volunteers. Volunteers do not need to have experience working with specific types of tools, as someone from Rebuilding Together can teach them what they need to know to stay safe. Anyone who wants to volunteer simply needs the desire to help and the willingness to learn what it will take to do the job right. In the process, volunteers often make new friends and feel a great sense of accomplishment in assisting someone who truly needed support. Iliff observed, “the volunteers get as much or more out of the experience than the homeowner.”

With Rebuilding Together Day approaching, Rebuilding Together encourages anyone who knows they would like to participate to preregister online through their website. Rebuilding Together also welcomes walk-in volunteers to come join them at 7 a.m. April 30 at their office at 1424 B Houser Street in Muscatine. Regardless of when a volunteer registers, they will receive a Rebuilding Together Muscatine County shirt, making all work crews easily identifiable, as well as a free lunch courtesy of Pizza Ranch.

In the spirit of their motto, “it just needs done,” Rebuilding Together Muscatine County anticipates taking care of many jobs for homeowners in need April 30. With the support of volunteers, they will keep their Rebuilding Together Day tradition thriving each April for years to come.

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