Whether you're as skilled as Extreme Home Makeover's Ty Pennington or a novice with a paintbrush, your talents are needed during the annual Christmas in October.
Since 1984, Christmas in October has grown from the grassroots effort of a handful of volunteers tackling 20 homes in the area. Each hundreds of city wide organizations working on 400 homes throughout the Kansas City metro. In addition to helping homeowners, the program encourages volunteers to:
- Become more familiar and connected with neighborhoods they might not otherwise have reason to visit
- Build better relationships with other volunteers and the residents of those neighborhoods
- Contribute to the community in a very direct and positive way
This year's event is Saturday, October 9th and volunteers from The University of Kansas Health System and University of Kansas Medical Center will work on homes near the Kansas City campus, starting at 8:00 a.m. until about 3 p.m.
As with all things 2021, this year’s CIO event will be a little different: Volunteer groups will be limited to smaller groups of people, masking will be required, and all the work will be outdoors to allow for distancing. Work will include exterior painting, caulking, cleaning gutters, installing outdoor handrails, clearing brush, trimming trees and removing trash.
Homeowners, are usually elderly, disabled, veterans, and/or low-income so they are unable to do the work on their own. We will also have some teams working on general clearing of brush and trash pickup throughout Rosedale. CIO's goal is to assist our campus neighbors in whatever way possible during this very trying time. The result is not just a better home but a restored faith in community and hope.
If interested, email Deana Wilhoite at dwilhoite@kumc.edu for the sign up link.