Habitat For Humanity of Greater Newburgh hosted Framing Frenzy, an event dedicated to the construction of walls and frames for new future houses, during the weekend of April 14 and 15. Several hundred volunteers over the course of those two days helped contribute to Habitat’s efforts.

The newly created event welcomed Habitat partners from Dutchess and Ulster county as well from the Rochester area. The newly constructed frames will be used for housing projects located along South St in the City of Newburgh. On site were Habitat Newburgh Executive Director Jill Marie and Heidi Johnson, Community Advancement Director who were helping direct and engaging with volunteers during the day.

“‘I’m brand new with Habitat and this is our first major event since I started,” said Johnson. “It is quite humbling to see so many community organizations come out and support a great cause where we’re building walls that will house four families in the future.”

“Framing Frenzy comes from this space in which we are all in groups and putting together the walls, interior and exterior walls for the houses. But it’s actually a lot more than that, because we have team leaders who are teaching folks who may have never even hammered a wall or a nail. And so it’s an education space. It’s a community building space,” said Marie.
Over the course of the morning, volunteers were given various tools to help nail and hammer the frames together, while other volunteers helped with frame measurements and collecting the materials for the next frame. As the afternoon came, volunteers were able to stop for lunch and cooled as the sun rose.

“This is the first real big project that we’ve done. And I was a little nervous coming in with some of my students and how we were going to do but everybody’s jumping right in. Everybody’s having a good time. Working hard,” said Christopher Warren, Construction Manager of Newburgh YouthBuild.

“It’s nice to see everybody coming together to get projects done. It’s a good experience for at least a job for kids to get some on-site experience, learn how to frame up walls and why things go together the way they do and how to follow a blueprint,” said Tom Hillriegel, Instructor of Facility Maintenance for Delaware Valley Job Corps. “I think it makes everyone feel good to actually help out communities. There should be more volunteers coming.”

Habitat volunteers continued throughout the remainder of the hot afternoon putting up the frames for the new houses. Habitat volunteers and supporters will be together once again on Sunday, April 23, for the 24th annual Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh Walk for Housing. Event registration will begin at noon and the walk will kick off at 1 p.m. starting at Washington’s Headquarters on Liberty Street.