
DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997                TAG: 9704230152

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 03   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: THUMBS UP! 

SOURCE: BY SUSAN W. SMITH, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   71 lines

ROTARY CLUB PRESIDENTS WANT TO SEE PROJECT KEEP GETTING BIGGER

Gayle S. Terwilliger is a dentist, and Edwin A. ``Alex'' Thompson is an insurance agent. But for almost a year, Terwilliger and Thompson have planned to be house painters April 26.

Saturday is the first annual ``Paint Your Heart Out Hampton Roads'' day. More than 35 Rotary Clubs across Hampton Roads are sponsoring the one-day regional clean-up event that will benefit 70 homes of elderly, low-income homeowners.

Terwilliger, president of the Chesapeake Rotary Club and Thompson, president of the Great Bridge Rotary Club, are working with club members to sponsor work at 25 homes in Chesapeake. They will join 3,000 other community volunteers in scraping windows, climbing ladders and spreading paint throughout South Hampton Roads.

``I like the Rotarian idea of making a difference in the world, one person at a time.'' said Terwilliger.

She said she initially heard about the good deeds of Rotary Clubs from many of her patients when she practiced in New Orleans. When she and her husband, Gary A. Terwilliger, moved to Chesapeake, she joined the Chesapeake Rotary Club to experience the business connections and the community service herself.

She joined the Chesapeake Rotary Club in 1990, the same year that club member Robert F. Ripley introduced the paint project in Chesapeake after seeing a similar program in Lakeland, Fla. Six years later, Terwilliger is the club president and paint day has become a regional program.

``I have never seen an event with such a tremendous impact on both the volunteers and the receivers,'' Terwilliger said. ``The project not only revitalizes a home, but it makes a difference in the lives of the owners as well as most of the workers.

``After working with `Paint Your Heart Out,' I feel obliged to tell my patients, other clubs and even passengers on a recent train trip to Washington, D.C., about how something as simple as spreading paint can bring us all together and even change lives.''

Thompson, 36, who works for W. Taylor Johnson Company, agrees with Terwilliger. He said that two years after working on one home, the owner's son called to offer his carpentry skills. The young man was still thankful for the help his mother had received, and he wanted to return the favor.

``There are no negatives and many good reasons why `Paint Your Heart Out' is going to keep growing to eventually become a state or even national event,'' said Thompson, who joined the Chesapeake Rotary Club in 1991, and became one of the founding members of the Great Bridge Rotary Club in 1994.

Ironically, Thompson's wife, Jeanne, is from Lakeland, Fla, the home of the first paint project.

``When we go back we take information about how the project is growing,'' Thompson said. ``And how we've grown from community efforts to regional cooperation.''

Thompson said the southside cities have a tendency to bicker over arenas, conference centers and roads. But when it came to helping the disadvantaged, the cities pulled together.

``It will be even a greater way for us all to work together,'' Thompson said, ``when we celebrate `Paint Your Heart Out Virginia.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MORT FRYMAN

``I have never seen an event with such a tremendous impact on both

the volunteers and the receivers,'' says Chesapeake Rotary Club

president Gayle Terwilliger, a dentist. ``The project not only

revitalizes a home, but it makes a difference in the lives of the

owners as well as most of the workers.''

``There are no negatives and many good reasons why `Paint Your Heart

Out' is going to keep growing to eventually become a state or even

national event,'' says Great Bridge Rotary Club president Alex

Thompson, an insurance agent.