Arlington Gets Super Bowl Face Lift

Volunteers spruce up Drummond Drive near stadium

At first, Patti Goerdel and her neighbors along Drummond Drive in Arlington thought the offer to fix up their houses for free sounded too good to be true.

"They just came knocking at our door and said, 'We'd like to come in and help you,’” said Goerdel. “I was like, 'What?'"

But on Monday a small army of volunteers showed up armed with everything from rakes to paint brushes.

And Goerdel's home isn't the only one on the fix-up hit list. A dozen homes in her neighborhood are getting renovated.

Goerdel, who retired from a non-profit agency several years ago to care for her ailing mother, is getting central heating and air conditioning, foundation repairs and a fresh coat of paint.

"This is like all the angels dumped themselves down and said, 'Let's go to Drummond Drive and do some good stuff,'" she said.

The effort is organized by a group called Rebuilding Together, which works with the NFL to spruce up a neighborhood each year in cities that host the Super Bowl.

Many of the volunteers come from Allstate Insurance Company.

Goerdel estimates she is receiving $15,000 to $20,000 in renovations.

She said she can't express how grateful she is for the work.

"You don't have enough words,” she said. “You don't have a vocabulary to say thank you very much."

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