Paint-A-Thon kicks off 31st year of service project
Lakewood Councilman Tom Quinn joins the Brothers Redevelopment volunteer project.
EDGEWATER – With brushes in hand, elected officials from seven metro area communities kicked off the 2009 Brothers Redevelopment Inc. Paint-A-Thon Tuesday and, by summer’s end, more than 100 houses will sport fresh paint courtesy of the program.
Lakewood City Councilman Tom Quinn wielded one of those paint brushes, starting the primer coat on the house of Walter Shipman, a senior citizen who lives just a couple of blocks from Brothers’ headquarters in Edgewater.
“This organization really does a great thing for the community by painting houses for low-income seniors. That improves the quality of our neighborhoods and helps out low-income people,” Quinn said. “It’s something the City wants to be supporting as much as possible.”
Since 1978, the BRI project and its volunteer force have painted more than 6,400 homes across the state. In 2008, the effort saved recipients more than $375,000 in home maintenance thanks to an estimated $211,000 in volunteers’ time.
To apply for the program, income-eligible recipients must be at least 60-years-old and live in a home no taller than 1½ stories.
The painting, which is free to the recipients, would cost about $5,000 if the work were done by a commercial house painter. The typical Paint-A-Thon recipient is 74-years-old and lives on a fixed income of about $1,300 a month.
This summer’s project will include houses in Lakewood, Aurora, Arvada, Brighton, Centennial, Colorado Springs, Commerce City, Denver, Edgewater, Englewood, federal Heights, Greenwood Village, Highlands Ranch, Hudson, Littleton, Longmont, Loveland, Northglenn, Pueblo, Thornton, Westminster, Wheat Ridge and unincorporated Adams County.
That wide focus of the group promotes a sense of a wider community, Quinn said.
“We have to look at things from a regional perspective. No single community can do everything by itself. So we need to keep a regional perspective on things like redevelopment,” Quinn said.
Volunteers come from all sectors of the community, including church groups, corporations, government agencies, civic groups, and professional and service organizations.
BRI has sponsored the Paint-A-Thon for 31 years, leaning on sponsorships by FirstBank, Diamond Vogel Paints, the Mountain West Sports Network, Studio 14 KEZW-AM radio and Comcast. Other event contributors include American Family Insurance, City of Aurora’s Channel 8, the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, Denver Employees Volunteer Opportunities the City of Westminster and United Power.
To volunteer or to apply, contact Brothers Development through their Website or call (303) 202-6340.
