Community comes together for home makeover.
Read more: Local, Community
SPALDING -- Phyllis King of Spalding loves children; it's obvious by the way she interacts with her grandchildren. It also makes her work with the North Central Area Schools very fulfilling.
"I get up every morning looking forward to my job and I tell the kids all the time, if it wasn't for them I wouldn't get up in the morning," said King.
King's passion for her job earned her the prestigious Golden Apple Award, but it leaves her very little time to take care of her house. The goldenrod-colored paint was over 20 years old, the roof needed work, and there were other small projects that needed to be done. This prompted her family to enter her name to have her house professionally made over. She wasn't selected, but that didn't deter her friends--they took matters into their own hands.
Mary Hansen, King's lifelong friend, decided to orchestrate a home makeover of her own. When she started approaching people to volunteer supplies and time, she found it was surprisingly easy to recruit able bodies.
"I said, 'Hey you guys, I got a project for you. I need some help,' and they were all so willing to help," she said.
The willingness to help reminded King's son, Randy, of Appleton, Wisconsin, of something out of an old television show--a kind of community goodwill that isn't commonly seen these days.
"This is kind of like Little House on the Prairie days, right here," said Randy.
Family, friends, and people from the Spalding community repainted King's house gray, updated her patio, and removed overhanging branches from the yard, among other things. To say King was surprised when she saw the results would be an understatement.
"I came home from work and it looked like somebody had put a new house in my house's place," she said.
For those that came together to help out, that's all the payment they needed.
"It doesn't take a television show to make a difference in somebody's life," said Tammy King, King's daughter-in-law. "It takes a community and family and friends."
