CCB MEDIA PHOTO: Volunteers work on a house along Route 6A in Brewster during the Big Fix in 2016.
FALMOUTH – Preparations are underway for Housing Assistance Corporation to bring its annual Big Fix to Falmouth.
Hundreds of volunteers will help make small repairs and landscape for seniors, veterans and disabled individuals in need.
HAC Community Relations Director Laura Reckford told Selectmen last week the event will come to Falmouth on September 16.
Falmouth is the eighth Cape Cod town to host the Big Fix. Previous events were in Barnstable, Sandwich, Dennis, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Bourne and last year in Brewster.
“It’s really a four or five hour event,” Reckford said. “Volunteers can come and as I always tell people ‘if you can use a rake, you can volunteer.”
Volunteers don’t have to be skilled home repair workers, but skilled workers are encouraged to participate.
More than 1,200 volunteers have participated at more than 80 homes since the Big Fix began in 2010.
“It can be anything from fixing a handicap ramp, one year we actually built a handicap ramp. We fix peoples’ doors, screens – maybe a small shingle repair project,” Reckford said.
Yard work and landscaping is also performed, including raking and mowing.
Typically, about a dozen or more homes are chosen from applications for assistance.
“We visit everyone who asks to be a recipient and again we see if their needs are something we can do,” Reckford said.
According to Reckford, the more volunteers who sign up, the more residents in need the event can help. In Barnstable, repairs were made to 24 houses.
To apply for assistance or to sign up as a volunteer, visit haconcapecod.org. Home applications can also be found at the Falmouth Senior Center or Town Hall.
The deadline to apply as a recipient is July 14.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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