OXNARD : GE Employees Make Facility a Reality

More than 60 employees of GE Plastics in Oxnard lent their time and energies to help transform a run-down ranch house in Oxnard into the Rainbow House, a temporary home for women recovering from alcohol or drug abuse.

The house on 77 acres near Oxnard College will open next month as a 10-bed recovery center, said Pat Williams, program director of the Oxnard Rainbow Recovery Center.

“All the windows had to be replaced, as well as the floors and sinks,” she said.

The property, once owned by the Petit family, is now owned by Ventura County Recreation Services, which leases the property to the Rainbow Recovery Center. In another house on the tract, the center operates a primary treatment facility for women still dependent on alcohol or drugs.

General Electric employees began working on the house three weeks ago, after the center’s appeal for help.

“We did not have the funds to do the work that GE did,” Williams said. Although most of the materials and equipment was donated, the Rainbow House was saved the cost of labor.

The workers donated their time as part of GE’s “Share the Gain” program.

“It is a program to put back into the community what we get out of it,” said Conrad Conway, administrative manager at GE.

The workers helped in roofing and repainting the five-bedroom, two-story house, and donated $1,000 for carpeting.

“In one day, we completely landscaped, put in new countertops and built a porch,” said Cliff Guenther, a GE technician who also holds a general contractor’s license. “We even planted fruit trees and mowed the grass,” said Guenther, who returned on his day off Monday to work on the plumbing and finish the counters.

The Rainbow House, at 1800 E. Channel Islands Blvd., will provide shelter for up to one year for women who have completed an alcohol or drug program, said Sheree Flangel, administrative assistant for the recovery center.

The so-called graduation house provides an essential step for women trying to re-enter society, she said.

“Women who enter the graduation house will need to be employed, they need to be taking responsibility for their recovery and they need to show progress,” she said.