Repair Affair Day helps local family

Members of the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire held their annual Repair Affair Day June 4.

Since 1993, they have completed more than 250 repair projects in the area. This year they worked on eight projects, one of them was a house in Tea.

Brad Mair, who works for A-Plus Construction, is a member of the Repair Affair Committee and was the head of his construction crew at the home in Tea. This year, the volunteer crew worked on building a wheelchair ramp for the home in Tea for a family with a child who is in a wheelchair.

“It’s the only one outside of Sioux Falls. We were happy to be able to do this,” Mair said.

His group took out the old landing with two steps that were currently at the entrance of the home. They replaced it with an ADA-compliant 5-foot-by-5-foot landing and then a ramp to the edge of the garage.

Mair’s volunteer group was made up of bankers, real estate developers, builders, real estate agents, suppliers and title company employees.

“We have a lot of different representation and that’s what we get in this event every year,” Mair said.

One volunteer was Luke Urlacher, who works for Builders First Source in Tea. He has helped on Repair Affair Day for four years.

“I think it’s great to give back. There’s a lot of people here in the greater Sioux Empire that need help. We’ve got some very dedicated and capable individuals who like to take a day to really give back and make the standard of living for all these people a little bit better,” Urlacher said.

Mair noted that they sometimes struggle to get applications because people do not always know about the opportunity. They work with churches, social media and charitable organizations to get the word out.

“We want to help as many people as we can. We usually get more volunteers than we’re able to use,” Mair said.

Applications are easy to fill out, but if someone has a question the staff at the HBA Sioux Empire can help them.

“It’s not very difficult and our staff at the Home Builders Association is very helpful,” Mair said.