PEA RIDGE — Helping the community help the community, Jan Skopecek, executive director of Rebuilding Northwest Arkansas, met with city leaders to begin a project in Pea Ridge.
“The mayor and I have been talking about this for about a year and a half - we need to restorethe community helping the community,” Skopecek said. “This is also for our children, many of them have not been involved in community projects. Many of them have no concept what true community means.”
Speaking to civic leaders last week, Skopecek shared several stories of rebuilding events andthe impact it had, not only on the residents who were helped, but on the people helping with the rebuilds.
Rebuilding Together of Northwest Arkansas receives grant money as well as donations of materials.
They rely on volunteer labor from skilled tradesmen as well as community members.
“We will have our own little private extreme home makeover,” Skopecek said.
Mayor Jackie Crabtree and Skopecek asked for referrals of residents and homes in need of assistance. Skopecek said pastors, firefighters and police are often aware of needs because of their involvement in the community.
“It’s a day of celebrating, of everyone coming together,” she said, addingthat sometimes several houses in a neighborhood can be worked on at one time. “It becomes a community project. There’s pride in raising a level in a neighborhood. It resounds throughout town - it becomes something everybody enjoys doing.”
“It gives particularly everyone a chance to work - Cub Scouts, children from churches - all find a wayto help. It takes all of us together to make something like this work,” she said.
The tasks have ranged from putting siding on a house, roofing a house, putting in new windows to renovating a bathroom to make it handicap accessible.
The mayor asked that anyone with recommendations of a residence in need contact City Hall.
News, Pages 1 on 02/15/2012