On Thursday October 6th, Rebuilding Together and the Des Moines Area Meredith Corporation put forth a work day in which 200 volunteers repaired 5 homes, as well as replaced one park. Meredith Corporation’s volunteers teamed up with Rebuilding Together to complete these tasks. Home repairs included anything from gardening, repainting homes, installing new fans, or fixing electrical problems throughout each home.
My favorite project of the day was the restoration of the park. Each year on Meredith Work Day, the volunteers completely redo a park. I think having safe and inviting parks is important when building a sense of community. I also didn’t know that Rebuilding Together participated in projects such as park revitalizing. The park that was redone was Redhead Park of Des Moines. Not only did the volunteers completely replace all of the playground equipment, they also brought in outside painters that painted a mural on the concrete of the basketball court. The theme of this park is circus because the Barnum and Bailey’s Circus used to park their crew on that property back in the day. The court was painted with bright red, blue, green, and yellow creating a friendly environment for the kids who will be playing here.
Each year, Rebuilding Together participates in National Rebuilding Day that takes place on the first Saturday of May. On this day, there are over 30 participating homes being repaired by over 700 volunteers. Therefore, the Meredith Work Day, although the outcome was still impactful, was small on the scale compared to other events by Rebuilding Together. This put the work that Rebuilding Together does into perspective for me. It’s obvious that Rebuilding Together makes a difference in the lives of many homeowners, but witnessing the results of the Meredith Work Day, I was able to try understand the power this small nonprofit has on each community it works with.
written by Jamie Lamb, ECC student working with Rebuilding Together
