On January 26, 2013, ReBuild Waterbury held its closing celebration and thank you dinner for the Waterbury and Duxbury community members it had the privilege to work with during the previous eighteen months. By that time, the staff and volunteers at RBW could say with confidence that they had met their goal of helping local residents rebound from devastation to their homes wrought by Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.

Created as a special project of the non-profit Revitalizing Waterbury, ReBuild Waterbury assisted 104 homeowners with their recoveries, 60 of which involved construction projects. This work happened under the guidance of just a few paid staff and the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and dozens of generous donors and suppliers.

In 2013, RBW has closed its office and dissolved as a program. But its story is told here as a testament to community, cooperation and determination to help our neighbors in their time of need. We all are stronger for it.

This site remains as a resource for those looking to learn from our experience. The slideshow summarizes the story from start to finish. The newsletters remain as a record of how it unfolded. Our procedures and policies are posted in the chance they could serve another group faced with a similar task elsewhere. The media coverage remains as a record of ReBuild Waterbury’s impact.

We will be forever thankful for the support our mission received from those named in our thank you list. With their help we managed to raise $996,000 and put it directly into dozens of reconstruction projects in local homes.

As Waterbury and Duxbury continue to rebuild and rebound from Irene, our hope is that an effort such as this will not be needed again in our lifetimes.

It has been a privilege and honor to serve our communities - a team effort made possible by 10,000+ hours of volunteer labor and the generous support of the contributors below: