Builder's Olympiad

Builders using skills to help Broward needy
by Linda Trischitta

DAVIE -- Oscar Barrera's moves weren't graceful, but he embodied goodwill.

With a water-filled paint bucket dangling between his legs from a safety harness, Barrera shuffled along an obstacle course while his mother and sister cheered him on Saturday at the Bergeron Rodeo Grounds arena.

Sweat poured from beneath Barrera's hard hat and safety glasses, but he never spilled a drop of water from the bucket.

"I did it freestyle!" he said to high-fives from his Advanced Roofing Inc. teammates.

A participant in the Builder's Olympiad, Barrera was a member of one of five teams from the construction trade and the Pompano Beach Rotary Club.

When not competing in skill tests, they also labor for elderly, disabled, and low-income home-owners whose residences are repaired for free by Rebuilding Together Broward County.

The group is currently fixing two Fort Lauderdale properties, which are among the 122 homes and 20 nonprofit facilities it has made safe and sanitary in Broward County since 2003.

Rebuilding Together hoped to raise $20,000 from attendees and sponsors on Saturday.

Also pushing wheelbarrows around the red dirt floor of the arena: workers from Miller Construction Co., A Construction Maintenance Group Inc. and Holland Builders Inc.

Kids enjoyed a family festival, eating cotton candy and having their faces painted to look like Spider-Man.

Miller Construction's team took home the coveted "Golden Hard Hat" trophy, mounted on a wooden pedestal.

"We let them hold on to it for a year, kind of like the Stanley Cup," said Larry Martineau, a Rebuilding Together board member.

An architect, Martineau devisded nine skill tests that included a toilet seat toss.