Mainline Masonry, Inc. - Community Service

About 85 local businesses and volunteers worked together to renovate Pedro Toala’s home to make it more livable for a man in a wheel chair.

Toala, 44, was confined to wheel chair after he suffered a spinal cord injury when a group of youths tipped over the portable toilet he was using in June, 2006.

He returned to his split-level home on Milltown Road but spent 16 months restricted to a small room on the lower level of the home because he could not use the stairs.

After hearing about Toala’s disability, Cher Przelomski, chief executive officer of Planning Factory International, decided to lead a renovation project to make Toala’s home handicap accessible and more comfortable.

Toala, his wife, Yira, and their children, Gale and Gregory, lived in a condominium donated by Pettinaro Relocation during the six-week project, which was finished on Dec. 15.

Toala said he was speechless when he returned to his home, which has been refurbished with an addition and a wheel chair lift so Toala can reach the upper level of the house.

He grinned as he rode in the wheel chair lift, seeing the second floor of his house for the first time since June of last year. He said words could not express the gratitude he felt for the people who renovated his home.

“They are wonderful, beautiful people. They are angels sent from heaven helping out people in need,” he said.

Przelomski decided to help Toala in January after learning about his injury. Her company, Planning Factory International, was celebrating its 25th anniversary and she said she wanted to help someone in the community instead of throwing a party.

She hoped to get Toala onto the ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and spent months working on forms for the show, but the television station rejected the project.

Przelomski was not discouraged and asked for help from local business owners to renovate the home.

The six-week project began in November and Przelomski said she was amazed by the support she received.

Business owners donated about $175,000 of materials and labor, she said, and everyone she asked agreed to help.

“I feel like we fulfilled what we set out to do. I think it was very successful to touch this family and I hope that the message is that all of us can work together to help others,” she said.

The first step of the project was to build an addition onto the lower level of the house, including a handicap accessible bathroom for Toala and a wheel chair lift to the second floor.

Louis Rosenberg, president of Mitchell Associates, volunteered to provide the architectural drawings for the addition and the wheel chair lift.

“It was a very good feeling. It’s nice to be able to help people like that. It’s nice to see people step up,” he said. “People just worked well together. There were no egos involved.”

Volunteer contractors installed a new floor, siding, roof, furnace, driveway and patio, repainted the house’s interior, and landscaped the property.

Jim Campbell, of Wohlsen Construction, volunteered to be project manager of the renovations. He said organizing volunteers and subcontractors who were all eager to help was a challenge.

“It was chaotic, but everyone came together and got everything done,” he said.

Once the construction work was complete, Wilkinson Builders and Pala’s Furniture donated dozens of new pieces of furniture for the home, Przelomski said.

Jeff Pala, owner of Pala’s Furniture, said he was happy to help.

“It was very rewarding to help them out, especially at Christmas,” he said. “It wasn’t so much what everyone did or didn’t do, it was that we all did it together.”

Some donations were unexpected, Przelomski said. John Shone of Shone Lumber toured the house during the project and asked Przelomski what she planned to renovate in the kitchen.

Przelomski replied that she did not plan to renovate the kitchen. Four days later, Shone donated and installed a new countertop and kitchen cabinets.

Campbell made sure that the subcontractors and volunteers followed the construction schedule Przelomski made, but a few of the renovations were finished at the last minute.

On Dec. 15, hours before Toala was to return to the home, Rosenberg noticed there were no support bars in Toala’s bathroom. He rushed to Home Depot, bought the bars and Campbell quickly installed them.

Campbell greeted Toala and his family when they arrived at the home.

“It made it all worthwhile. It was a culmination of six weeks of hard work,” he said.

Toala said he started crying when he saw the completed home and is grateful for the donations from business owners and volunteers. He would have been helpless after his injury if he had not had help from family and friends, he said.

The injury changed his life, but he said it did not ruin his life.

“It hurts in the moment, but God just got me through everything. To me, it didn’t feel like the end, it was just the start of something different,” he said.

Toala said he feels no regrets about his injury. He has forgiven the people who broke his spine and moved on with his life.

He said he is excited to spend time with his family in their new home and watch his children grow up.

Toala smiled at his wife and son as he sat in his wheel chair in his redecorated family room.

“I may be falling down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside,” he said.