HAMPTON ROADS — Volunteers for Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg came together to make a positive impact on their community.
More than 150 volunteers joined together on the East End of Newport News on Saturday, Oct. 16 as part of the first Repair Blitz since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Habitat for Humanity’s Home Repair Program sees the nonprofit partner with municipalities, housing authorities and local businesses to help low-income homeowners in Hampton, Newport News and James City County neighborhoods make repairs to their homes.
The program holds repair days in the fall and spring, but has been on hold since the start of the pandemic.
This year, volunteers, with the help of skilled team leaders, helped repair 11 homes by toting trash to the curb, painting siding, railings and fences and caulking doorways and windows.
The homes chosen belong to the elderly, those who are disabled, are veterans, or are lower-income homeowners who are unable to maintain their aging houses.
Several local organizations and businesses, including Yorktown’s KirkWood Presbyterian Church, led teams to aid in these repairs.
Volunteers included local business owners, high school students and military members. Fort Eustis soldiers took down an awning on the front porch, carried bags of trash from the backyard and took down overgrown bamboo in the yard.
Criner Remodeling, a longtime sponsor of Habitat repair days, performed prework prior to the event.
“I think doing something like this really brings everybody together; it’s just a great sense of community,” Paul Criner, Vice President of Criner Remodeling, said. “My family’s been doing this forever. It’s in my blood.”
The next local Habitat Repair Blitz event will be held in spring 2022.
For more information about Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, visit here.
