This story ran on nwitimes.com on Sunday, April 30, 2006 12:27 AM CDT
Home improvement elves fashion Christmas in April
BY ROYAL M. HOPPER IIITimes Correspondent
MERRILLVILLE | Sixty-five-year-old Eugenia Kirkbride spent much of Saturday fighting back tears and watching strangers walk around her house with paintbrushes in their hands. It was one of the happiest days she has had in many years.
"I can't even begin to say how much this means to me," Kirkbride said about the Christmas in April volunteers who were at her house Saturday replacing gutters, painting walls, installing a handicapped-accessible bathroom and doing other chores that finances, bad knees and Father Time have prevented her from doing for a long time.
Volunteers spent the day making improvements, a few coats of paint and the customary smoke detectors in Kirkbride's modest Lake Station home. The program is designed to help the handicapped and elderly make improvements to their homes they could not otherwise afford.
"Warm, safe and dry is our priority," said John Havel, vice president of the Lake Station Christmas in April efforts. Volunteers also helped out at Hobart residences.There have been cases where a house is simply too far gone or has no roof to speak of, Havel said. To qualify, residents must own the house they live in. The smiles and hugs from the people who benefit from the groups effort make it worth all the work, Havel said.
More than 290 volunteers turned out to various houses in the area. Installing everything from washers and dryers to new floor tiles and carpeting. They were greeted with smiles and sometimes tears of joy.
Volunteers like Bridgette Becker and her husband, Frank, an union painter with IBEW Chicago 265, came from Gary to volunteer for the program. They said what you get back from the people you help is far more than the work you do while you are there.
"When you see someone with no family and no one to help them, when you see the smiles on their faces afterwards it keeps you coming back," Bridgette Becker said.
Kirkbride bought her house in 1987, after her divorce and turned the rundown old homestead in a cozy middle class home.
"I was code enforcement officer in the city then and this house was close to foreclosure before she bought it," said Linda Newton, secretary of the Christmas in April group.
Kirkbride said she put her heart into her new home bring it up to code and make it a nice place to live for her and her now adult children. Then the company she worked for was bought out . Her job was shipped off to China, Kirkbride said. Problems with her back and knees that had plagued her for years began to get worse, making it difficult for her to walk or stand for long periods of time. Time had not been as kind to her as it had to others, she said.
"Everything was breaking down. I just cannot do the things I used to do," she said.
She called Saturday's volunteers a blessing that was a surprise but not totally unexpected.
"I have always felt I was watched over by angels," she said pointing to the collection of ceramic angels on top of her television set and then looking around at the people busily repairing her house.
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