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Homeowner
Carroll Bachman, with volunteers working
in the background Sept. 20, says he’s been meaning to paint
his home in south Sacramento, but would have had to do it gradually
without the
help of Paint the
Town.
Volunteers
Paint the Town for Low-Income Seniors
By
David Kline
Editor
Carroll Bachman and his wife have been meaning to paint their home in south
Sacramento for quite a while, but their plans have never quite come to fruition.
“My wife is 80 and has had a knee operation, and I’m 79 years old,” Bachman
said. “I don’t get on ladders very well any more.”
After a pause, the retired beer truck driver added, “I don’t get
on roofs, either.”
But Frank Esposito does, as he ably demonstrated at Bachman’s residence
Sept. 20 during Sacramento’s annual Paint the Town home improvement event.
Esposito and a team of volunteers swarmed the Bachman home to give it its first
new paint job in more than 10 years. The team was one of 13 that went to work
that warm Saturday morning to help disabled senior homeowners.
“I’ve painted, scraped, whatever,” Esposito, a business banking
officer in the Auburn/Roseville area, said. “You just get total satisfaction,
helping people in the community like this.”
The volunteers working on the Bachman home were U.S. Bank employees and their
family members. Just down the street, a crew of about 20 assembled by Allstate
Insurance painted the home of Mary Leutner.
Leutner, 80, has lived in her home near Stockton Boulevard for 50 years, but
hasn’t been able to afford a new coat of paint in recent times.
“Money doesn’t go very far,” Leutner said, adding that she
recently was prescribed a medication that costs $61 per bottle. So she applied
for help from Paint the Town after seeing an ad in the newspaper.
Paint the Town is sponsored by Sacramento Neighborhood Housing Services, a non-profit
group which focuses on improving older neighborhoods. This year, 13 corporate
sponsors paid for supplies and rounded up volunteers to work on 12 homes in areas
targeted by the federal government for revitalization.
In addition to painting homes, volunteers typically clean up the homeowners’ yards
and, according to Mahasin Muhammad of Sacramento Neighborhood Housing Services,
often forge friendships with homeowners that last long after Paint the Town is
over.
To qualify for assistance, a homeowner must be over 55 or disabled, and must
have income less than $31,550 per year for an individual or $36,050 for a couple.
“This is a way to instill pride in home ownership and keep our neighborhoods
healthy,” Muhammad said.
A crew of about 45 volunteers sponsored by the law firm of McDonough Holland & Allen
PC gave their time to paint the home of Mary and Jesse Mata, who are in their
mid-70s and have medical problems that make painting impractical.
“Besides lawyering, painting is one of the few skills I have,” attorney
Jeremy Millstone, in his third year participating in Paint the Town, said between
brush strokes. “The thing I like most is watching the owners.”
That feeling was mutual for Mary Mata, who was beaming with joy while watching
her home take on a new color and more modern character.
“They do a beautiful job,” she said, repeating her praise several
times for emphasis.
“This is more rewarding than what we do as a real job,” Millstone
said. “We could do this every Saturday.”
To
volunteer for Paint the Town or to apply for assistance offered by
Sacramento Neighborhood Housing Services,
call (916) 452-5361 or check the Web site www.sacnhs.org.
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