Neighbors Helping Neighbors help neighbors
Volunteer John Gough hauls a load of dirt to the front yard of a home on Raleigh Ave. during a Neighbors for Neighbors charity event in Costa Mesa on Saturday. The program, organized by Mayor Steve Mensinger, uses private donations and volunteer labor from nine congregations from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa to paint and fix up the homes.
A revived community group helped fix up a pair of Westside Costa Mesa homes Saturday morning, thanks to private funding and an army of volunteers.
Participants with Neighbors Helping Neighbors — which had been called Neighbors For Neighbors, a group funded by Costa Mesa City Hall — worked on two homes on Raleigh and Union avenues.
There, they did landscaping, painting and cleaning up, said Mayor Steve Mensinger.
“It’s kind of an extreme makeover,” he said.
One of the homes belongs to an elderly couple; the other is home to a family of seven.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors has been revived thanks to private, outside funding, Mensinger said.
Volunteers, materials and sponsorship came from several groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Estancia High School sports boosters, Palm Harvest Church, Skosh Monahan’s and Vista Paint.
—Bradley Zint
Twitter: @bradleyzint