Volunteers Give Back To Aurora Victims Any Way They Can

It's now been several months since the tragic events that took place at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado mid-July. The horrific shooting claimed twelve casualties and left 58 more injured. The victims are making immense progress in their recoveries, but for some, their lives, and their bodies, will never be the same.

How do you pull together and show your support for victims of the event who are still suffering psychological and physical trauma? Some of these victims are physically inhibited because of their injuries, including one who still has a bullet embedded in his leg and has had to delay his schooling as a result. Another is expected to be permanently paralyzed. These lifestyles are difficult to adjust to, especially when they serve as daily reminders of the events of the Aurora shooting that came to pass. But the support of the community never falters, and this sentiment has been ringing particularly true as of late: volunteers and the Home Builders Foundation of Metro Denver, for example, are truly putting their best efforts forward.

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Rebuilding Lives and Homes
The team has recently been spotted renovating a Denver condo which will soon belong to one victim of the Aurora shooting, who is now in a wheelchair. They've begun gutting a bathroom, widening doorways, and installing new flooring. They've remodeled the entire kitchen to make it as wheelchair-friendly as possible. It's the third renovation the team has worked on, and they insist, "It's the least we can do."

"We think about what it would feel like to wake up one morning and not be able to bathe yourself or move through your home," sympathized Mike Tayloe, part of the Home Builders Foundation. "For us, it just comes second nature to jump in to help on these projects…You hear about it and read about it in the paper all the time, so for us to be able to come out here and shed some positive things that we can do for our neighbors."

The Funds
The labor put into the condo alone has cost a pretty penny - $20,000. The labors, materials, and time, for the most part, are donations from the extremely supportive community. And while these gifts have been more than generous, they still may not be enough – the builders have yet to find anyone to sponsor the hardwood flooring and oven the team intends to install, both of which make for ease of wheelchair access.

Whether the money comes in any time soon or not, Tayloe assures us the project will be finished, asserting that "This is too important to wait."

Sara Klemowitz