Audrey Shewl beamed appreciatively as 29 strangers swarmed into practically every nook and cranny of her home in San Francisco’s Ingleside District.
They were in her backyard, under her house and even in her bathroom.
“Look at all of this,” said the 62-year-old woman, shaking her head in wonder.
“This” was the annual “Rebuilding Together” weekend — formerly “Christmas in April” — when a quarter-million volunteers repaired some 8,000 homes and community centers nationwide. In the East Bay, the Sunday project was called “Sukkot in April.”
Shewl’s home of 40 years was one of 10 sites on both sides of the Bay selected for work on Sunday by crews of largely Jewish volunteers. Some 300 people in San Francisco, and another 250 in Oakland, Berkeley and Lafayette tackled the projects at private homes and community-based agencies.
“It’s entering someone’s life and seeing what the need is and making a difference,” said Rachel Kesselman, director of volunteer services for S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services and an event coordinator. Volunteers from JFCS, Brandeis Hillel Day School and other Jewish groups participated in the San Francisco projects, many of which were focused on health and safety needs.
At Shewl’s home, a high-spirited crew replaced a rotting back deck, installed safety bars in the bathroom, tidied up the backyard and cleaned out piles of unwanted belongings in the basement.
“Your blessings will come back to you,” observed Shewl, who volunteers herself to feed the hungry every Thursday at Third Baptist Church, where she is a congregant. A former San Francisco sheriff’s deputy, Shewl retired in 1987 on disability and suffers from health problems.
“I never knew when I was going to need somebody and sure enough,” said Shewl, who acknowledged that it was “very difficult” to ask for help.
The volunteers spread around her house for the day said they were only too happy to oblige.
“It feels good,” said George Schapiro, a Peninsula Temple Beth El congregant who spent part of the morning buzzing down grass in Shewl’s backyard.
Nearby, house captain Cy Lo, a general contractor, generated some sheepish grins when he informed three ditch-diggers that they had been unintentionally overzealous in their efforts to dig post holes for a new back fence.
“You can stop now,” he said gently, noting that instead of a trench, all that was needed was a single hole.
The trio quickly began refilling the 2-foot deep ditch with shovels of dirt.
One of the three, 15-year-old Grant Liffmann, observed that his reward is seeing the appreciation on a client’s face at the end of the day. “They’re pretty happy,” said Liffmann, a Burlingame High School student who has participated with his family for several years.
Lo estimated that the makeover at Shewl’s house would have cost about $10,000. “I have the best crew because we’ve been together for four years,” he boasted.
“We can just help change lives,” he added.
It was a similar story at a home just east of the Oakland International Airport, where volunteers fanned out to paint the interior and build a wheelchair ramp for 77-year-old Estelle Saine, a retired nurse’s aide who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis.
By noon, a squad of teenage and adult workers managed to finish painting three bedrooms, the living room and hall, said coordinator David Boniske, a member of Berkeley’s Kehilla Community Synagogue.
“It was elbow to elbow,” Boniske said, noting that, “with all that, there wasn’t a spill.”
Overall in the East Bay, crews from some 12 synagogues and Jewish agencies worked at three homes along with two centers serving the disabled. The fourth annual “Sukkot in April” event was coordinated by the Volunteer Action Center of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.
While Saine left the house for the day, her grown daughters came to watch and help. Daughter Wanda Saine of Oakland said she was so impressed by the efforts that she might sign up as a volunteer herself. “Maybe I can help someone else.”
Outside, Julie Cohen, a 43-year-old carpenter turned full-time mother, was working on the new ramp, putting in deck screws with an electric drill. She said she was emotionally touched by the idea that Estelle Saine, who uses a wheelchair, soon would be able to get of the house on her own.
“If my skills can help someone get out of the house…I think this is what this is all about,” said Cohen, a Pleasant Hill resident who recently joined Oakland’s Temple Beth Abraham.