Around 9:00 A.M. on Saturday, April 17, I heard banging and booming next door.  I stepped out on my front porch and saw a small canopy covering a table full of fresh fruit and donuts which -  immediately caught my attention - and workers trudging in and out of my neighbor’s home.  All the workers wore bright yellow shirts which immediately tipped me off to the possibility that something special was afoot.

Being an ace i-reporter, I went over to investigate…especially the donuts.  I asked my neighbor, Sheila Hummel, a widow on a fixed income, what was going on, and she told me a volunteer organization called Rebuilding Together NWA was remodeling her home for free.  NWA means Northwest Arkansas.

I ran to get my camera and began interviewing the two board members of Rebuilding Together NWA – Dan and Steve – who were onsite, and some of the volunteers.  I discovered that Rebuilding Together is the largest volunteer organization that rehabilitates existing homes.  The organization has been in existence since 1988, and has remodeled over 100,000 homes nationwide through its more than 200 affiliates, of which Rebuilding Together NWA is one.

Nationwide, the Rebuilding Together affiliates choose one weekend in April on which over a quarter of a million volunteers work together to rehabilitate the homes of low income individuals:  single parents with kids, the handicapped and the elderly.  That Saturday in April was this past Saturday, April 17.  Locally, in Northwest Arkansas, Rebuilding Together NWA volunteers remodeled 12 homes.

The website of Rebuilding Together is http://www.rebuildingtogether.org/

The website of Rebuilding Together NWA is http://www.rebuildingtogethernwa.org/

I had never heard of Rebuilding Together before this past Saturday.  I can only assume that many, many Americans have not heard of them either.