Saturday, May 1st marked both the first and 23rd annual HomeFront Day. More than 3,000 volunteers from 78 faith-based, civic and corporate community groups celebrated HomeFront’s comeback by revitalizing 60 area homes for low-income residents and six community centers. The 66th volunteer project was also the 2,500th completed in the program’s history. Although the event extended a tradition in place since 1988, this was the first for HomeFront as an independent, home-grown program.
Among the highlights, the experts from This Old House rallied in support of Nancy, a 75-year-old widow in Norwalk who still works in a school cafeteria to provide for two grandsons with special needs. As coincidence would have it, HomeFront Day was also Nancy’s birthday. Before the sun had set, This Old House volunteers revamped Nancy’s once dangerous front steps, replaced old windows that shed heat in the winter, added a beautiful garden, repaired leaky pipes, serviced her furnace and brushed on fresh coats of paint, all under the leadership of general contractor Tom Silva and heating and plumbing expert Richard Trethewey from the multi-Emmy-award winning television program. This was a birthday gift that has made a home more livable for many years to come.
In their third year of participation, volunteers from Cheshire-based, Alexion Pharmaceuticals were seeking to assist a home faced with the utmost adversity. Staff at HomeFront headquarters pointed them in the direction of Pauline and Anthony’s Waterbury home. Dan Caron, House Captain for Alexion, was briefed on the circumstances of this home to five children between the ages of five and 15, but he wanted to be sure that this was the right place for them to make a significant difference. Dan arrived at the home of this project option at the same time as the school bus. According to Caron, “Witnessing two of their children lowered from the bus in their wheelchairs was enough to convince me that this was a home in need of our help.” On HomeFront Day, Alexion volunteers replaced windows, added fresh coats of paint, replaced doors and helped to clean up the property. This was just the beginning of a long-term commitment that Alexion made to transform Pauline and Anthony’s home for the better. In the coming weeks and months, volunteers and professionals commissioned by Alexion continued to deliver generosity in time and donations that left Pauline and Anthony speechless. Caron and his fellow team leaders were not satisfied until their home had electric chair lifts, a mechanical room for the children to charge their wheelchairs and a completely overhauled, highly efficient new heating system. In doing so, Caron and his colleagues applied many of the same innovations that earned them the prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) award, as well as a 2010 Green Advocate award from the Connecticut Building Council.
As the recession continued to take a toll, it would have been expected for local residents to decline participation in HomeFront. Others could have chosen to “dial back” the amount of work they sought to tackle. All of this would be expected, but HomeFront volunteers and supporters have earned a reputation of delivering kindness beyond all expectations, setting their own worries aside for neighbors in greater needs whose homes — once falling down around them — are now stable living spaces for many years to come. In all, the support of funders and volunteers has contributed service valued at more than $38 million since this mission began. Here are just a few voices of gratitude from homeowners like Nancy, Anthony and Pauline:
“Everywhere my wife & I go, we can’t stop telling people what a wonderful group of people came to our aid. How can we not stop talking about the wonderful things you all have done?”
“Your kindness, caring and thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated. My husband in heaven thanks you too. At the present time, I am handicapped and in a great deal of pain. Your kindness is my best medicine.”