May 2, 2004

Rebuilding Together helps two longtime Willow Glen homeowners

By Carol Rosen
Editor

Volunteers spent two weekends upgrading two Willow Glen homes on April 24 and May 1 as part of this year’s Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley (formerly Christmas in April). One homeowner received a mostly new kitchen, exterior painting and a new vanity in the bathroom. The other also received exterior paint, new gutters and the installation of a post with a bar and handle to prevent people from slipping on the steps to the home.

Both homeowners have lived in Willow Glen for more than 50 years. Kathryn Mann moved to her current address 60 years ago. She and her daughter, Vicki Rodgers currently live in the house. Mann began her career working in the fields of her family farm on Stevens Creek; she later worked for a packing plant and Muirson Label Company for 25 years before it was bought by International Paper.

Volunteers from Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church first gutted the kitchen in the 80-year-old home and moved the refrigerator into the living room for the week. By the end of the day May 1, volunteers repaired the walls and ceiling in the kitchen/breakfast nook and laundry room where cracked plaster from the 1989 earthquake was falling.

They also installed new cupboards, countertop, sink, faucet and linoleum in the kitchen. They redid the bathroom, replacing and repairing the window sash, installing a ventilation fan and grab bars in the tub, and replacing the sink, vanity and medicine cabinet and surrounding the latter with lights.

The volunteers also installed a pipe rail along the basement steps, rehung the basement door, improved the kitchen lighting, installed a back screen door, replaced a rotted doorsill at the back door and painted the home’s exterior.
Irene Silva’s home was built in 1926; she has lived there for the past 50 years. A widow, Silva and her husband were in the gardening business for 30 years, owning Joe’s Gardening. Silva also worked in a cannery and at a rose packing company.

She has no children, but lots of adopted nieces and nephews in the neighborhood.
“I’ve seen lots of changes in the neighborhood in the past 50 years. But I have the best neighbors in the world, they all are wonderful,” she said as one neighbor from down the street came over to make sure she was all right and everything was going well.

Silva is quite active, attending various clubs during the week. She is recovering from surgery to replace a heart valve last February. The volunteers helping her are from General Electric’s Nuclear Division and included over 30 people each day for both days. They replaced the wooden gutters that came with the house 78 years ago, painted the exterior trim of the house, installed handrails and a grab bar alongside the step at the front porch and front door, painted the kitchen and installed a pipe rail to the back door.

Silicon Valley businesses and organizations sponsor Rebuilding Together. More than 1,600 volunteers worked on the repairs and improvements. In addition to the free labor, all materials are donated by businesses and individuals or paid for by Rebuilding Together. Volunteer teams also repaired four nonprofit facilities in San Jose, in addition to other homes in Morgan Hill, Campbell, Los Gatos, San Jose and Santa Clara.

This year, the organization will conduct 36 rehabilitation projects including 31 individual homes. From Sacramento to Monterey, 12,000 volunteers will join 14 local Rebuilding Together affiliates. Nationally, the organization works in 865 cities in all 50 states using 2.3 million volunteers. Through this year, those volunteers have worked over 24 million hours to rehabilitate 87,450 homes and non-profit facilities since 1988.

“Rebuilding Together volunteers and sponsors provide a tremendous example of service and compassion by enabling low income homeowners and residents to live safe, independent lives,” said Beverly Jackson, executive director of Rebuilding Together, Silicon Valley. “The repairs and improvements they provide transform not only homes, but the lives of the people who benefit from their hard work. Each year, we see amazing gifts of love and compassion as we watch both volunteers and residents who are touched and changed by this tremendous experience.”

Area sponsors include Adobe, BFI Waste Services, Cisco Systems Foundation, Home Depot, Intel, Network Appliance, Presbyterian Church of Sunnyvale, Sobrato Family Foundation, Xilinx, SonicWall, Ernst & Young, Solectron and Lucent Technologies along with Applied Materials, Christ Community Church of Milpitas, San Jose Councilmember Dave Cortese, Fry’s Electronics, GE Nuclear Energy, Hitachi Data Systems, the memory of Margaret Harvank, Lockheed Martin, Los Altos United Methodist Church, Meriwest Credit Union, Network Associates, San Jose Water Company, Siemens, VERITAS Software, Wells Fargo Bank and Washington Mutual.