Paint-A-Thon on schedule; fireworks behind on funding

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison Partners is in the middle of two annual summer projects. One is going according to schedule, while the other is lagging behind.

The annual Paint-A-Thon is slated for June 21-26 with three possible homes getting facelifts by community volunteers organized by the Partners.

Executive Director Tim Gobble said this year's Paint-A-Thon could tackle three different houses in the community.

He said the schedule will include about 75 hour-long time slots including power washing, surface prep work, yard work and painting.

"Right now Community Action of Southeast Iowa is in the process of contacting the home owner to let them know they are part of the program," Gobble said.

"As soon as that is done we will be working with them on paint colors and hopefully all that will happen this week."

Gobble is hoping to get at least 75 volunteers to take on each of the time slots. He said several companies in the area have allocated some employees to help with the work, but he is still looking for volunteers to fill in the gaps.

He said this year two of the homes are smaller in size and have aluminum siding so they won't be as labor intensive as a wood home. This year's homes are located at 101 22ndStreet, 1923 Ave L and 3207 Ave I.

"I think they'll go pretty quick. We'll see how the other home is going and we could move some people over to that project if all goes well," Gobble said.

Work hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Some prep- power washing will be done on 19thor 20thso it has time to dry before Monday.

"This is a great community event and want to thank the sponsors that have already agreed to be a part of it:Kempker’s True Value & Rental, Community Action of SE Iowa,IFC, Climax, Scotts, FMCH, Connection Bank & Insurance, Midwest One Bank, KLM Realty, Lee County Bank,Farmers Savings Bank and ConAgra.," Gobble said.

"If you’re interested in being a part of this program, we would love to have you as it is a costly event to put on with the needed supplies. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to pull off t-shirts just due to the timing and coronavirus impact, but we'll do everything in our power to make sure the public knows you’re part of the volunteer solution to help beautify our community one home at a time."

In addition to the volunteers, Gobble said the program can still use some monetary donations to help move the program along. Any funds left over from the Paint-A-Thon go into the Fort Madison Beautification Foundation, which is a 501c3 charity, so all donations are tax deductible.

Anyone wanting more information or to volunteer for the program is encouraged to call the Partners office at 319-372-5471.

The other program is the Light Up the Sky on the 4th of July campaign. Gobble said funding is behind on that project with only about $3,000 of the needed $20,000 raised so far.

He said he has until the end of this week to confirm with the fireworks company what the show will look like.

Without the $20,000, Gobble said other options would have to be considered including scaling back the show, moving it again into the fall, or possibly canceling the event for 2020.

He said moving the event to the fall was not received well in 2018 when flooding forced the postponement.

fireworks, fort madison partners, Paint-A-Thon, Pen City Current, Volunteers

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