Neither wind nor sleet nor hail can keep Brookline's dedicated volunteers away!
Submitted by Gwen on Mon, 12/21/2009 - 11:17am
Volunteers Tricia Marks & Jesse Mermell help dig out the dirt floor basement as 40 Webster Place gets weatherized.
On Saturday, December 19, with a chilly pre-storm wind to keep us focused, volunteers continued to weatherize 40 Webster Place. In the basement, Tommy Vitolo, John Manaras, Jesse Mermell, George Cuddy, Tricia Marks, Paul Epstein & The Hawks dug a drainage trench around the interior perimeter, lifting out bucketfuls of dirt hand-over-hand. They insulated heat pipes, sprayed foam in crevices and installed drain piping. Lead with great skill from Jim Lockwood, the volunteers suspended two furnaces from the ceiling; this will allow the new concrete floor to be poured properly around and beneath them. Plasterer Kevin patched holes in the ceiling.
Upstairs, Seth Barrett re-glazed and re-set more windows, with his assistant Kristina. Trustee Tom Mendelsohn did a heroic Home Depot run, then helped with windows. Trustee Judith Kidd worked indoors and out, picking up trash in the yard, then delicately cleaning the newly glazed double-hungs.
We enjoyed a visit from TAB reported Neal Simpson and photographer Mark Thompson. Look for a story soon on http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/ (it's not up yet).
Many thanks to our tireless and dedicated volunteers, to our Trustees for meeting the matching grant challenge, and to these business for their continued support:
Green Guild
Village Green Renewal
Connelly Hardware
Save That Stuff
WL Grant
Michael Peering Landscape Collaborative
Here's a link to the latest installment of photos, and access to all the old ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40474299@N07/
We're looking at January 24 for our next WeAc and would love to see you here! For more info on this effort, to participate as a volunteer, or to make a donation to the WeAc fund, please contact:
Gwen Ossenfort
Brookline Community Foundation
40 Webster Place
Brookline Village, MA 02445
617-566-4442
find info also on www.YourBrookline.org
What amazing dedication!
Thank you all for coming out to help. In one fell swoop, your volunteerism helped several local non profits at once. 40 Webster Place is home to Brookline Community Foundation, Brookline Education Foundation, PALS Children's Chorus, some activities of the Brookline Community Mental Health Center, and....the garden provides fresh food for the Brookline Emergency Food Pantry in the spring and summer. The conference room is also used by many local groups for meetings at little or no cost - so the work might have been dirty and tedious, put it could not be more appreciated!