Elderly Get Some Help Around the House From Volunteers

The last time 96-year-old Ethel Mitchell gave her small, two-bedroom Santa Ana house a spring cleaning was about 20 years ago, before her husband died and her back gave out.

The last time she had running hot water was two or three years ago. She’s been boiling water in a teakettle.

Saturday, about 30 volunteers dropped by to fix all that. They scraped the old paint from the interior walls and added a new coat of her favorite shade of pink. They changed the faucets. And they added a water heater and a new toilet.

It was all part of a daylong, nationwide effort to help refurbish the homes and community facilities of the elderly and disabled.

“Nobody ever did anything like that for me,” Mitchell said as she sat in a patio chair watching the crew.

“It means a lot to me to have it cleaned, because I haven’t done it since I’ve been here.”

The effort was organized by Christmas in April USA, established in Washington in 1983.

On Saturday, an estimated 62,000 volunteers in 40 different cities were expected to spruce up about 2,400 homes and senior centers, said Lynne Frimond, a spokeswoman for the project in Orange County.

This is the second year that Orange County has participated. About 800 volunteers helped out at 23 sites in Santa Ana, La Habra, Costa Mesa and San Clemente.

At Ethel Mitchell’s home, several workers carried her furniture out to the front lawn to make the painting easier. A few climbed ladders outdoors to add a new roof.

At the Senior Citizens Club in Santa Ana, others replaced light bulbs with bigger and stronger fixtures.

Asked why they would do the work, the volunteers’ answers were short.

“I would like to think that when I’m 96 someone will do something like this for me,” said Barry Pate, a 39-year-old contract manager, his paintbrush in hand.

Electrician Dan Johnson, 55, drilled a hole into the ceiling at the seniors’ club and said, “Because we care.”