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Kickoff To Rebuild Aids West Tampa

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: January 31, 2009

WEST TAMPA - Liduvina "Lucy" Nieves sat on a new sofa in her new house Friday morning, overwhelmed and nearly speechless.

"The change is incredible," said Nieves, 66, who has lived on Union Street for 30 years.

Nieves' home was one of 20 in her neighborhood that was rehabilitated and unveiled Friday as part of Kickoff to Rebuild, a project sponsored by the nonprofit Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay and the National Football League.

Monsignor Laurence Higgins blessed Nieves' house as she took a tour and prepared to move in.

More than 30 businesses, local and national, sponsored homes and provided volunteers to repair them as part of the Rebuilding Together project. More than 1,000 people volunteered to rehabilitate the homes, said Olga Gonzalez, Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay project manager and spokeswoman.

First Florida and The Richman Group of Florida sponsored Nieves' home. On the site where she has lived for three decades, the volunteers spent 27 days building a new house with three bedrooms and one bathroom, and with 1,300 square feet of living space.

Work at the other homes consisted of a kitchen makeover, interior and exterior painting, landscaping, caulking, and installing new washers, dryers and stoves.

"It is a day of renewal for West Tampa, a neighborhood that deserves it," Gonzalez said. "This is a neighborhood to a large extent that has felt forgotten."

Rebuilding Together is a national nonprofit agency that helps rehabilitate houses for veterans and people with low incomes or disabilities.

Its Tampa Bay chapter was founded in 2001. The organization has a 14-year relationship with the NFL.

This year the agency chose homes in a five-block area of the Old West Tampa neighborhood, which is near Raymond James Stadium, site of Super Bowl XLIII.

George Johnson, 68, had his house enhanced with vinyl siding, a hot-water heater, porch screens, awnings, carpet, interior paint and a bathroom makeover. The companies that sponsored his Pine Street home were K. Hovnanian Homes and Centex Homes.

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659.

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