Project VISION's Summer Missions Season is in full swing. It started earlier this month and will continue into July.
Approximately 20 clients - many of whom are senior citizens - are scheduled to receive help with home repairs.
A group that included 10 Savannah River Remediation summer interns built a 32-foot wheelchair ramp at a home in Windsor on June 5.
This week, groups from Home Works and the Sand River Salkehatchie Camp in Aiken have been working at 10 residences.
Next month, the participants in the Salkehatchie North Augusta Camp will be fixing up homes in the North Augusta area.
Project VISION is a United Way of Aiken County initiative.
"It's an exciting time for the program," said Tammy Davis, who is the United Way's director of community investment and is in charge of Project VISION.
On Tuesday morning, one of the Home Works teams was busy at Robert Brown's house on Laurens Street. They were painting the front and back porches and tightening a railing on the front steps. They also pressure washed the outside of the house and replaced wood and loose nails on the front porch.
In addition, they planned to put new mortar around loose bricks on the front steps, replace the vanity in Brown's bathroom and install handrails for the bathtub.
"It's actually kind of fun having to do all the work that we do," said 15-year-old Elyssa Burgess, who attends Aiken High School. "I really like to paint and work with power tools. It's also fun to see how happy the homeowners are when we finish."
Stasia Pierce, 17, was painting the house's back porch.
"Aside from the heat, it's been awesome," said Pierce, who is a home-schooled student. "I've been sweating buckets."
Founded in 1996, Home Works is based in Columbia, and its volunteers do home repairs for people in need. Many of the members of the Home Works teams helping Project VISION this week are associated with St. Mary Help of Christians, a Catholic parish in Aiken.
"For this session we have 25 teenagers, and we probably have that many adults involved in one way or another," said Ken Boucher, who is overseeing the Home Works Project VISION efforts. "We are working at four homes, and there are two adult supervisors at each of them. Three of the houses are in Aiken, and one is in New Ellenton.
"There is so much need out there," he added, "and it's our responsibility to take care of it."
Dede Biles is a general assignment reporter for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since January 2013. A native of Concord, N.C., she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.