Another Letter to the Editor

April 29, 2015

Hello again Muscatine,
I get to write another letter to the editor of The Muscatine Journal. This one is to tell everyone what a great bunch of people showed up Saturday, in the rain to volunteer to help with the projects planned by Rebuilding Together Muscatine County. If it had not rained we were going to tear off and replace siding, put in a sidewalk, and all the homes we work on get some gardening, these were the projects that did not happen.
Painting inside one home did happen; a deck was torn off and rebuilt in the rain, a new bathroom was put into the Miracles Can Happen Boys Ranch by some of the men on the Muscatine Police Force. A crew that was planning to tear out and replace a bathroom floor and a kitchen floor and build a front porch and ramp postponed these jobs to Sunday and instead went to Wapello and put in a handrail for a senior man so he can get up and down the stairs safely.
The volunteers of this community continue to amaze me. With the crews on Friday and the ones that came in the rain on Saturday we had 110 people come together to help where they could. As we gathered in our building to start the day I heard no grumbling or complaining only questions of what we will do instead of what was planned. Again they stepped up and did what could be done in less than favorable conditions. The gardeners came back yesterday and finished what the rain prevented them from getting done on Saturday.
KWPC AM 860 and 95.1 FM Radio with Millie in the morning and I can’t forget the Tony Tone Show were very supportive and made several announcements about National Rebuilding Day and I am sure that is where a lot of the volunteers heard about us. The lunch was provided by the Pizza Ranch which is always a good place to eat.
Rebuilding Together is reminiscent of the old barn raisings that took place before pole barns came along. A neighbor needed a barn and his neighbors would get together and help him build one. RTMC pulls people together that have never met to go and help a family or a widow lady that they have never seen. The feeling at the end of the day is tired to your bones but a feeling in your heart that you know you did something that will make someone safe and warm and they will know some people care about them, they are not alone.
Again, thank you to all who came to help and simply got things done because as we say here “It Just Needs Done”
Frank Iliff
Executive Director
Rebuilding Together Muscatine County
1424 B Houser Street
Muscatine, Iowa 52761

Leadership Muscatine Class of 2007