Sunday, April 30, 2006
FAIR LAWN -- An overflowing trash container in the driveway and dozens of volunteers streaming in and out of Anna Bures' house were testimony to a remarkable transformation taking place inside the four-bedroom colonial Saturday afternoon.
But Bures said she has had a personal transformation going on since last winter. That's when she was told her house had been chosen as one of the remodeling projects for the Bergen County chapter of the Rebuilding Together charity's annual home repair and renovation program.
Ever since, said the 70-year-old Bures, she has been working non-stop to prepare her home of 40 years as best she could for the army of volunteers who were to arrive Saturday.
"I've had a lot of losses in my life, people who were very close to me, and I think in a way I just gave up," Bures said as she sat in a lawn chair outside her home. "But I've been revitalized since January, knowing that this day was coming.
"Before, I didn't even want to come home, because things had been so neglected that there was no joy in the house anymore. Now ... I've already cried a few times, and I know I'll cry some more. I mean, I'll finally be able to invite people over, where before I wouldn't let anybody inside the house.
"They've given me my life back."
That's why each departing volunteer who offered Bures a handshake received a more emotional acknowledgment instead.
"Hugs and kisses -- everyone gets a hug and a kiss from me," Bures said.
The 60 or so Rebuilding Together volunteers at Bures' home replaced two toilets, installed a new bathroom vanity, fixed electrical outlets, landscaped the front and back yards and removed old appliances and other "junk" from the house.
Patty Johnson, president of the Washington-based organization, estimated that more than 250,000 volunteers associated with more than 100 affiliates nationwide would be working for Saturday's 18th annual event. The Bergen County chapter visited 21 homes, doing free renovations that were worth an estimated $150,000.
'Queen for a Day'
In Hackensack, 79-year-old Lillian Cain marveled Saturday at the "helpful, pleasant" volunteers who by 10 a.m. had already repaired her leaky roof.
"I feel like 'Queen for a Day,' " Cain said, referring to a radio and television show popular around the time that she and her late husband bought their home in 1954. "I never dreamed that all this work could be done."
Cain said she heard about the Rebuilding Together program through the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Center and the Hackensack Rotary Club.
Numerous volunteer groups join together at each Rebuilding Together site.
In Englewood, for instance, 20 members of the Tenafly-based Church of the Atonement teamed with volunteers from the Englewood Volunteer Ambulance Corps and members of Local 164 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The IBEW also volunteered at sites in Fair Lawn, Hackensack, Northvale, Ridgefield Park, Teaneck and Wyckoff.
The elderly Englewood resident, who was in the midst of receiving a completely remodeled kitchen and extensive landscaping, asked that her name not be mentioned "out of embarrassment."
Gerry Messina, a Benjamin Moore Paints marketing director who was serving as house captain in Englewood, said many seniors accept help reluctantly.
But he said they are uniformly appreciative -- including his Wyckoff neighbor, who has been busy lately knitting hand towels for each Rebuilding Together volunteer who visited her home.
In Fair Lawn, meanwhile, Bures said her life-changing experience already has her thinking ahead.
"I can hardly wait to figure out how I can sign up to volunteer, so I can help other people the way these people are helping me," Bures said.
E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
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