A local home for troubled and foster children got some much needed work. The Whaley House organization has several homes throughout Flint. Saturday some of the homes were renovated. Thirty-five volunteers spent the day sprucing up the living quarters.
Volunteer Gary Pillow says, "We're repainting. We're doing repair of a shed. We're doing the mulch and landscaping all around the house. "
Some of the children come from troubled backgrounds so this foundation home is all the more important. Raising six teens is quite a task for group home manager Quanda Ingram, but she's thankful for the generosity of volunteers she didn't know before today saying, "They gave us new appliances, a dishwasher and a stove. They're just awesome people."
Just a few miles away a similar project is going on at another Whaley house. A crew of 25 more volunteers took time out to assemble new bedroom sets for the group of teen girls that live there.
Volunteer Kali Weber says, "The children have been through some of the worst circumstances any of the kids we've ever dealt with and they deserve bedrooms just as much as anyone else."
Furniture, beds, and mattresses were all donated. Each girl will get a room catered to their own style. The volunteers can't erase the children's past, but they're aiming to make a brighter future one child at a time.