After 8,500 gallons of paint and 28 years, Paint-A-Thon is changing hands

Laigha Anderson, The Hawk Eye
·5 min read

In its 29th year, coordination of the annual Paint-A-Thon event is changing hands.

Each year since 1998, about 500 Burlington residents have donned paintbrushes and old clothes to paint the homes of 8 to 12 families in the Greater Burlington area. That won't change, but volunteers will see a new face at the helm of the effort.

Beginning this year, Jim O’Neil, who has led the effort each of the past 28 years, will move to the sidelines as he hands over the program to a new leader, Aaron Baltisberger.

“Without our community partners, Community Action and Diamond Vogel, and especially our volunteers, this would not happen,” Baltisberger, an operations and information security officer for Two Rivers Bank and Trust, said.

Each year, organizations and businesses throughout the community participate in the event aimed at helping low-income families and disabled homeowners without the money for a professional paint job to maintain the appearance of their homes.

Baltisberger pointed out that just because somebody isn’t physically or financially able to keep up with painting their house doesn’t mean they don’t have that same pride as a homeowner who can keep up the appearance of their home.

This motivation is why the program specifically targets families who might otherwise have a difficult time getting their home painted.

“The impact that it makes on our people and our neighborhoods, is just huge," Burlington Mayor Jon Billups said. "A lot of people, if they don't paint their house, it's not because they don't want to. It's because they haven't had either the physical capability or the monetary means to do so.”

The program started in 1993. Around that time, Two Rivers Bank and Trust was looking for a project to help the community. It just so happened that a customer brought in a newspaper article about a bank in Sioux City that was painting houses wanting to know if Two Rivers may be interested in doing something similar.

The article landed in the hands of the bank’s president at the time, who handed the idea off to O’Neil to investigate how to pull off something like a Paint-A-thon.

Part of investigating the idea was looking for community partners, and it didn't take long before there were three organizations running Paint-A-Thon as a team: Diamond Vogel donated the needed paint for the project, Community Action handled the application process, and Two Rivers Bank and Trust coordinated the project.

With Community Action and Diamond Vogel on board, the next thing O’Neil knew he needed to do was secure the volunteer force. To that end, O'Neil had a luncheon with community, church, civic and industry leaders, with the goal of introducing the idea of the Paint-A-Thon. O'Neil said all parties were on board.

“Because of the incredible partnership that we have with the community leaders that Paint-A-Thon is able to happen each year," O'Neil said.

Over the years, O'Neil said, he and everyone who has worked on Paint-A-Thon have developed close bonds with the leaders of the 25 participating teams through year-round discussions needed to facilitate the weeklong effort that takes place each September.

“The key to the program is the volunteers," he said. "It does not work if you don’t have the volunteers.”

Billups said Paint-A-Thon is the biggest volunteer event in the community and has been for a long of time. He said that during that week, Burlington feels different.

"The volunteers, when they're working, even though it is hot and sometimes difficult work, there is a serenity involved when you talk to them that they know they made an impact on their community," he said.

The event takes place over the week of Labor Day, largely because of weather.

Iowa weather can be unpredictable, but it does follow patterns. Painting in May or June could lead to picking a week with a lot of rain. July or August runs into severe heat and humidity, and most of the rest of the year can come with snow. This made September, and more specifically the week after Labor Day, the best choice.

At its inception, O'Neil thought Paint-A-Thon would be something fun the community would engage in for five or six years to be replaced by another community-engaged project, but over the past nearly three decades, Paint-A-Thon has only grown.

Since 1993, 500 volunteers with more than 20 teams have come out each year to paint a total of 530 homes. That amounts to 8,500 gallons of paint.

How to apply for Paint-A-Thon

Those who are interested in being the recipient of a paint job have until July 13 to apply.

The application specifically calls for owners of single or one-and-a-half-story homes located in the city limits of Burlington, West Burlington or Mediapolis. The homeowner must be either over the age of 55, disabled, a single parent or a veteran.

Residents also must have a limited income. Recipients are chosen by Community Action of Southeast Iowa.

Applications can be picked up at any of the Two Rivers Bank and Trust locations:

  • 222 N. Main St.'

  • 909 S. Roosevelt Ave.;

  • 3200 Sunnyside Ave.;

  • 1066 S. Gear Ave., West Burlington; and

  • 105 Main St., Mediapolis.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Community Action now taking applications for Paint-A-Thon homes