Volunteers Pitch In to Spruce Up Gymnasium : * Renovation: Latino and Chinese residents find a common goal in giving a San Gabriel community center a needed face lift.

Inside a dusty, dank gymnasium, a chorus of workers speaking English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish can barely communicate. But the sound of ringing buzz saws and pounding hammers--their common language--is all that matters these days at La Casa de San Gabriel Community Center.

The volunteers--contractors and construction workers from the Latino and Chinese communities that make up 68% of San Gabriel’s population--are pitching in to renovate the center’s 45-year-old gym. The gym is home to a variety of programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous and the federally funded Women and Infant Children program. It also is used for after-school tutoring, and on Sundays by a small church.

“The workers can’t talk to each other,” said Jim Castaneda, a San Gabriel city councilman and contractor who helped organize the all-volunteer project. “But they are getting the job done.”

The job includes insulating the building, lowering its 20-foot ceiling, putting on a new roof, installing an air-conditioning and heating system, putting in new lights, adding a new floor and carpeting, and giving the room a fresh coat of paint.

“We are living here, we do business here and we are happy to give something back to the people in San Gabriel,” said Frank Lac. With his brother, Steve, he is installing ceiling tiles that they have donated from their construction firm. “And we can afford to do it,” Lac added.

Lac, who runs Rocky Construction, said that when he first saw the gym, it looked so bad that it was hard to believe people actually met there.

“The gym has concrete floors, broken windows and is dark and dingy,” said Cheryl Prentice, executive director of the community center. “It’s cold in the winter and sweltering in the summer.”

According to social workers and volunteers at the center, the renovation is overdue. “I’ve been on this board for 15 years, and when I started they were talking about fixing up the gym,” Maria Nunez said. “We just never had the money.”

The center operates on a $120,000 yearly budget and is a nonprofit organization that is sponsored, in part, by the Presbyterian Church and United Way. Castaneda estimates that when the job is finished, volunteers will have donated about $25,000 in cash, materials and labor.

“I just wanted to help out,” said Manuel Marquez, who normally does finishing work but who agreed to help put up drywall panels on a recent Saturday. “It’s no big deal.”

Still, to the people of San Gabriel, it is a big deal. “It won’t take much to get the job done,” explained Jerardo Castaneda, who was recruited by his brother to oversee the project. “But it will make a big difference to a lot of people.”