I love the work that Project Mend a House is doing in the community!!
As the current Chairman of the Board, I am excited about the work we've done historically, and very much looking forward to the future of caring for individuals who are our cherished senior citizens, our disabled and veteran community members with strained or limited incomes who have a desire to shelter in place, and live safely and comfortably in their homes.
Together with our staff, many dedicated partners and volunteers we look forward to many more years of continued service to our communities and clients in need!
The Project Mend A House crew cares deeply about the community. They are serving people who are truly in need and have very limited options. The people who participate in volunteering are very skilled professions with huge hearts.
Project Mend-A-House is, in my mind, the perfect charity for someone at my level to contribute and make a difference. Small enough to not be overburdened with administrative and overhead requirements and costs, efficient enough to make immediate and significant differences in peoples' lives, and driven enough to always be there to step up on our clients' behalf and address their needs. As a middle-income working professional with a family to support, I am not in a position financially to make significant monetary contributions to every worthy charity, and must be careful and choosy of those to which I do contribute. I determined, however, that PMAH is an organization to which I can instead donate my time and energy in a number of ways, comfortable in knowing and seeing the immediate impacts in the work that we do.
I became very fond and proud of Project Mend-A-House through writing some press releases about PMAH projects and clients. I became highly impressed by the organization the first time I went to a job site and met and talked with volunteers. Each new story brought revealed more of the staff and volunteers' dedication and resourcefulness, as well as their deep concern for their clients. One of the best parts of writing stories about PMAH is having the opportunity to interview clients about the difference PMAH's work has made in their lives. They are grateful for the chance to stay in their homes, to keep their mobility and independence. In doing my little part to help, I found much reward.
i got involved over 9 years ago with Project Mend-A-House (PMAH) as a board member. At that time we didn't know where any of the money was coming from to do the work needed for our clients. Since that time, we have expanded our reach in the community and our funding has far exceeded anything we ever imagined. The clients we help (seniors, low income, & infirmed) so need help from organizations like PMAH. We help with projects such as repairing homes, help build wheelchair ramps, clean yards, landscape, and painting. The work is done all by volunteers... and each one loves helping each other & helping the community. I am proud to be associated with this organization - it's needed in our community & in every other community in our country.
Project Mend-a-House is instrumental in helping low income families (especially the elderly) with home repairs that they may not otherwise be able to do. I am proud to be a Board Member for this organization because I have have heard so many stories about the help they offer. Our most recent project is also one of our most ambitious - helping a young man by adding a bathroom to the main floor of his home. Because he is confined by a wheelchair, he is unable to get the second floor bathroom and this new addition will enable him to get a shower instead of the sponge baths he now receives. My interest in serving on the Board came from reviewing a Project Mend-a-House application for an award. The handwritten letters from several of the elderly served by Project Mend-a-House were so touching they made me cry to realize how much I have and how little so many others have. I decided I needed to volunteer my time to help keep making a difference in those lives.
Project Mend-A-House is a very small organization with a big heart. I am constantly amazed at all it does for its seniors, disabled, and low-income clients so they can continue to remain safely and independently in thier own homes. Doug now has heat, Alma has secure flooring, Kevin has an accessible bathroom, countless seniors have grab bars for more secure footing and every year over a dozen recieve the gift of accessibility with a ramp so they can come and go freely from their homes. For so many of its clients, it has been a life changing experience! Wonderful organziation. I encourage others to donate since every dollar is leveraged thanks to its volunteer and community partners.
When I joined the board I didn't even know what Project Mend-A-House (PMAH) did but in the past few years I have learned just how important it is. My personal belief that having a safe place to call home is one of the keys to success makes PMAH fit the bill.
Seeing how this organization changes lives is amazing. I have seen seniors who would have had to leave their homes be able to stay because of repairs by PMAH.
I felt distinct pride at knowing we helped return freedom to an injured veteran by making his home accessible to him.
This year we are changing the life of a teenage boy who will have the dignity of caring for himself instead of relying on others.
Each year I learn more about how we keep people in their homes safely and return the freedom and dignity we all take for granted.
This organization provides an opportunity to leverage individual talents / gifts by integrating them with those of other like minded persons and thereby enabling accomplishments that are far beyond what you thought you could do. As for me, I volunteered to repair some back yard fencing that had fallen down and drawing complaints from the neighbors to the home owners association. This resident turned out to be the resident home for marginally handicapped persons. I understand the home was donated to the county and used for this purpose. Upon arrival, I met a gentle who was from another church who was accompanied by 3-4 teenage boys. His ministry was to get the youth of the congregation involved in community work. As you can imagine, the teens were not thrilled to be here on a Saturday morning. However, once the teens met some of the residents, the work must have seemed much more important for the teens then engaged in the project and without them, the job would not have been finished. Additionally, one of the neighbors saw the working teens and dropped by to see what was going on and learned more about Project Mend a House. Would you believe that that the very same afternoon, this neighbor showed up with 2-3 other neighbors and this team proceeded to independently clean up the front yard. There are many more stories to tell, but the point is clear; no one of us working this project could ever accomplish what all of us working together were able to accomplish. Among the teens, the youth minister, the residents, the neighbors and myself, the Saturday worked seemed so much worth the effort. Don't forget about the person or persons who donated the home! Could they have ever known that they mended a house as well as mended a community?
After reading in the local Newspaper about all the good works Project Mend-A-House has done, and continues to do, and having recently retired, I wanted to find out for myself more about the organization, so I volunteered for one of the projects (on a trail basis). I was so impressed by the dedication and compassion of the volunteers, the
Project Coordinator and the small office staff that I decided to join the group. One of the other deciding factors for me is the thankfulness and appreciation of the "clients".
Project Mend-A-House people will not just fix the immediate problem and leave , but look for the underlying cause. An example is the home we are working in now. The downstairs has a family room, two bedrooms and an utility room. The area got flooded during Tropical Storm Lee. Once the two feet deep water was eliminated, the work was begun on replacing the damaged walls and flooring. On noticing a crack in the outside of the foundation, the Mend-A-House volunteers dug out where the crack was and made the necessary repairs. Additionally, another volunteer cleaned the leaves from the roof gutters and another fixed a broken storm door.
TGhis is such a great and worthy organization that not only do I do volunteer work with them, but I aqlso make financial contributions.
I have volunteered my time with the Project Mend a House team for a few years. I take my three children to help on some of the projects. It is important for them to see how some people live and the responsibiltiy we have to use our good fortune to help others in need. I have encouraged my scout groups to also help with this organization. I would highly recommend working with this group to anyone I meet. I have worked on a number of projects with them from very small jobs to very large undertaking. PMAH is primarily lead by just three people, (Andrea, Kristen and Bill) who lead an incrediable team of volunteers to serve the needs of the low income senior citizens and handicapped in Prince William County. Each of them gives so much time and energy to make things happen. It is really nothing short of incredible to see how many people that they help in so many ways. There are more and more low income people who are not making by. They have to chose basic needs over repairing thier home. PMAH finds ways to help when other can not. In many cases a simple fix has compounded into a much bigger challenge to be repiared becuase of years of neglect. I have worked on projects for clients with no air-conditioning, no heat, no electricity, no running water and other basic necesities that we take for granted. The biggest challenge they face is finding volunteers to help with all of the work load. PMAH has been blessed with developing great partnerships with companies like Woodbridge Plumbing, Parrish Services, Prince William Home Improvements and many others. I would highly recommend and encourge any one to come be a part of this incredible group. It is very rewarding to help other people and to be a part of this team.
Project Mend-A-House is truly one-of-a-kind. Its service area is relatively small and its mission focused on helping individuals maintain their homes and their dignity. Although the organization provides durable medical equipment through its loan closet program, the bulk of its work is in home repair and modification for low income elderly and the disabled. I have seen how lives are changed by the volunteers who build handicap access ramps, repair plumbing, fix roof leaks, get appliances working, and a host of other chores. In every case the Mend-A-House client is treated with respect and left with a home that is safer, more secure, and more livable. The many hours I have spent volunteering for this fine organization are among the most satisfying experiences of my life.