Volunteers for Saratoga County group spend day helping low-income homeowners

SARATOGA - As she finished changing a diaper on her great-grandson Saturday afternoon, Alma Westcott looked up at sev¬eral volunteers busy installing a new bedroom ceiling in her home where she has lived for 47 years.

Boy Scouts were up on the roof unrolling some new asphalt roofing. “It will be wonderful that I don’t have to put pails out to catch the rain anymore, Wescott said. “It’s absolutely wonderful they’d do all this for me.” On Saturday, about 150 people donated their time and talents for the day rehabilitating three homes and sprucing up two not-for-profit group offices in Saratoga County. The effort was the first work day for the new local organization Rebuilding Together, which is primarily dedicated to repairing the homes of low-income, elderly and disabled homeowners in the county. Adults, teenagers and preteens worked at the sites Saturday, said group publicist Marian Bigelow of Saratoga Springs. Who volunteered all day on a worksite with her husband, Hal. Some were members of scouting or church groups, several were friends of the homeowners, and others were strangers who had heard of the workday and wanted to help someone out, she said. Various businesses donated to the effort, she said, including Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa and Allerdice Hardware in Saratoga Springs. George Praught of Saratoga Springs said he heard of the workday through some friends and wanted to join in at the work site in Schuylerville, the home of Patrick Richards. This house received about $12,000 to $15,000 in renovations, a crew leader estimated.

“With all the money and manpower in the U.S., yet such an overwhelming amount of poverty; I’m just happy to be here and help a family out,” said Praught, a glove designer by trade.

Volunteers installed new siding, eaves, an entry door and steps in the Richards home. In the interior, volunteers fixed a stairway railing and replaced a rotted-out, moldy ceiling in a room where a leaky roof had allowed water to seep through. Also, several rooms got a fresh coat of paint. Kelly Reiners and Casey Holzworth, an engaged couple that has worked on several Habitat for Humanity houses, were working together Saturday on putting up new siding on the Richards’s home. “We just saw a newspaper article about the project and we thought we’d show up and help out,” Reiners said. Richards watched about 25 busy volunteers fix up his house. “We had a fire several years ago, I’m on disability, and we just couldn’t afford to pay for this work,” he said. “For neighbors to get together and help each other is a wonderful feeling — like the Amish raising a barn.” At the Wescott house, seven Boy Scouts from ‘Throop 13 in Schuylerville helped rebuild and resurface the roof, as others completely rehabilitated a bathroom that had a collapsing floor and bad plumbing. Volunteer Tom Malatesta, an architect in the town of Saratoga, revealed how he recruited all his family members to help out at the Wescott House. “I just snagged grandpa, my wife and brother-in-law and anybody else in my house sitting around doing nothing, and I said you’re going to be put to work,” he said. Another family spent the day involved in the project, which crew leaders said represented more than $30,000 in repairs.

Joanie and Matt Smith of Saratoga Springs brought along their daughters Kevy; 15, and Carla 12, for a family work day. “I’ve driven past houses like this thinking, ‘It’s too bad people have to live in a house like that,”’ Carla Smith said. “Now it’s really good that we can make a difference.” Her sister Kevy agreed. “It feels good to be able to help out and it shows that people care,” she said.