Rebuilding Together Greater Los Angeles first recipient is Alphonso Johnson, was born in Anniston Alabama in 1928. Mr. Johnson enlisted in the United States Army in 1943 and served in World War II until his term ended tragically in 1946. Mr. Johnson received a shrapnel blast to the face which resulted in deteriorating eye sight. Today, Mr. Johnson is legally blind.

After serving in the war, Mr. Johnson married Anna Walker and began a family which consisted of the all American boy and girl. They did not stop there. The Johnson family grew when Alphonso and Anna adopted Anna’s niece, after her mother passed away. Alphonso and Anna were happily married until Anna finally passed away from a long illness last June.

The Johnson’s bought their home in the late 60’s. Due to priorities such as putting all three kids through college, deferred maintenance occurred. The family also made their own modifications to the home to support their mother’s needs such as removing doors and moldings to accommodate her wheel chair. The Johnson’s were living with no heat and no hot water. They were willing to live with a hole in the kitchen floor because they just could not afford to fix it. Their daughter Deanna helped out where she could repairing the kitchen floor and buying a new washer and dryer set not knowing that the problem was really the plumbing…resulting in a burned out motor on the new machine.

Rebuilding Together Greater Los Angeles, with the help of Sares Regis Group and a grant from Sears were able to make all of the repairs needed to help Mr. Johnson live the rest of his days in warmth, safety and with greater accessibility when his health requires the use of a wheel chair.

Sares Regis Group pulled out all of the stops, giving this family the most “extreme home makeover” that Rebuilding Together has ever seen. They pooled all of their sub-contractors together and got all of the supplies, materials and labor donated, so the cost to our non-profit was minimal. They provided over $150,000 in improvements to the home making it one of the nicest homes on the street!!

The efforts of the skilled labor culminated in a volunteer work day held on December 1st where 50 volunteers from the local community will helped paint the house and finish minor repairs and placed all of the wonderful landscaping including new sod in the front yard.

Finally, Mr. Johnson, who had been displaced to his Daughter’s home, was able to return to the place he calls home. I was lucky enough to be there to see him come home and tour the house with his son, he was able to access every room in the house and fell peacefully asleep on his new couch with his family surrounding him, very happy, very thankful!!

Not every transformation we will create through the efforts of Rebuilding Together, it’s sponsors and volunteer’s will be as spectacular as our first, but I assure you, it will mean just as much to each and every person and family that we are able to serve. I hope that you will be inspired to get involved in any way you can…neighbor helping neighbor, that’s how we get it done!