2019 Makeover Project: Westchester Townhouse

Every other year, the Westchester Rotary Club works with the community to do an extreme makeover project. This year, it was our pleasure and honor to work with the Westchester Townhouse located at 8501 Emerson Avenue in Westchester. Since 1945, the Townhouse has provided a free space for any youth group to meet. It is an amazing community resource and we were thrilled to be able to shine a bright light on the work that they do.
 
The project had several goals, including: 
  • Updating the bathrooms so that the facility was more ADA friendly
  • Create more storage space for the many activities in the Townhouse
  • Restoring a 40-year old mural in the main meeting space
  • Making the Townhouse a more welcoming and functional facility for the youth of Westchester/Playa Del Rey. 
Rotarians and other community volunteers got their hands (very) dirty over two weekends. During the first weekend, we demolished what was previously a kitchen and installed a storage area along with replacing their cabinets. Then some amazing professionals, such as The Kitchen Store, Construction Concern, TD Restoration, David Russell (muralist) and Rainbow Carpet did their work. 
 
For the second weekend, the volunteers (including many Westchester Townhouse users) then returned to paint, clean beams, and decorate to make the Townhouse look amazing. This culminated with a reveal party where the community and Townhouse users were invited to see how the space had been transformed. There were a lot of tears of joy and excitement around the "new" Westchester Townhouse!
 
This project could not have happened without the funds raised by Westchester Rotary and donations made by the Drollinger Family Foundation, the William H. Hannon Foundation, the Westchester Women's Club, and the Rotary Club of Westwood Village. 
 
 
 
2019 Westchester Townhouse Makeover documentary
 

Makeover Highlights

 

Westchester Rotarian Tom Johnstone demolishes the old kitchen. 

 

Rotarians Tori Hettinger, Valeria Velasco and Anna Kozma polish the Townhouse for it's reveal.

 

Westchester Girl Scouts, Rotarians, and neighbors see the transformed Westchester Townhouse for the first time. 

 

Westchester Rotarians pose next to one of the hand-painted benches that lended new curb appeal to the Westchester Townhouse facade.