Tuscaloosa residents unite in a day of help

Terri Hibbard, director of Wings of Grace Relief Center, left, Alison Boutwell, Rebeccah York and Laine Norris, of Forest Lake Baptist Church's Young Married Couples Group, paint a railing as they volunteer at the Wings of Grace Relief Center next to Forest Lake Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa on Saturday.

Jennifer Jackson-Bolden has been dislocated from her Alberta home since the April 27, 2011, tornado felled two trees onto her house. Unable to afford to live somewhere else because she was paying a mortgage on a house she couldn't live in, Jackson-Bolden has lived in multiple places since then. Saturday, she was one step closer to getting her home back.

Screams from saws filled the air as a group of people worked at her house Saturday, tacking up siding, painting trim and laying floors.

Jackson-Bolden's home was one of more than 70 projects volunteers worked to complete Saturday as part of the first Day of Hope, a volunteer service day where people around the community work on cleanup, restoration and maintenance projects at homes and facilities in need throughout Tuscaloosa County.

I was just reaching out to anybody that could help me. This was not something planned. It was something wanted, Jackson-Bolden said. I didn't know it would happen. I just prayed it would happen.

A Day of Hope is a spin-off project of the Hope Initiative created by Mayor Walt Maddox in 2009 as a partnership between the city of Tuscaloosa and the faith community. The initiative's focus is making short-term and long-term improvements in crime-ridden areas in the county.

The Day of Hope is just a way to rebuild Tuscaloosa in areas that are in need of help, said Linlee Karn, coordinator of the event.

Karn said the Hope Initiative plans to do a similar event every year.

Members of more than

50 churches of varying denominations participated in service projects Saturday.

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Tuscaloosa residents unite in a day of help