Alan Mayernik sat the brand-new range hood on the oven with what could’ve been construed as a look of consternation if you didn’t know what was going to happen next.
A couple of drill zips later, the self-described “nobody with power tools” had the hood snugly installed among the kitchen cabinets of the Rebuilding Together of South Lake County house he was tasked to work on Saturday morning. His fellow volunteers, as well as the homeowner, watched in awe.
“Look at that: It’s working the first time!” Rebuilding Together Board President Mitch Barloga said as Mayernik, of Valparaiso, flipped on the hood light. “The light went on, there’s no sparking …”
“Give it time,” Mayernik deadpanned back.
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Saturday morning’s not-unsubstantial rain stopped long enough for volunteers to spread out over Merrillville to help 12 lucky recipients of Rebuilding Together’s Christmas in September Day. Held once every four years, the organization cycles through Crown Point, Lowell, Cedar Lake and Merrillville and picks 10 to 12 people whose homes needs major repairs, Barloga said.
This cycle, Rebuilding Together received 70 applications for help, which is quite a few more than they typically get, Barloga, who’s been the board’s president for 10 years, said. And that was before the June 11th tornado damaged hundreds of houses in town.
“Those homes, we don’t have the manpower to help with,” he said. “Our process says, ‘If you’re elderly, disabled and/or low income, we can help.’ From the applications we get, we choose 10 or 12 homes who need the most help, and then we gather the volunteers and try to finish all the repairs we can in a day.
“It’s not ‘Celebrity Home Makeover’ or whatever, but our motto is, ‘Safe, warm and dry.’”
Barloga took on the role of team captain Saturday when one of his other volunteers had an emergency. He was painting the recipient’s walls a fresh dove gray while Mayernick worked on installing the new oven and another guy started ripping out the linoleum to make way for premium laminate flooring. Three other volunteers tore down the woman’s shed in the backyard as others trimmed her bushes out front of the house.
The homeowner, who asked that her name not be used, had applied for the program twice before, but “the third time was the charm,” she said. Health concerns rendered her disabled in 2014, just as she was planning to start chipping away at the minor issues all homeowners deal with.
“It never ceases to amaze me how people fix things,” she said as she watched one of the men work on the pipes under her kitchen sink. “I take care of my things, but being a single mom is hard, and sometimes you just can’t get to everything.”
Still not quite believing she was chosen for the work, the homeowner a couple weeks ago was going through her wish list Rebuilding Together gives its recipients and picked out the oven she wanted, she said. When she got word it was arriving before Saturday, she nearly lost her mind.
“I got the text that it was coming, and then Mitch called me 10 or 15 minutes later to ask if I’d received the text and to respond. I put the phone down and just started screaming,” she said through tears. “You don’t know how grateful I am for these men here today. Won’t God do it?”
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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