Helping homeowners

Thousands of volunteers, including students from the University of Cincinnati, braved the cold Saturday to perform community service.

Their mission: Prepare Affair 2004.

This annual one-day event, held on the second Saturday of November, unites volunteers with its purpose to help winterize homes for elderly, low-income and disabled homeowners.

This year more than 2,000 volunteers donated their efforts to nearly 900 homeowners in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region, said Kim Sullivan, Prepare Affair spokeswoman.

"This is a great event," said fifth-year engineering student and Prepare Affair veteran Mike Hutson. "We basically help elderly folks prepare for winter by doing yard work and essential tasks like installing carbon monoxide detectors."

Prepare Affair operates under People Working Cooperatively, Inc., whose mission is performing "essential repairs and services in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky so that low-income homeowners can remain in their homes, living independently in a safe, sound environment," according to their Web site.

Formed nearly 30 years ago, it is a non-profit organization specializing in providing aid to qualified area homeowners.

The organization performs more than 7,000 services a year in 16 countries in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, said Sullivan.

Preparation work on Saturday included raking, mowing, gutter cleaning, storm window placement, outdoor furniture storing, carbon monoxide detector installation and a host of other activities.

Various UC student organizations, including Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society and co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity participated in the one-day affair.

These students gathered early in the morning on campus where they were given event T-shirts for their service before dispersing into smaller groups.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon these groups carpooled around the city, providing their assistance to Prepare Affair recipients.

"This is the first time having this work done on my house," said one local resident and recipient of Saturday's Prepare Affair activities. "It is wonderful that they're here and so far they've done a wonderful job."

Hutson and others also participate in the spring equivalent, Repair Affair.

In addition to UC students and other citizens, groups such as Citigroup, the City of Cincinnati, Home Depot, Toyota Manufacturing N.A, The Hubert Corp. and the American Red Cross also play a big role in making Prepare Affair such a successful annual event.

"It's really a joy having these very gracious young people around to help us out," said a Clifton homeowner and Prepare Affair recipient. "I don't even own a rake to rake those leaves," she said, pointing to a heap in her front yard.