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DARTMOUTH — It was a beautiful Saturday morning on Oct. 19, as over 20 volunteers from various local organizations gathered at a house in Dartmouth with paint brushes and supplies in hand.
However, this was not just any ordinary house painting project.
Part of Buzzards Bay Area Habitat for Humanity’s program Brush with Kindness, the organization worked alongside Coastline Elderly Service, Coastal Neighbors Network and the South Dartmouth Congregational Church to repaint a house for a woman at risk of losing her homeowners insurance.
“We are all coming together to help her, we’ve been working on getting it prepped, and today we’re going to start the painting,” said Christine Lacourse, executive director of Buzzards Bay Area Habitat for Humanity.
“They power washed it, they scraped it, sanded it. Now we will be staining it and doing some trim work.”
Lacourse said it has been a great collaboration project for her organization, especially seeing all the volunteers coming out on a weekend day to help someone in need.
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“This program is for low-income homeowners, under the 60% median income of the town, that’s how this particular was selected,” she said, adding that just in 2024, they’ve participated in three brush with kindness programs.
The organization also installs handicap ramps.
“We have three applications waiting for review for ramps, and a couple more smaller brush with kindness projects ahead,” Lacourse added.
Andrew Pollock, executive director of Coastal Neighbors Network, said he knew about the homeowner and her desperate need for her house to be repainted.
“We connected her with Habitat for Humanity,” he said. “Then the other organization joined us to help… it’s great to see the community around her come to help.”
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Deborah Weinstein, a volunteer from the congregational church, said has been finding ways to give back to the community since retiring.
“When you lend a helping hand, it makes everybody happy,” she said.
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Stuart Brown said he had the chance to meet the homeowner right after her husband had passed away.
“She is an incredible woman that is just pushing through and it feels so great to be able to help her,” he said. “Keeping people in their homes is just a wonderful thing to do.”
Brown said he has been volunteering with Coastal Neighbors for four years. He hopes others will hear stories such as these to interest them into volunteering, too.
“You decide how much you want to jump in,” he said. “You pick what you want to get involved in and what you don’t, and you can jump in with both feet, or you can just be very, very slow and easy because we appreciate any help.”
Zach Boyer, planning director of Coastline, was also alongside volunteers staining the front of the house. “I love to see everyone coming out to support a good cause and help the community,” he said.
“We’re always here and happy to help out.”
Standard-Times staff writer Seth Chitwood can be reached at [email protected]. Find out more about him at sethchitwood.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.
