How'd you like to do something that would help a neighbor and at the same time really improve the community?

If you could you spare an afternoon or even a couple of hours you could make a difference by getting involved in A Brush With Kindness, says Connie Swain, executive director of the Brookings Area Habitat for Humanity.

iginally a home painting project introduced by Habitat, A Brush With Kindness is growing. In order to better serve the Brookings area, Swain says, Habitat for Humanity has now extended its partnership to older and low-income homeowners who are in need of a variety of exterior home projects.

A Brush With Kindness can now provide those repairs at low or no cost to qualifying homeowners. Repairs include but aren't limited to painting, landscaping , roof repairs, fixing broken windows and doors, and repairing loose siding, rotting soffits, fascia and missing shingles .

"A Brush With Kindness will renew neighborhoods and help ensure that our Brookings County families are living in safe and well-maintained homes," Swain explained. "This program will keep homeowners in their homes, protect their financial investments and restore homeowners' dignity and pride of homeownership."

A Brush With Kindness is currently seeking volunteers and sponsors who want to live out their values by helping a homeowner in need.
 

United Retirement Center employees scrape and paint one of the first homes to participate in A Brush With Kindness when it was launched in Brookings last year. This year, 23 homeowners have asked to participate in the paint-up , fix-up program, which is a part of the work of Brookings Area Habitat for Humanity.