Rebuilding Together, Silicon Valley volunteers repair San Jose woman's home

Weekends are usually a time for rest and relaxation. But on Saturday in San Jose, and around the country, an army of volunteers put their cardiac muscles to work helping seniors stay in their homes.

"You know, it's a Saturday. Everybody could be doing something else, you know, their day off of work.  But they're here, they're here putting their time into her home," said Larraine Fernandez, daughter of 82-year-old Claudia Chavarria.

Chavarria has lived in the house on Clayton Road in San Jose for 55 years, and for a long time, her husband Jimmy worried about the condition of the roof.  So, he signed the couple up for a program called "Rebuilding Together, Silicon Valley" which helps repair the homes of low-income seniors.
         
"And we've been here since, and we never roofed the house," said Claudia. "So, this roof had 20 holes in it!"

"And he knew we'd applied for the program," said Fernandez. "So, he's been waiting patiently, and he would say, 'Are they going to come replace my roof?  Are they going to replace my roof?'  And we said, you just have to be patient. And he passed away on November 22, and right after that we got the call that they're going to come replace the roof.  She (Claudia) was so excited, and I said, well, he's seeing everything happening now."

Now, the house has a brand-new roof along with most of the plumbing fixtures inside. And on Saturday, a group of volunteers from the tech company, Applied Materials, were swarming the house, repairing window screens, planting new landscaping, and most importantly of all, giving the entire exterior a fresh new coat of paint.

"My job as house captain is to get those volunteers together, and it's always hard beforehand," said Terry Kiesic. "Everyone says, 'Oh, they'd love to help but then everyone's got their lives.'  But once you get through all that and get a solid 20-30 people that just show up here physically, it just, everyone leaves here with a good feeling that they did something good for their neighborhood."

Rebuilding Together has 114 chapters around the country, and most of them were out working on this 34th annual National Rebuilding Day. Sixteen homes in the South Bay were getting makeovers, each one adopted by a different service group or company that provides both the funding and volunteer workforce to get the job done.  

The program's executive director, Deanne Everton, said the homeowners selected are at an age and income level that would prevent them from being able to care for their home's upkeep.

"We really work to help people stay in their homes," Everton said.  "We want to keep their homes safe and healthy and allow people to age in their homes safely and thrive, so that they're not displaced because they can't keep it maintained."

That sounded good to Mark Hill, who was painting a wall on side of the house.

"Fantastic," he said.  "I mean, she's not going to have to worry about maintenance on her place for quite a while, and it's going to take a load off of her mind as far as worrying about her house."

But worrying about the house, and the roof, was Jimmy's job. And now, Chavarria knows he can rest easy, thanks to the kindness of strangers.