DEADWOOD - Reva VanDerVorst got a welcome surprise this week when the Neighborhood Housing Services of the Black Hills sent a volunteer group to give her house a fresh new coat of paint.

"It's surprising, and I think it's going to be real nice when they're done with it," VanDerVorst of Deadwood said.

She has lived in the small home on the hill on Pleasant Street since her husband built the house in 1960. VanDerVorst didn't even know her house was nominated for the project because her daughter secretly submitted her name.

"It needed it anyway," she said.

About 20 volunteers surrounded the house Saturday morning as part of the Paint the Town project and splattered the outer walls white with red sienna trim.

Volunteer Joy McCracken of Deadwood has participated in the project since the very beginning 14 years ago.

"It's a heartwarming event to get a bunch of neighbors together to paint someone's home and when you're done it's something to be real proud of," she said.

Homes for the program are chosen by the owner's amount of need and their own ability to do the upkeep.

"She's an elderly lady and obviously, physically, can't do it herself; and her financial means are very limited. Without the help, the house probably wouldn't be painted," McCracken said.

This year, the NHS chose five homes and has more than 250 volunteers. Two houses in Deadwood and one in Lead, Central City and Sturgis will all get much needed attention this summer.

McCracken said when the program started they painted only one house and had only 24 volunteers.

She added that the program grew out of another local painting project.

"The Historic Preservation has an exterior paint group paint program where the residents in Deadwood can get $500 worth of paint to paint the homes and when they launched (Paint the Town) 14 years ago, we decided to do our volunteer project to help launch their program," she said.