Providence, RI -- Nearly 200 volunteers from the Providence College community--including students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends of the College--participated in the 11th annual Rebuilding Together - Providence on Saturday, April 24, 2004.  They worked to revitalize the nearby Harry Kizirian Elementary School and other properties near campus. 
  

Providence College and its President's Council founded what was then known as Christmas in April - Providence in 1994. The mission of the initiative was to renovate and revitalize homes of elderly, handicapped, and disadvantaged people as well as non-profit community agencies. Since the first year when 300 College volunteers renovated three properties in one neighborhood, Rebuilding Together with Christmas in April - Providence has evolved into a massive humanitarian effort on the last Saturday of April each year.

Today, Rebuilding Together - Providence has developed into the single- largest program to rehabilitate housing in Rhode Island.  In 10 years, some 13,000 volunteers and sponsors have donated 116,000 hours and more than $4 million to complete major repairs at 311 private homes and non-profit sites in virtually every neighborhood in Providence.

Volunteers have installed stairs, repaired roofs, upgraded electrical systems, installed heating and plumbing systems, constructed handicap ramps, replaced windows, and painted, among other duties. More than 500 homeowners and more than 280,000 people who depend on the communities agency sites that have been renovated have been impacted by the program.

 
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