04/23/2007 
Home improvement effort brings friends together
BOB CONNER, Gazette Reporter

Angela Beddoe, the national chairwoman of Rebuilding Together, showed up Sunday at one of about 30 Saratoga County sites where volunteers are fixing up houses this spring. The property, at the corner of Coy and Lake Desolation roads, happens to be owned by old friends of Beddoe, John and Tammy Willis, whom she had lost touch with in recent years and got reacquainted with on Sunday.

"It's like old home week here," said Mrs. Willis. The intervening years have not been easy ones for their family, with her and her husband experiencing health problems as they raise three children. Their youngest, 3-year-old Zane, has cerebral palsy and a club foot. John Willis, a self-employed electrician, is working again after losing some time last year when he injured his eye on the job. He was working on the back siding Sunday, with the volunteers.

Beddoe, who lives in Saratoga Springs and is married to a corrections officer at Mount McGregor state prison, is an executive and lobbyist for Energy East, whose utility holdings include New York State Electric and Gas.

According to Michelle Larkin, president of Rebuilding Together's Saratoga County affiliate, Energy East is a major sponsor. The biggest sponsor is the Saratoga Builders Association through its Showcase of Homes tour. Other big sponsors are the south Glens Falls High School Dance Marathon, Outback Steak House and State Farm. Also, she said, "Allerdice [Building Supply] and Mobile Home Solutions have been invaluable."

Larkin said people can go to the group's Web site, rebuildingtogethersaratoga.com, to volunteer or donate. There are nine other affiliates in New York state, including one in Albany. 

Beddoe also happens to be Gov. Eliot Spitzer's nominee for chairwoman of the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. If the state Senate confirms her, she said, she plans to continue heading up Rebuilding Together, which helps out low-income homeowners, especially the elderly and disabled. The group is in its 20th year, Beddoe said, and has worked on over 100,000 households, including a thousand in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. It works cooperatively with Habitat for Humanity and other charities, she said.

The Saratoga affiliate is in its fourth year, Larkin said, and has been expanding its scope.

On Saturday and Sunday, volunteers were renovating the Willis house inside and out, with special emphasis on making it safe for Zane.

Pete Herman, a retired dentist, was working on installing a deck with two Schuylerville teenagers who were on a community service project for the National Honor Society. Herman, who only met the boys that morning, was teaching them how to bolt two two-by-fours together, drilling in holes and hammering in bolts. As one hammered and the other tried to attach a washer and nut from below, Herman advised, "Pound them all in, turn the boards over and do them all at once."

Louise Rourke, volunteer coordinator, quoted Zane's reaction to the construction over the weekend of another deck, which he called "a bridge to my house" to help him get into it. Rourke said church youth groups, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts are among those who have helped with the local projects.

Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.

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