St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Scn cleans apartments
Rod Keller
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
January 20, 2003
http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=36309153&ID=newsreal&scategory=Internet&
Volunteer workers spent Saturday and Sunday sprucing up the old Dunbar
Gardens apartment complex in Kinloch.
Hours after Casetta Rosborough had started cleaning the long- abandoned
apartment, she said in a cheery voice, "This is beginning to look like a
home."
If so, mission accomplished. Rosborough and about 135 other volunteer
workers spent Saturday and Sunday fixing up the old Dunbar Gardens
apartment complex in Kinloch.
Built in the 1970s and abandoned a decade ago, the 44 one- bedroom and
two-bedroom units were slated for demolition.
Kinloch acquired them from the Kinloch Housing Authority in October 2002.
Faith Beyond Walls, an organization based in St. Louis, is helping to get
the apartments ready for occupancy this spring or summer, at fair-market
rental rates.
"There aren't any of these apartments that could not be beautiful,"
Kinloch Mayor Keith Conway said.
"We need these apartments to be open, so that we can help build the
community again. This is just going to take some work."
Inside the apartments, volunteers swept aside 10 years' worth of dust and
cobwebs.
They threw pieces of worn insulation into the trash.
They deposited a broken television set in a trash bin and were bewildered
at one apartment littered with piles of clothes, stacks of shoes and a
grubby, plastic Santa Claus figure. In some places, gunk had collected on
top of grime.
"Oh, wow, this apartment was pretty rough when we got here," said
Rosborough, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in
Hazelwood, one of the many groups that make up Faith Beyond Walls. "You
should have seen the bathroom. I didn't want to touch it."
Tom LoGrasso scrubbed black mildew that had collected along the wall of
one apartment. The pungent smell from the cleaning solution didn't seem to
bother him. And scrubbing hard made the mildew disappear.
LoGrasso came as part of a contingent from the Scientology Church of
Missouri, in University City.
"We believe that you can do something positive and make a difference," he
said. "The apartment really isn't so bad. This is the worst spot. There
must have been a waterbed here."
Inside another apartment, Jessica Ballamo carted out about 10 jars of old,
moldy peanut butter. Insulation hung from the ceiling and crumbled to the
floor. The heat didn't work.
On this frigid morning, she probably could not paint. Still, she did her
best to clean up the place.
"I'd love to see the apartment when it's finished and people are ready to
move in," said Ballamo, a member of Alpha Phi Omega at St. Louis
University.
"I think it could be a pretty good apartment. Maybe I can come back here."
Orvin Kimbrough, the executive director of Faith Beyond Walls, appreciated
that sort of dedication. He relies on a network of volunteers dedicated to
improving neighborhood life. In November, volunteers planted 10,000 flower
bulbs in four area parks.
On Christmas Day, they delivered 700 hot meals to the elderly and the
disabled.
Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other groups take part in Faith Beyond
Walls, which has its headquarters at 4144 Lindell Boulevard.
The group was founded in 1999. Several area religious leaders wanted to
establish a program that could draw on people of faith to help fix
neighborhood problems, Kimbrough said.
The current co-chairmen of Faith Beyond Walls are the Rev. Earl Nance Jr.,
pastor of Greater Mount Carmel Baptist Church, and Rabbi Mark Shook,
pastor of Temple Israel.
That interfaith component in the age beyond Sept. 11, 2001, makes Faith
Beyond Walls even more important than many other service groups, says
Nauman Wadalawala, 17, a senior at Parkway West High School and a member
of a Muslim youth group in West County.
"This shows that everyone can work together in the community," Wadalawala
said. "There's a common bond."
Kimbrough, 28, encouraged civic leaders to contact Faith Beyond Walls at
314-531-4787 or to read more about the group at www.faithbeyondwalls.org.
Members are eager to do more cleaning, painting and fixing up in St.
Louis.
"We like to do projects that allow us to go into action and make a
measurable impact," he said. "We're doing things that unify communities."
Kimbrough said that Faith Beyond Walls planned on returning to Dunbar
Gardens. He said that he didn't plan on this being just a one-weekend
project.
"Oh, we're in this for the long haul," he said. "It's going to take time.
It didn't get like this overnight. People will keep helping, too.
"Most people are positive, and they see that there's hope."
Tigger
strangers who offer a helping hand.....
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