Low-income homeowners across the country, many of them elderly, will be treated to a day of repairs and upgrades to their homes on Saturday, April 25, when volunteers with Rebuilding Together get to work on National Rebuilding Day. Thousands of homes and nonprofit and community centers will be renovated or upgraded at no cost to the owners. Special attention is given to repairs that help prevent falls and ease mobility for the homeowner.

National Rebuilding Day is the effort of Rebuilding Together, a network of 200 affiliate groups in 43 states. Volunteers will provide critical repairs, modifications, and energy-efficient upgrades that ease the burden for low-income families, the disabled, and military veterans, and help seniors age in place. The annual event, held the last Saturday in April, has been going on for 21 years.

“Rebuilding Together provides solutions to the nation’s housing crisis by stabilizing neighborhoods where real-estate values have been hardest hit,” said Gary A. Officer, president and CEO of Rebuilding Together, in a press release. “National Rebuilding Day is our signature annual event when the impact of our mission is immediately evident as thousands of homes are restored to safe, efficient, and livable conditions so that homeowners may continue to live independently and retain what is often their sole source of personal wealth.”

Cities around the country feel the effects of the effort. For example, in the 10 years since Rebuilding Together Metro Denver was formed, more than 1,000 area homes have been rehabilitated, according to the Denver group’s Web site. Renovation days are held in April and October.

Michigan's Ann Arbor chapter has repaired more than 500 homes in its 17 years. San Francisco’s chapter holds a Rebuilding Weekend, two days of renovations, and has rehabilitated more than 1,000 homes and 250 facilities in its 20 years. In Dallas, 18 elderly homeowners will receive repairs to their homes during the April work day. The list goes on and on.

National sponsors of Rebuilding Together include Sears and their Heroes at Home Program, Cricket Communications, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lowe’s, Sherwin-Williams, Honeywell, Pepsi Bottling Group, API, ConocoPhillips, and Meredith Corporation and HGTV with the Change the World, Start at Home Campaign.