SPECIAL TO THE PVT Volunteers for Rebuilding Together patch a local resident's driveway. The organization helps homeowners who are unable to maintain their homes stay "safe, warm, and dry," as the group's credo pledges. Advertisement

Rebuilding Together, formerly known as Christmas in April, has been helping local homeowners unable to maintain their residences due to infirmity or financial need since 2000, thanks to Rick and Terry Remington starting a Pahrump branch after working for the group in Las Vegas.

During the past eight years, the local businesses and community volunteers who have helped keep the local branch of the national organization going have "run the gamut," according to Secretary/Treasurer Susan Grey.

The organization has remodeled a bathroom for wheelchair access, patched up roofs, and assisted elderly residents with landscaping, painting, repairs, and tidying up.

As Grey explained, the organization has three goals for qualified applicants: to ensure they're "safe, warm, and dry."

Rebuilding Together takes applications for their services through January. Applicants are then screened based on their need, income and physical disability.

Once applicants are accepted, work begins on their homes from April until about June, (hence the former moniker) because that's when the weather is most accommodating.

Depending on the organization's resources and time, which can change depending on the task at hand, usually about five to six applicants are accepted.

The organization has both skilled and unskilled volunteers.

Skilled volunteers, such as plumbers or carpenters, are always licensed and certified according to the requirements of their vocation.

But unskilled volunteers are just as valuable. After all, certification isn't needed to help pull some weeds, paint or tidy up a yard.

"All we ask for is willing hands and a willing heart," Grey said.

This year 20 applications for assistance were received for Pahrump and five were chosen.

She added that locally, the majority of town applicants were elderly or disabled.

The screening process requires applicants to own the home needing improvement and to provide proof of monthly income and disability, if applicable.

Although Rebuilding Together is part of a national organization with sponsorship from groups that include United Way, when it comes to the local branches, community participation is vital to the program's success.

Grey emphasized the assistance Pahrump's organization has received from Papa John's (which gives a discount on the pizza lunches delivered to the hard-working volunteers), ABB Roofing (which recently helped replaced a resident's roof at cost), and Patricia Cox, who contributed draperies at cost to a project house.

And NS Tech, formerly the company that handled the Nevada Test Site, has also contributed financially and agreed to match employee volunteer time.

Hometown Appliance is working to help get a washing machine and dryer hook-up for an elderly resident who can't climb the stairs to get the laundry done anymore.

Grey admits that getting the volunteers for the projects every year can be a daunting task and at times discouraging.

"But then we worked this weekend and now we're all psyched up for next year," Grey said.

The secretary said she first got involved with the group after hearing someone else say, "If you want to feel good, do good," a credo she has followed ever since.

Those interested in lending Pahrump's Rebuilding Together a much-needed helping hand or want more information about the program should call 775-727-5768.