What a difference we’re making for Mrs. Trimble, our first Adopt-A-Home recipient!  We had 16  volunteers come to her house on Friday and Saturday to help take care of her house.  We enjoyed lots of laughs, and we accomplished a great deal.  Volunteers showed up to help with painting, yard work and window cleaning.  Let’s take a look at some of the photos:

Michelle Burke and Judy Beard team up to tackle one of the big front windows:

Lisa Norman, showing no fear of heights, took on the highest jobs and has volunteered to lead a team on a future Adopt-A-Home project (check back for more info on that as it becomes available):

You may remember our intrepid Bruce Gustafson venturing out last time to find gas so he could mow the lawn.  Well, he showed up to mow the lawn again; no small feat with all the growth thanks to the tremendous  rainfall we’ve had!

Here I am keeping everyone working and laughing.  It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it:

Again thanks to the rainfall we’ve been seeing, the hedges have had a growth spurt.  Never fear, Hank Buschmann is there to trim them back and get them under control:

It’s fantastic when new people join the Universal Lending family, but we really appreciate it when they embrace our causes and show up to lend a hand or two!  Cathy Stroud, the new VP of Business Development, brought her son Jake, and together they scraped and primed one of the big windows.

Not to be undone, Dave Leonard worked inside the house.  He replaced the garbage disposal and fixed some leaky plumbing:

Kirk Rasmussen has only been on the job at ULC for one week, but he didn’t waste any time getting involved with Adopt-A-Home:

For us to be able to paint the windows, we needed to take down the security bars and storm windows.  Andy Jorgensen showed up with a full set of tools to get that project done:

Linda Pryor helped out and wasn’t afraid to get messy:

Sandy Levy finished up one of the windows in the sunshine on Saturday morning:

Paulette Wisch was looking glamorous, as always, while she scrubbed the windows:

Mark Seccombe was a little camera shy, but we got him to take a break from scraping long enough to snap this pic:

Here’s what our dedicated volunteers have accomplished in only a few hours:

• Cleaned up the yard, mowed the grass and raked out last year’s leaves.
• Hauled away large trash items.
• Cleaned the gutters.
• Painted the trim.
• Pulled up the torn outdoor carpeting on the front porch.
• Scraped, primed and painted the windows.

Mrs. Trimble has been so tremendously grateful for our help.  Her house looks terrific – she’s proud of it again, and her neighbors are pleased, too!

Next steps

Next month, we’ll focus on finishing the painting of the house, and we’ll begin with some simple landscaping with new grass, and adding borders and mulch.

Stay tuned for more news about future Adopt-A-Home projects and opportunities for our partners in the community to participate.

Thanks to our volunteers!  We got a lot of things accomplished, but there is always more to be done!

Mark your Calendar with these volunteer opportunities in 2009, and Sign up today.

July 10 & 11
August 7 & 8
September 11 & 12
October 2 & 3
November 6 & 7

Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m.
Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Mary Wells

Our first fundraiser, “Jeans Day,” was a huge hit, with $1,840 raised for Adopt-A-Home.

A total of 58 employees proudly wore jeans to work with a sticker that displayed their commitment to the Foundation.  Thanks to all of you who donated – especially those who purchased a “Jeans Day” on behalf of someone else.

Special Thanks

A very special thanks to the many ULC staffers who have gone way above and beyond to support Adopt-A-Home and help Mrs. Trimble.

• Rachel Cure donated $500 for landscaping.
• Robin Smith donated $250 for landscaping.

Energized by Rachel and Robin, the Wholesale Department has raised $1,060 for Adopt-A-Home.   The generous contributions have been designated for landscaping supplies that will make a huge difference in the appearance of Mrs. Trimble’s home.

Linda Pryor, another dedicated volunteer, has donated outdoor carpet and potted plants for the front porch, a new front door handle and new water hoses. 

The Reverse Mortgage Department has donated $500 for Mrs. Trimble’s home to be used for anything needed over the coming year.

And last but not least, many thanks to the leadership team at Universal Lending Corporation for pledging $3 for every closed loan to the Foundation.

Mary Wells

Our first Adopt-A-Home volunteer event last weekend was a huge success.  All the volunteers had a great time working on Mrs. Trimble’s house, with lots of laughs and some good exercise, too.  Most importantly, we left with a great sense of accomplishment after making Mrs. Trimble’s yard look great!

“This would have taken me all summer, and I still wouldn’t have gotten it done,” Said Mrs. Trimble.  With a wink, she said her nice looking yard would make her neighbors happy, too.

For those of you who weren’t able to join us and meet Mrs. Trimble, she has lived in her home in Park Hill for more than 40 years. She is 74 years old, and even though she has arthritis, she still works part time for Denver Public Schools as a food service assistant. She has not been physically able to do yard work and maintenance on her home for some time, so she greatly appreciated our help.

It was terrific to see so many of you make the time to volunteer even though it has been such a busy time for Universal Lending.

“Oh yeah, it’s been busy, but this stuff is important,” said Dave Leonard. “I’m a big believer in karma, and this is the kind of stuff you have to do.”

Dave and the other volunteers spent the afternoon clearing old furniture, tree stumps and trash from the backyard, cleaning gutters, raking and sweeping. They even pulled out a concrete stump from an old clothesline.

“The nice thing about this project is that you see the results really quickly,” said Carrie Goldman.

Bruce Gustafson finished up the day by going to the nearest gas station to fill up Mrs. Trimble’s lawnmower, then mowed the entire yard. Her yard looked terrific when we all left.

Thanks to the following volunteers from Universal Lending:

Joe Coughlin, Carrie Goldman, Lisa Norman, Michele Burke, Edna Gallagher, Dave Leonard, Bruce Gustafson, Pete Lansing, Susanne Lansing, Hank Buschmann, Patrick Hester, Peter Repka, Dana Smith

I’ll post more later, but wanted to get this out there for all to read.  We have more photos over at our Trimble Home Page if you’re interested.

Mary Wells