Genevieve Garcia was lying in a hospital bed last November when she finally took Blanca Cinco’s advice and asked Rebuilding Together for help.
Garcia and her husband Eutimio had bought their modest single-story house on Burgoyne Street 42 years ago, when that was something farm workers could still afford to do.
Initially, the couple picked cherries in Saratoga. Eutimio later got a job as a tar and gravel worker. Genevieve worked for the elementary school district as a special education aide, where she met Cinco.
But as housing prices skyrocketed, the Garcias’ fixed income left them unable to pay for needed repairs to the aging house. The heater broke in the early 1990s. The walls lacked insulation. Dry rot and termites were attacking the foundation.
“The house was one step away from a bulldozer,” said Steve Nyberg, superintendent of Venture Builders and construction captain for a project that would change their fate.
For several years, Cinco, the director of the city’s community outreach program, had encouraged Genevieve to apply to Rebuilding Together, a nationwide program that uses local volunteers to do free renovations for poorer homeowners and nonprofits. Genevieve said she did not need the help.
Her perspective changed when diabetes landed her in the hospital and confined her to a walker too big to fit through many of the doorways in the aging house.
Genevieve’s prayers were eventually answered, and the results were on display recently at the unveiling of their home — renovated with new windows and doors and stocked with furniture and appliances from local businesses all over town.
Anna Olmos, who had taken in her parents for the last month, drove Genevieve and Eutimio back to their home. Friends, neighbors, volunteers and members of the media waited behind a row of fire trucks to surprise the couple. Father John Fitzpatrick from St. Athanasius Church blessed the house as the visibly moved couple hugged everyone in sight.
“Even before they moved [the trucks], I started to cry,” said Genevieve, who had never been away from her home so long.
Rebuilding Together’s local president, Loretta Gallegos, said the Garcia’s home was one of the most extensive renovations the group has ever done. She estimated the renovations had a fair market value of more than $30,000 and credited the Mountain View firefighters for their work in getting local businesses to contribute.
The firefighters volunteer every year with Rebuilding Together. At one point this year, so many firefighters showed up after their shifts that some had to be turned away. Intuit and Venture Builders also contributed many hours of volunteer work.
“Once people heard what we were doing, it started to snowball,” said fire union president John Miguel, who was in charge of raising donations.
Gazing at her newly constructed kitchen four days after her 72nd birthday, Genevieve Garcia said, “I didn’t expect all this. … It’s like a miracle.” In the other room, her husband could not stop smiling.
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com
