Springfield joins together to rebuild homes

Date: 10/11/2011

Oct. 10, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

SPRINGFIELD — Dolores Culp, a handicapped Army veteran, has always believed that the number of good people in the world always outweighs the bad.

When her Amanda Street home was nearly destroyed by the EF-3 tornado that ripped through the City of Homes, she never thought that it would become an opportunity for her to be proven right.

Culp’s home was one of the 25 houses Rebuilding Together Springfield chose to rebuild as part of its “Rebuilding 25 Homes in 5 Days” effort.

“It was a huge project and a big blessing,” Culp said as she sat in a chair on her front lawn watching a pair of carpenters construct a new dormer on her roof on Oct. 5, the fifth day of building. “My house was one of the first they worked on and that first day there must have been 150 people here. The people turned a tragedy into a blessing.

“I don’t know how many people I’ve hugged,” she added.

Trees in the front and back of Culp’s property fell on her house, destroying her roof and chimney, while her bathroom, kitchen and dining room were all heavily damaged. She sustained water damage in the bedrooms and had a significant amount of water in her basement.

The roof had just been replaced in a Rebuilding Together Springfield project just last year.

Still, Culp said she feels lucky because she had so many people supporting her.

“I’m an usher at church, so I’m used to always helping other people,” she said. “It was overwhelming to have so many people to help me and other people.”

Ethel Griffin, project manager for Rebuild Together Springfield, said that construction on Culp’s house, as well as the 24 other properties the non-profit was helping rebuild was going well, despite the fact that the inclement weather slowed them down a bit.

“It’s going to take a little longer and there are some things, like roofing, that we needed professionals to do,” she said. “But it’s gone very well. This has showed that people really care about the people in their community. Not everyone could stay five days and we didn’t turn [volunteers] down based on days. Some people could help one day, others could work six days and we welcomed them all.”

Colleen Loveless, executive director of Rebuilding Together Springfield, said they had nearly 2,000 volunteers over the five days, including several corporate groups.

Volunteers from Home Depot worked on five houses on their own, while Skanska — a project development and construction company — Verizon and TD Bank were all responsible for working on two houses, while a multitude of other businesses committed workers as well as supplies. Dunkin Donuts also supplied much-needed coffee and doughnuts.

“Some people said, ‘OK, we’re done with this one. Where are we going next?’” Griffin said.

The one thing that surprised Griffin and Culp was the outpouring of support from outside the community. Culp said a group of high school students from Boston that traveled to help her rebuild stuck a chord with her.

“I told them they could have been anywhere else. They could have been watching a game or something, but instead they were here,” she said. “I told them that this was the best game to be at and I appreciated that they realized that.”

In addition to using media coverage to get applications for homes for the project, members of Christ Presbyterian Church on Allen Street and AmeriCorps volunteers went door to door in affected neighborhoods handing out applications.

Griffin stressed the importance of the non-profit’s work, especially for the elderly and disabled.

“Imagine you’re an elderly or disabled person on a fixed income and your house got hit [by the tornado]. You have to worry about your medication, your food and now your home. What would you spend your money on?” she said. “Most would make sure they have their medicine, then make sure they have a little bit of food. It doesn’t leave much room to spend on the house.”

Griffin said Rebuilding Together Springfield is accepting applications for future projects once they see how much money remains after this project settles.

Applicants should not hesitate and must make sure they have things squared away with their insurance company, she noted

“We’ve been flooded with applications. We have well over 200 and maybe close to 300,” she said. “If you’re not settled with your insurance company we cannot touch [the house]. It’s not because we don’t want to, but because we don’t want to do work that would otherwise be covered by insurance.”

For more information, visit http://rebuildingtogetherspringfield.org.