Volunteers needed for landscaping

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Volunteers armed with shovels, rakes and other yard tools are needed to help remove weeds and install sheet mulching at the home of a 91-year-old Benicia resident.

And those who are willing to spare a little time Wednesday but don’t want to get dirty are needed to help serve refreshments to the volunteers doing the yard work, said Elizabeth Hoffman, executive director of nonprofit Rebuilding Together Solano County.

This is the organization’s return trip to the house, Hoffman said. “We assisted the woman last summer,” she said, but much of that work was to the interior of the house.

Volunteers did some upkeep in the yard, but RTSC members decided even more work needed to be done.

During previous visits, volunteers focused on making the house safer.

Built in the 1800s, it is home to Mona, a woman who survived the Great Depression by quitting school to take a job at a Kentucky coal miner’s camp.

After Mona moved to Benicia, she often cooked for Benicia teenagers who hung out at her house. She’s been in the house since 1964, and she still bakes treats from time to time.

Last summer, about 45 volunteers came to her home one day, and 80 showed up on another. They weren’t there for her cooking. Instead, they wanted to help Mona continue living in her house.

They hung new drapes, scrubbed her kitchen, repaired a shed, installed a new kitchen floor, renovated her bathroom, built a side porch and presented her with a sturdy outdoor table and bench so she could sit comfortably outside.

“It’s like a dream,” Mona said as the volunteers repaired her home last year. “They’ve done wonders of wonders.”

On Wednesday, the focus is on the home’s yard and a little cleanup of the house’s exterior, so its outward appearance is just as nice as the inside.

“We felt the need to help out,” Hoffman said. “We’re really excited about it.”

She said the workday has been made possible through the sponsorship of Dr. DeAnne K. Miller.

Anyone 14 and older may help Wednesday. Though the workday will begin at 8:30 a.m. and wrap up about 4 p.m., volunteers don’t have to commit to the entire time.

“People can join us for an hour,” she said. “They can come on their lunch break.”

For those who want to pitch in and help but worry they’d return to their jobs with yard dirt on their clothes, Hoffman has other tasks they could do.

“We’ll have refreshments and lunch,” she said. “And Starbucks is donating coffee in the morning.”

Volunteers are needed to help serve refreshments, too, she said. “They don’t have to get dirty!”

Rebuilding Together is a nationwide organization that repairs and renovates homes and community buildings to help the elderly, those with low incomes and the disabled, so they can remain in their homes, Hoffman said.

The Solano County arm of the agency was formed in 2009.

“I was involved in Rebuilding Together in other parts of the Bay Area,” Hoffman said. “My parents lived in Vallejo, and my mother felt there was a need here.”

Her mother, Sarah Johnson, helped found the local chapter, Hoffman said.

In two years, Rebuilding Together has rehabilitated two Benicia homes and two more in Vallejo, as well as seven area community buildings.

The organization is accepting donations of money as well as services such as plumbing, electrical or carpentry, and supplies such as paint brushes and buckets. Rebuilding Together Solano County can be reached at 580-9360 or by email at Ehoffman@gmail.com.

Those interested in volunteering may meet at 420 West K St. anytime from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to help garden, weed, mulch, clean or perform other tasks.