BUCKET BRIGADE BRINGS PAINT, PRIDE.Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer PACOIMA - Velma Delouth has lived in Pacoima for 42 years, but Saturday was the first time she really fell in love with her home. ``I always wanted a white house with green trimming,'' said the 67-year- old woman as she gazed at her freshly painted Pinney Street home. ``I never thought it would look so great.'' As part of the fifth annual Neighborhood Pride project, more than 200 volunteers with the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Neighborhood Housing Services gathered in Pacoima on Saturday to paint and spruce up spruce up Verb [sprucing, spruced] to make neat and smart Verb 1. spruce up - make neat, smart, or trim; "Spruce up your house for Spring"; "titivate the child" 12 Pinney Street homes. The neighborhood took on the feel of a block party as music filtered inside and out of homes, and volunteers - many of them children and teenagers - grabbed paint brushes and rollers and made faded stucco stucco (stŭk`ō), in architecture, a term loosely applied to various kinds of plasterwork, both exterior and interior. It now commonly refers to a plaster or cement used for the external coating of buildings, most frequently employed in walls bloom with color. ``I didn't think they would do it so fast,'' said 29-year-old Laura Patricia Gonzalez. She and her mother, Herminia Hernandez, chose a pastel pastel (păstĕl`), artists' medium of chalk and pigment, tempered with weak gum water and usually molded in the form of sticks; also a work done in this medium. Pastel was in use in Italy in the 15th cent. and is doubtless much older. green for their rented home. Residents like Ignacia Fuentes walked in and out of front doors to watch the transformation: Drab beige beige n. 1. A light grayish brown or yellowish brown to grayish yellow. 2. A soft fabric of undyed, unbleached wool. adj. Light grayish-brown or yellowish-brown to grayish-yellow. became bright yellow. Rusted window bars and iron fences were touched up. Back doors and garages, tattooed with hard-to-remove graffiti, were reclaimed re·claim tr.v. re·claimed, re·claim·ing, re·claims 1. To bring into or return to a suitable condition for use, as cultivation or habitation: reclaim marshlands; reclaim strip-mined land. and cleaned. Now that her home was painted, Fuentes was looking forward to planting more trees and reseeding her lawn. Ideas flowed from her on how to continue decorating and keep her neighborhood looking good. ``This is a beautiful gift,'' Fuentes said in Spanish. ``My house is small, but I feel so content.'' Each year, members of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services, in collaboration with the city of Los Angeles
A fresh coat of paint on the outside makes residents swell with pride within, organizers said. ``It makes me feel good to do this,'' said state Sen. Richard Alarcon, D- Van Nuys, who each year stops by to lend a hand to give assistance. to give assistance; to help. See also: Hand Lend . ``It makes people feel good to live in a community that takes pride. It gives them a different way of looking at things.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Nury Martinez repaints a fence during the Neighborhood Pride Day held in Pacoima on Saturday. More than 300 volunteers repaired and repainted 12 homes in the annual project, now in its fifth year. Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News |
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