The Burlington and West Burlington’s Annual Paint-a-Thon kicks off today and more than 525 volunteers will paint 14 homes in Des Moines County.
The Annual Paint-A-Thon is a collaborative effort between Community Action of Southeast Iowa, Two Rivers Bank & Trust and Diamond Vogel Paint. The event started in 1993 and in that 23 years, 11,000 volunteers have painted 469 homes for senior citizens or people with disabilities who are low income and have a home that could use a little sprucing up.
Two Rivers Bank & Trust provides the advertising, pays for volunteer t-shirts and the luncheon. Diamond Vogel supplies all the paint that is used and Community Action helps choose the houses to be painted and does other small repairs on the houses if necessary.
Jim O’Neal is the Vice-President of Public Relations for Two Rivers Bank & Trust:
“We should have 30 teams this year, with 525 volunteers and I Cannot emphasize this enough, we could not do it without the volunteers and some of the volunteers have been there a long-long time. Its a real good cross section of the whole community, we’ve got a little bit of everybody.”
The annual event provides lower-income senior citizens or people with disabilities with much-needed paint jobs on their homes. Community Action will review applications and visit each applicant’s home to determine eligibility. Applications are reviewed using the federal poverty guidelines. The owner must be 55 or older or disabled, and their house must be a single- or small one-and-a-half-story house. The owner must be unable to afford a commercial paint job and display a desire to maintain the appearance of the house. O’Neal knows what the Paint-A-Thon event can mean to these people.
“We had 5 or 6 homes up in South Hill that year that got new roofs plus a paint job, so that’s a big thing for someone that’s on a fixed income”
Once the 14 homeowners are selected, volunteers will be assigned teams to paint the homes. Volunteers from many community organizations volunteer to help paint with their “team” and will go to their prospective house today, most of the houses are completed by noon on Saturday. all 14 pre-selected homes are completed and the volunteers and their families are welcome to enjoy lunch provided by Two Rivers bank at the Eagles Club.
From this program, Two Rivers Bank & Trust has received the Community Service Summit Award from the Iowa Bankers Association, a Partnership Award from the Community Action of Southeast Iowa, a Declaration from the City of Burlington for supporting the building of community pride and encouraging citizens to respond to the needs of their fellow neighbors.
