Marlane Straka, 74, of St. Paul sat in the house built for her in 1972, listening to Eric Clapton and talking about the good old days.

Widowed for 21 years, on a fixed income and using a cane to get about, Straka admitted she had given up on getting her leaky faucets fixed.

“The handle comes off, the water drips. I just stopped using the outdoor faucet. I’m not a plumber,” she said.

Those leaks were fixed Saturday, thanks to a program called Water’s Off, which combines the skills and materials of volunteer union plumbers, contractors and community action leaders to provide free plumbing repairs and inspections to folks like Straka.

The program, which began in 1994, has since provided more than 11,000 hours of free labor to more than 3,500 households in the state at a value of more than $1.5 million.

This year, the event focused on the Twin Cities and Rochester, with 200 volunteer plumbers working in 80 residences, 25 of them in St. Paul.

Many of the volunteers were apprentices ranging in age from 19 to 30. Tom McCarthy, of the St. Paul Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 34, said these young people are not slackers.

“To see these young men and women out there donating to their community … it’s pretty impressive,” he said.

When a resident needs financial assistance and qualifies for Community Action Partnership (CAP) of Ramsey and Washington Counties’ energy assistance — a program that helps people pay their heating and electric bills — their names are put on a list for other projects, such as Water’s Off, explained Kevin Adams, assistant director of energy programs for CAP.

That’s how Straka got a letter in the mail asking if she also needed help with plumbing issues.

She responded and was approved for the repairs, a job that would have cost her several hundred dollars.

Adams said many of those letters were sent out, but only the first 25 in St. Paul who responded got their projects approved.

“We would do more, we just need more volunteers,” he said.

Besides plumbers, the project also needs materials. That’s where the contractors come in. On average, contractors, many of them family-owned businesses, donate more than $60,000 in materials.

“How many times do you see unions and management working together like this?” McCarthy joked.

Volunteering Saturday in the Twin Cities were union plumbers from Minneapolis Plumbers Local 15 and the St. Paul Plumbers Local 34, the Minnesota Mechanical Contractors Association and Metro Plumbing Heating and Cooling Contractors.

Those in need of Water’s Off services should contact CAP at 651-645-6445 or online at caprw.org.