A day to pay it forward

Habitat for Humanity holds MLK Jr. volunteer day event

By Lina Wu
Posted 1/22/20

For more than 20 years, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh has been restoring homes and doing their part in making the City of Newburgh a better place. The organization held its annual Martin …

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A day to pay it forward

Habitat for Humanity holds MLK Jr. volunteer day event

Posted

For more than 20 years, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh has been restoring homes and doing their part in making the City of Newburgh a better place. The organization held its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day volunteer day event this past Monday. Close to 100 volunteers worked with Habitat for the event.

Every year the event has gone off without a halt but last year the event had to be rescheduled for President’s Day, because of dangerous weather.

This year, volunteers worked on six sites. Two sites were community partner sites. The two community partner sites were the Newburgh Ministry and Head Start of Orange County. At each site, volunteers worked on painting, insulation, demolition, or a general spruce up. Children under 16 were also given the opportunity to paint birdhouses that will be donated.

“This event is the best day to me of Habitat,” said Amy Gigliuto, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh Operations Manager, “Because it puts on display what we as an organization and really as human beings are capable of. So, we can come together and have really a huge impact on the work that we do but just also the community at large.”

Volunteers for the event signed up through Newburgh.volunteerhub.com or called to sign up at (845) 568-6035, extension 110.

The purpose of the event was to honor the spirit of service exemplified by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s work.

“Doing this day of service in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is important,” said Councilman Anthony Grice. “At the same time, we cannot lose focus of all the other causes he took up.”

“We can’t lose focus of decent housing. We can’t lose focus of worker’s rights. We can’t lose focus of equity and access throughout society.”

Grice was one of many volunteers on Monday. He’s brought his family to the volunteer day event every year for the past four years. Grice went to Head Start as a child and later taught at Head Start. Grice had hoped to work at the Head Start site, but worked on painting at the Newburgh Ministry. Still, he was grateful to have an opportunity to give back to the community.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh is one of many organizations in the City of Newburgh that focuses on giving back to the community. Habitat offers finished restored homes at an affordable price to residents of the city. The organization completed 100 homes this past fall. Their work has helped increase home ownership without the risk of displacement throughout the city.