‘Big improvements’

Mary Cassady remembered sitting inside her Newton home some time after her husband died less than a month ago and thinking to herself, “Oh, God. How am I going to get all of this fixed?”

The house had been in disrepair since Cassady moved in more than five years ago. Devoting most of her time to taking care of her husband day in and day out, she said the couple had little to no time to fix up the place. In fact, just three weeks before his April 15 death, Cassady’s husband had his leg amputated due to complications from diabetes and his failing kidneys. There was no “free time.”

Now, almost four weeks later, while Cassady is wandering around the exterior of her home wearing a white hardhat with a piece of blue tape on the back with her name written on it Thursday morning, a crew of men and women are taking care of those laborious home improvement tasks that were put aside.

Cassady smiled when she saw just how fast the Jasper County Habitat for Humanity team and their volunteers were moving along with the project, and she was noticing almost immediate changes to the home in just a few hours.

"I should take a picture of the before and after," Cassady said with a laugh. "It's lookin' good!"

Jasper County Habitat for Humanity’s first Rock the Block event of the year was in full force. Rock the Block is a flagship program of Habitat for Humanity that assists low-income families with much needed home “repair, maintenance, weatherization, safety, accessibility and beautification,” according to the local philanthropy’s website.

The Jasper County-based group recently re-formed after a brief hiatus when it was known as Mid-Iowa Habitat for Humanity. Jasper County now serves as an affiliate to Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity alongside Dallas and Polk Counties.

Students from Newton High School had even pitched in to speed up the progress of Cassady’s home. With just about every tool at their disposal, students were thrown into the thick of it to rip out nails, pound away decaying wood and cut worn out fencing with buzzsaws.

Meanwhile, a handful of other students and Habitat for Humanity representatives took turns throwing away junk and old furniture into a giant metal receptacle. Jake Ross, of Habitat for Humanity, and senior Nathan Simon were red in the face as they lifted a couch above their heads and tossed the thing into the dumpster.

Sophomore Devin Lamb and juniors Reece Annee and Jace Callahan were getting their hands dirty working along the front exterior of the Newton home for most of the early morning. It was a chilly day for home improvement work. The students could see their breath as they took out screws and removed debris from the house.

Despite the cold temperatures, the guys were still more than happy to help.

“This is really fun,” Callahan said. “Really! I enjoy this. Honestly, I wish I could stay here all day.”

Annee added, “Try it once. It’s a really good experience and it’s pretty fun. You’re helping somebody out. I’m familiar with trades but I’m just out here having a good time with friends.”

Bruce Showalter, chair of the steering committee for Jasper County Habitat for Humanity, was at a second Rock the Block site in Newton with other volunteers, including Mayor Mike Hansen. Pleased with the progress made at both homes, Showalter said there were enough jobs at both houses to keep volunteers busy throughout the day.

Volunteers of all experience levels are welcome to Rock the Block events, Showalter added. On Thursday, he learned contractors had taken the day off to volunteer their expertise to in-need homes, but he expected there were some workers who had very little experience repairing homes that morning.

“Most people know what they’ll be getting into though,” Showalter said. “They’ll either be painting or cleaning up yards or doing some manual tasks that maybe some older people can’t do on their own.”

While crews worked to repair the in-need areas of the Newton homes, Showalter said at least two or three of the neighbors peeked around to see what was going on. This is intentional as it gives exposure to Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to improve communities.

“I was pretty happy with what was going on,” Showalter said. “A couple houses are going to get some big improvements … These are projects that probably wouldn’t get done otherwise. If we weren’t involved with these houses and these people, these houses would just continue to get worse.

“This extends the possibility of them staying in their home for a longer period of time, especially if we’re putting in ramps and grab bars for the toilets and things like that. That really helps them and the longevity that they’re in their house, which I think is a pretty good thing to do.”

Jasper County Habitat for Humanity’s Rock the Block will continue Friday. The next Rock the Block event planned in Jasper County will take place late August in Colfax.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com