UCR women’s softball team shared their team spirit with a Riverside homeowner on Saturday, January 25, 2014, the UCR team members led by Coach Linda came straight from practice to help Doris in their uniforms. Doris is a senior living in Mission Village Mobile Home Community. She has lived in her home for about 22 years. The home was painted 10-12 years ago and the original pink color was starting to show through the green trim color. The ladies softball team came in their team colors to brighten up Doris’s home with new colors.

All the team players arrived about the same time at noon. While signing in, they commented that Coach Linda said “Don’t worry you won’t get paint on your uniforms”. And now we wanted to see if they could prove this statement to be true. Doris came out to meet the group and in such a natural way almost all the ladies went up to her and gave her a warm hug and hello. With hugs completed, safety orientation and painting 101 was the first order of the project. And just like all of our paint days we broke the team up into 4 groups to start painting the walls. Right after a before team picture was taken. The ladies took on the challenge and worked continuously while listening to good music and enjoying each other’s company. I asked several ladies to help with the ladder work and they did great even though some of them were not real fans of height. But we made sure they were all safe with ladders holders if the ground was not level.

Coach Linda in her uniform too, jumped in and painted alongside her players. She had the only casualty of the day. While painting, talking and checking emails she dropped her phone into her paint. But in a jiffy, the phone was cleaned and put away. See, you just can’t text and paint at the same time was the lesson learned.

Jenine, Habitat’s UCR work study intern was there to help with sign-ins and photos for the day. She brought her friend Tiffany to help paint too. They enjoyed the day painting with the UCR team and sharing college talk. Azhar, our AmeriCorps member, helped lead the ladies team to make sure nothing was missed while painting the home. The ladies were having so much fun that they were singing in unison to the country playlist songs on their iPhone. And they managed not to get any paint on their uniforms. Really! So Coach Linda was right. But you should have seen their hands and their hair. Some of the girls were talking about having to cut their hair off because there was so much paint on it! Luckily we reassured them that our paint is water based so it does come off hands and hair, just not as easily on clothes.

Doris’ home was completed in 3 hours. It was a great accomplishment for the team! Doris came out several times to view the painting and talk to the team. Just as in the beginning of the day, the ladies gave Doris hugs as they were showing her the home now completed. With such gratitude from all their hard work Doris showed her appreciation during the group photo. She was smiling from ear to ear!

Thank you UCR Highlander’s women softball team, you now have a new fan because of how you shared your time and spirit on this day. Doris wants to now watch all of you play since she knows how well you all paint.  You definitely made a difference in her life. Good job ladies!