By Steve Martarano | Solving Sacramento

  • Volunteer representatives with Blue Shield of California at Saint Paul Church get ready to go to their work site before the 7th annual Habitat for Humanity’s Rock the Block in Oak Park on May 3. Nearly 400 volunteers put in an estimated 3,000 volunteer hours during the two-day event, working on 15 home repair projects and five community projects. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Volunteers go through stretching exercises at Saint Paul Church before heading out to their work projects at the 7th annual Habitat for Humanity’s Rock the Block in Oak Park on May 3. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Volunteers receive instructions outside Saint Paul Church in Oak Park on May 3. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Rock the Block volunteers help clean up a 9th Avenue Oak Park home on May 3. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Karen Wittke, 10-year homeowner of a 9th Avenue home that is one of the 15 home repair projects in this year’s Rock the Block event, assists volunteers on May 3. “I’m so blessed and happy,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to get this work done for a long time.” (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Rock the Block volunteers paint the exterior of a Bonniemae Way home in Oak Park on May 3. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Nearly 400 volunteers put in an estimated 3,000 volunteer hours during the two-day event, working on 15 home repair projects and five community projects. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Dwight White, a City of Sacramento employee, helps install fencing at a house on 37th Street on May 3, one of the 15 home repair projects during Habitat for Humanity’s Rock the Block in Oak Park May 3-4. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • City of Sacramento employees Dwight White (left) and Josef Gray (right) work in the backyard at a house on 37th Street on May 3. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Volunteers help install a fence that was damaged in recent storms at a house on 37th Street on May 3. (Photo by Steve Martarano)
  • Homeowner Jefferey Walton in front of his home on 37th Street in Oak Park that received about $50,000 in repair work done by Rock the Block volunteers, which included replacing the home’s roof, installing a new sewer system and replacing a fence damaged in recent storms. (Photo by Steve Martarano)

Jeffery Walton points to the newly replaced roof at his 37th Street Oak Park home and then praises the dozen volunteers with Rock the Block working in his backyard building a fence.

“It’s a blessing,” Walton says, referring to the work done on his house over the past week which included replacing the roof, installing a new sewer system and replacing a fence damaged in recent storms, work that he estimated would have cost him around $50,000. A new solar system is planned as well. “I was going to have to use all my retirement just to fix this.”

Walton’s wife, Iris, who is disabled, grew up in the house, he said, and she has lived there on and off since she was six. The home was one of 15 homes — 20 total project sites — in Oak Park repaired by 400 community volunteers during the seventh annual Rock the Block event May 3-4, hosted by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Sacramento.

“This is one of my favorite things that we do all year long,” Leah Miller, Habitat for Humanity Greater Sacramento president and CEO, said in welcoming remarks on May 3. She said that during the past seven years, over 4,000 volunteers have put in more than 25,000 volunteer hours — 3,000 hours this year alone — totaling around $3 million on home repairs for the underserved Oak Park community

Each day’s volunteers, wearing neon yellow Rock the Block shirts, gathered at Saint Paul Church on 14th Avenue and received their assignments before dispersing to their job sites for the day, working up until almost 4 p.m. Work included landscaping, roof replacement, yard cleanup, external painting, gutter cleaning and pest abatement, and continued through the rain on May 4. 

This year’s presenting sponsor was the City of Sacramento, along with SMUD, Sacramento Impact Partners, the Sacramento Promise Zone, and another 30 sponsors and community partners. Together, according to Habitat for Humanity, total contributions exceeded $400,000, supporting this year’s initiative aimed at serving low-income families and seniors in the Oak Park neighborhood.

Meanwhile, applications are being accepted until June 3 for West Sacramento’s version of Rock the Block, scheduled for October 11-12 in the Bryte/Broderick communities.

This story is part of the Solving Sacramento journalism collaborative. Solving Sacramento is supported by funding from the James Irvine Foundation and the James B. McClatchy Foundation. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19.