Brush with Kindness helps repair homes

Habitat for Humanity's A Brush With Kindness is working with two homes in the historic Northside neighborhood this month. Volunteers gathered at the home of Keith Edwards to help repair her porch. Karen Meyerhoff, a med student at UNC in her last year, and Carl Stewart hammer boards into the porch. Stewart is Edwards cousin and came out to work on the porch starting at 8am. Meyerhoff, who is in her last year of med school, said she has a lot of free time since entering her last year and decided to volunteer.

Chapel Hill resident Keith Edwards is the go-to person for information about the Northside neighborhood — but this week she is the one getting a helping hand.

Edwards is one of the first people in Northside — a historically black, low income community located off Rosemary Street — chosen for Orange County Habitat for Humanity’s repair program, A Brush with Kindness.

Edwards writes a column for a community newsletter to answer the questions of Northside residents.

But when Edwards, a retired UNC police officer, heard about A Brush with Kindness, she sent in a request of her own.

Earlier this year, the program — which was started three years ago to help people who can’t complete needed repairs on their homes — was expanded to Northside.

Since its inception, A Brush with Kindness has helped 13 families in the area.

This week, two more homes, including Edwards’, on McDade Street in the Northside community will be added to that list.

Volunteers began repairs on the homes on Tuesday, and they will wrap up with a dedication ceremony on Friday.

Edwards said the program came at the right time for her. She said her deck was unsafe, and she was afraid someone might fall through it, but she couldn’t fix it on her own.

“I was saving up to make these repairs, and then I had some health problems so I had to use my money to take care of that,” she said. “Brush with Kindness is God-sent, really truly God-sent.”

Adwoa Asare, the manager for the program, said each resident is asked to make a small monetary contribution to the project, but the majority of the cost is covered.

Asare said the town of Chapel Hill recently gave A Brush with Kindness a $25,000 grant for five homes.

Asare said she would like to do more and hopes to work with the town and community organizations to get money to repair more homes.

All of the labor for the repairs is provided by volunteers. Asare said this week’s volunteers are a mix of UNC students and community members.

Karen Meyerhoff, a medical student at UNC, signed up for a morning shift on Tuesday but decided to stay for the rest of the day.

“I hadn’t actually built anything or used my hands like this in a very long time, and it’s very refreshing,” Meyerhoff said.

Edwards said she is grateful for the volunteers.

“It puts me right back to when I was growing up and people did things for one another and they didn’t expect any compensation at all,” she said.

Contact the desk editor at city@dailytarheel.com.

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