6th Annual Fall Repair Fest Was a Success

Saturday, October 24th was a beautiful fall morning that was the perfect sunny atmosphere for our 6th Annual Fall Repair Fest! Our neighborhood partner, The Edna Martin Christian Leadership and Legacy Center hosted Home Repairs for Good and 118 volunteers for the kick-off that morning. This year’s Fest was presented by CareSource and Fifth Third Bank as a project sponsor. Twelve other organizations and businesses stepped up financially to support the home repair projects and clean ups plus projects worked on the remaining 364 days of the year.

Deputy Mayor of Neighborhoods, Jordan Gathers, gave great words of encouragement to the buzzing room of volunteers.

“I want to thank all of you for showing up, this is what it’s all about. It’s important that we continue to volunteer, to serve, and to help each other one day at a time,” said Gathers. “This is the true spirit of neighbors and looking out for one another.”

The kick off also included a short video from the daughter of one of the homeowners served. Ms. Arletha, daughter of Ollie Miller, had excitement pouring out of her little video to thank the volunteers that morning.

Clearly the words of encouragement helped! These volunteers rolled up sleeves and got to work! In total, 16 different projects for nine older homeowners in the Martindale-Brightwood and northeast corridor neighborhoods were completed. That included one massive yard clearing for a woman who is visually impaired and hasn’t been able to navigate her yard in years. After her husband passed, she was unable to find anyone to help her clear out the overgrowth, poison ivy, and excessive invasives. Now, she has a sizable yard with much safer pathways and sunshine pouring into windows that hadn’t seen light in years.

“I love Fall Repair Fest” Jonathan Groves, Director of Operations, exclaimed. “I love watching all volunteers that this is their first time mixed with volunteers who have been with us for many projects, come and work together and bring that teamwork and camaraderie with people they’ve never met but they’re all excited about the mission.”

The Home Repairs for Good team noted the projects for 2026’s Fall Repair Fest were notably larger and more intense than prior years. Two projects required two dumpsters each due to the extreme foliage needing to be cleared. These were projects that required far more than our typical 8-12 person group projects to complete and our Fall Repair Fest volunteers showed up ready to work.

“When we think of affordable housing we often picture new buildings going up,” Deputy Mayor of Neighborhoods, Jordan Gathers stated in his remarks. “But protecting the homes of the people that make up our community is just as important.”

We couldn’t agree more.

View all the photos from Fall Repair Fest 2026 here. And save the date for next year, October 23, 2027!