Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

BY ABBY NADEAU
Forest Lake Times

August 16, 2006

After seven or eight months of waiting and wondering, Joanne Bess of Forest Lake received the phone call she was waiting for.

She was accepted.

Bess was accepted to received free home repairs from a group called A Brush With Kindness.

An off set of Habitat for Humanity, A Brush With Kindness helps people who cannot afford to pay for small repairs, or physically cannot make the repairs themselves.

For Bess, who works part-time for Forest Lake Chiropractics, it was exactly what she needed.

Bess’ husband, Bob Bess, has been gone for 15 years and with two bad knees, Bess could do little to keep up with her home.

“Being surrounded by mansions, I didn’t want to be the ugly duckling,” Bess said.

However, being the ugly duckling wasn’t her only concern.

The steps going into Bess’ main doorway, had rotted away, making her climb a steep concrete incline to get into her home.

With two unhealthy knees, the climb was not making her life any easier.

When Bess heard about A Brush With Kindness through a news story, she called them up and got an application.

Helping Out

When Bess called, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, in East Bethel, answered.

Our Saviour’s Church received a call that a local Forest Lake woman was looking for help with her home in Forest Lake.

The church asked volunteers to sign up for different days to help with the repairs and to make food for those who did volunteer.

“This is our fourth year with a Brush With Kindness,” said Lloyd Packer, a volunteer at Bess’ house. “They match us up with a house. We mostly do minor repairs and exterior painting.”

Linda Haasl, Mike Gabrick, Karen Bermel, Lois Podoll, Jim Nelson and Packer, were just some of the volunteers at Bess’ house last week.

The groups of volunteers are usually at a house for five days and roughly six to nine people, of all ages, work at the house a day.

The groups started out powerwashing Bess’ aluminum siding, then they moved on to to painting and fixing windows, the garage and the porch steps.

Packer said the church donates all the food for the event and the labor, but then Habitat for Humanity chips in for the lumber and miscellaneous materials.

The local Sherwin Williams Store, off of West Broadway, even helped the crew with re-tinting the paint that turned out to be the wrong color.

With all the help that has been brought her way, Bess is finding it hard to comprehend her appreciation.