Thurston County volunteers help around the houses on Rebuilding Day

About 175 volunteers spent their Saturday doing yard work, cleaning gutters, painting and making homes repairs for national Rebuilding Day, an event hosted by Rebuilding Together.

The Thurston County chapter of the national organization has been around for 14 years, and has been completely volunteer-run for 12 years, board member Susan Newman said. Throughout the year, the local chapter will complete 22 to 24 projects with the help of 300 to400 volunteers.

“Today, we had more people wanting to volunteer than we could handle,” Newman said. “That’s indicative of the support we have.”

The goal, she said, is to make improvements to people’s homes so they can continue to live in them.

Rebuilding Together Thurston County worked on three projects Saturday — one in Tumwater and two in Yelm.

Bruce Keough served as house captain for the Tumwater project. Volunteers worked on an 83-year-old man’s house, cleaning the gutters, removing garbage, doing yard work and replacing a broken door.

Keough said the man had cared for his wife in the home until she died in January, and during that time some of the household chores had piled up. The volunteers began work at 8 a.m., and planned to work into the afternoon.

The recent Thurston County transplant got his start with Building Together in Kent, where he volunteered for about 10 years, and is serving his first year with the Thurston County chapter.

“Housing is one of those fundamental needs,” Keough said. “You need food and housing, then everything else comes after that. I like the idea of keeping people in their houses instead of displacing them.”

Tumwater Mayor Pete Kmet stopped by to help. The city funded the Tumwater project.

“I think these are great projects, and I’m happy the city could be involved,” Kmet said. “We’re keeping people in their houses, and we’re improving the neighborhood for people who live nearby.”

To learn more about Rebuilding Together Thurston County, go to rebuildingtogethertc.org.

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Thurston County volunteers help around the houses on Rebuilding Day."