Welcome to the premier issue of Rebuilding Together Metro Denver's eNews. Once each month we'll send you news of our programs and the people making it possible. Please forward to friends or colleagues who might also be interested in keeping our neighbors warm, safe, and dry and living in independence.

Rebuilding Day Preparation Underway

Eight enthusiastic members of the House Selection Committee had their first meeting in November to prepare for R-Day 2005. The Committee is headed up by Joey Smith, Rebuilding Together’s Program Coordinator. Twenty-two applications were distributed for telephone screening and twenty applications were distributed for house previews. Over the next two months, the Committee will meet regularly to discuss updates to the applications and to narrow the field down to approximately 40 viable home projects. There are currently 72 applications on file.

In addition to homeowner selection, Rebuilding Together is well on its way to securing sponsors for each of the 35-40 homes. Sponsors are responsible for providing both the funds and the volunteer labor of a chosen house. If you would like to know more about becoming a Rebuilding Together Sponsor, please contact Laurie McCaw at rebuild@qwest.net or 720-524-0840.

Inside this issue:

Rebuilding Day 05 preparation under way
A Home For All Seasons
Homeowner spotlight
RT in the news
RT VISTA program

The Gift of Dignity and Independence

As the Season of Giving approaches, please consider including Rebuilding Together in your gift list. Help an elderly or disabled homeowner live in independence and a warm, safe, and dry home this winter.

When you give online to Rebuilding Together, you can choose to give the gift in someone's honor, even creating an email gift card with your own personal message about the donation you've made in their name.

What a great way to say Happy Holidays to a loved one and to an elderly or disabled person in need.

Thank you!

From A Home for All Seasons:

Rebuilding Together’s new program, A Home for All Seasons,
has successfully launched.

HAS is a year-round home repair program for low-income elderly and disabled homeowners in Aurora and Commerce City. To date, Matt Smith, RT Skilled Project Coordinator, along with skilled RT volunteers have completed projects for over ten homeowners, including:

several grab bars
a storm door
some minor roof repair
gutter repair
replacing a water heater
providing smoke & CO detectors, and fire extinguishers
and much more……

HAS is currently focusing on outreach in order to increase the number of homeowners they can serve. Hospitals and senior programs are being contacted, along with Aurora and Commerce City libraries and recreation centers. “And we’ll be working with the VOA Safety for Seniors Handyman Program to do some partnering for outreach. We expect the program to grow as time goes by!” says Angie Zuccarelli, HAS Program Manager.

For more information, please contact:
Angie Zuccarelli
720-524-9205
angie_rebuild@qwest.net

Homeowner Spotlight
	Mary Hoese was referred to RT by Senior Hub Respite Care in Aurora. She is 78 years old and lives alone. She has Parkinson's disease and has a difficult time getting around. She remains quite functional but she has not been able to bathe in about a year because it was too difficult for her to get in and out of the bathtub. She had placed a plastic lawn chair in her bathroom, put a towel on the seat and was using a small dishpan to wash
with. A Home for All Seasons went out to put some grab bars, a hand-held shower and a bath bench in her tub area. We also put in a new smoke detector, changed her furnace filter, tightened her screen door, replaced a porch light bulb, and moved some things from her back porch into her storage area. Mary is the kind of homeowner that we are targeting for this program. The things that she needed were very much related to her safety in her home and allowed her to remain there. Mary has made a concerted effort to stay independent but needed a little help. She does an amazing job of managing for herself. Despite her challenges getting around, she has remained quite self sufficient in her home and was very pleased that she could once more use her bathtub. She got rather emotional and thanked us profusely. She said she never imagined that she would be able to get so many of the things she needed taken care of.

RTMD in the news!!!

Tune in December 11» RT Volunteer John Hemschoot was filmed last week performing work at a home. He was extensively interviewed by Channel 4's Ed Greene and did a GREAT job endorsing RT and our programs.
The segment will be aired on the "Spirit" Show on December 11th from 6 - 9 pm, when many community "heroes" will be highlighted in time for the celebration of the season.

And pick up the December/January issue of 5280 magazine. On page 36 there is a nice article about Rebuilding Together.

Introduction to Rebuilding Together Metro Denver’s Southwest AmeriCorps VISTA Program

Hello! Here is a brief introduction to the Rebuilding Together Southwest VISTA program hosted by Rebuilding Together Metro Denver. VISTA is a federally-supported national service program that has been around for more than 40 years, and can be thought of as a “domestic Peace Corps.” AmeriCorps VISTA members work full-time for one year in organizations that work to alleviate poverty. The Rebuilding Together Southwest VISTA program places 16 AmeriCorps*VISTA “members” in a nine state region (Colorado, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona) to serve one-year terms in Rebuilding Together affiliates, allowing them to build their capacity to serve low-income seniors.

VISTAs are given a program area that they are in charge of developing -this could range from outreach to fundraising. All of our positions include volunteer coordination and organizational planning. Our VISTAs work on either fundraising, general operations, or specific programmatic needs such as marketing, needs assessment, or strategic planning. VISTAs bring an incredible about of enthusiasm, professionalism and skills to Rebuilding Together affiliates in the southwest region – they are invaluable to our efforts to serve more seniors!

In November, program staff focused on new host site recruitment in our nine-state region at other RT affiliates, as well as VISTA recruitment for February 2005. We have several outstanding candidates in the works, and we are excited about beginning our new grant year in February. If you know any individuals that are would like to earn money for college/pay off student loans, help RT build stronger communities and interested in housing, poverty or senior issues, please have them contact Jessica Lowe, VISTA Program Coordinator at 720-988-4510 or rtvistacoord@yahoo.com.

Our sincerest thanks go out to all the volunteers and sponsors who enabled us to help over 100 homeowners in 2004, including

St. Mary Land & Exploration, Presenting Sponsor 2004

Supporting Sponsors:
Denver Bronco Alumni Association
Commercial Federal
First Bank
Cherry Creek Jaycees
Countrywide Mortgage
Physician's Choice Medical

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Rebuilding Together Metro Denver is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that hopes to repair 100 houses in 2005, keeping low-income elderly, disabled and families with children warm, safe, and dry and living in independence. www.rebuildingdenver.org