DENVER, Colo. — More than two dozen volunteers came to the aid of an 82-year-old woman on Thursday to replace the roof of the home where she has lived for 77 years.
Louise Saindon has made a lot of memories in the nearly eight decades she’s lived in her home in Sloan’s Lake.
"It’s been a while. I’ve lived here for 77 years. I moved here when I was five," Saindon said.
Like any old home, it needed an upgrade.
"For years, I’ve just been seeing her house over here every time it snows, and the first thing I do is make sure her roof is still standing," said neighbor Marsha Cannady.
Cannady knew the 82-year-old woman needed help.
"Investors move in and different people move in. I feel like some of the old neighbors get moved out and they just need help sometimes. I just didn’t want her to get kicked out of the neighborhood. She’s been here for 77 years, she deserves to be here," she said.
Cannady calledExpert Exteriors. Ron Harrison answered.
"Everybody is buying up the neighborhood and she doesn’t wanna go anywhere. I like that," said Harrison.
Harrison brought a crew of about two-dozen employees, like Chris Acevedo, who put in a full day's work for free.
"We are giving back and I actually want to be part of this, so I want to take part of my time, my personal time, to make sure they get a roof," Acevedo said of volunteering.
Between replacing the roof, gutters, and even pulling four-foot weeds from Saindon's front yard, the work still took only a day.
"It’s something that you can’t express into words, really," said Saindon.
There were a lot of moving pieces for the plan to work out. But there’s one part of the puzzle Harrison regrets he can’t finish — a part of the house that Saindon holds close to her heart, the front porch, and specifically the archway above it.
"Ever since I was a little girl," continues Saindon, "I was afraid of the dark, yet I would go out and I would sit right there underneath this on the porch."
The archway she loved so much rotted away decades ago, never to be replicated. With help, Harrison hopes to change that soon.
"I have pictures of what it originally looked like and if anybody is skilled enough to be able to do that, it would bless her whole world," said Harrison to anyone willing to volunteer.
Even without it, the work Thursday means more to Saindon than these volunteers may ever know.
"I asked her how she was doing and she said, 'They’re helping me make new memories,' and I love that," said Cannady.
If you'd like to help re-build the archway for the front of Saindon's home, please call Ron Harrison at (720) 385-5590.
This story was originally published by Gary Brode at KMGH.
