Pictures from Paint Your Heart Out 2009

I'm sorry these are a little late. I should have done it in June, but life and campaign season sort of have a way of getting in the way. This year we focused on 2 homes on 100 North which sit next to each other. One is a big, gorgeous Victorian, the other a large gable-end Craftsman Bungalow. Both are right at 100 years old. One owner occupied, one not. Both are well taken care of and loved.

NeighborWorks Provo (formerly NHS of Provo) provided the paint, organizing skills, and the scaffolding. A good number of volunteers, mostly from our neighborhood showed up to help. Our Mayor elect even came to help, which was wonderful.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and despite all the help, we didn't quite have these two done in one day. We held a small ward service project the following night to do our best to wrap up more of the work. Enjoy the shots!

Special thanks to Sharlene Wilde, Executive Director of NeighborWorks Provo for her work on this.

Paint Your Heart Out 2009--coming right up!

Friends and Neighbors:

WE NEED YOU! On Saturday, June 6th we will be holding our annual Paint Your Heart Out in the Joaquin Neighborhood. It will start with sign in at 8am at Farrer Elementary (south side--pavillion) where you can grab some donuts and juice. Then we'll be off to our worksites. We have 2 homes that need to get a facelift. They are big, and historic, and when we are all done, they will be beautiful.

Please bring your friends, family, etc. Youth groups are welcome.

Kurt Peterson

Joaquin Neighborhood Chair

Results are in: Paint Your Heart Out 2008

Lets just say it was an incredible success. 3 great Victorian homes in our neighborhood given a wonderful bath of new paint and new colors. They are great places, and I hope the efforts will inspire others. We were rained out on our first try, and had to do it 2 weeks later. Not quite as many volunteers as I would have liked, but we did have some great advantages. 1st, all the scaffolding we had was donated (temporarily) for our use. We received an incredible grant from Northwestern Mutual Life to pay for all our expenses. So, no one had to spring for the paint. 3 homes in Joaquin, 1 in Maeser, and 3 in Franklin were painted. I'd like to express my thanks to Jamie Peterson & Sharlene Wilde at NHS for all their help. Also--thanks to our brave homeowners who were willing to hang in there through the process. Enjoy the before and after pictures of the Joaquin Neighborhood project homes.

Catching up: Paint Your Heart Out, and what it has done for us

Our neighborhood has been actively working to improve itself for years, and one of our primary tools has been Paint Your Heart Out. Most of you are familiar with it, but probably haven't seen the before and after shots.

For those who aren't familiar: Paint Your Heart Out is an annual volunteer project where we gather volunteers (as many as 300) for one hard day of work repainting older homes in our neighborhood that need a quick facelift. It involves a lot of planning, and preparation work by the owners, and has been assisted by the staff and energy of Neighborhood Housing Services of Provo, our local non-profit which works for revitalizing Provo's Pioneer neighborhoods.

In our neighborhood, this process began back in 2000, when we put it to the test. The results have been exciting ever since. We did take one year off to do a "Plant Your Heart Out." Most of the homes we've done have been owner occupied, but a few eyesore rentals have been tackled. Often, home-owners receive the paint at cost, or free depending upon income. We have a couple homes on the itinerary already for summer 2008. We could possibly add more.

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about Paint Your Heart Out is the effect it seems to have on houses that are close to project houses. Within a year, the new paint seems to spread. Call it the "keeping up with the Joneses" phenomena, or a realization that this is a neighborhood worth investing in. Enjoy the photos!