ReStore: "It's Our Turn To Move! |
 A few minutes ago we received word from the city that we are now approved to stock the shelves at the new ReStore location: 51 Austin St. This has been a long time coming! At this time we need able bodied men and women who can help us in the following ways:
Those able to help should call the store (203-205-0952) to confirm your availability. Please leave a message if your call goes into voice mail. Our new ReStore is located at: 51 Austin St., Danbury (corner of Austin St. and Shalvoy's Lane; behind Dutchess Restaurant on White St.) For more information please contact the Habitat office: (203) 744-1340 or file:///mc/compose?to=info@housatonichabitat.orgrg |
Friday, April 1, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Crown Jewel
My story begins during the roaring 20’s, long before the stock market crash of 1929 in the bustlingly town of Danbury, CT. During this period and until the 1950’s, Danbury was known as the "Hat City’ as well as being a home for many manufacturing companies. During this growth period, new neighborhoods started to pop up. They started to move away from Main Street, the center of the town. Our neighborhood was built close to the grocery store and the elementary school called Locust Avenue. My neighbors and I were close in proximity to one another as we were built on 1/6 of an acre on Crown Street. In all, 23 homes were built and if you came to visit me, you would look for number 20.
As the neighborhood developed, I noticed a bond among the families. They looked out for one another, provided a helping hand to each other, celebrated and comforted each other during life’s ups and downs. Families took pride in us and made sure we looked our best both inside and out.
When the first family took residence inside my newly built walls, I was ready and willing to give them a place where they could feel secure, comfortable and build memories. I remember the family was amazed at how beautiful I looked and were impressed with the craftsmanship of my structure. I remember how proud they were of me. Oh how the family blossomed while they lived with me! What I remember most, were the meaningful conversations among the parents and children at dinner time, the laughter of the children as they played from room to room. I took great pleasure in comforting them as they slept peacefully during the night. How I loved it when families would decorate my walls with their pictures filled my space with furniture and other personal touches that made me a home. A place where they would retreat and enjoy each other’s company.
As the neighborhood developed, I noticed a bond among the families. They looked out for one another, provided a helping hand to each other, celebrated and comforted each other during life’s ups and downs. Families took pride in us and made sure we looked our best both inside and out. When I needed repairs in my younger years, I was tended to immediately. This kept me fit so that the family did not worry and was able to get on with their busy lives. Many years after the first family resided with me, there were other families that lived with me. Even though I missed the first family, I so enjoyed being able to provide the same comforts to each family.
Over time, my structure and other important systems began to show signs of age. I grew concerned. I did not know what would become of me. Would I no longer have families living with me? Would I no longer hear the sounds of a family enjoying living with me or appreciate what I could offer them? This was a sad period of my existence.2-13-11 Once, I thought I was going to receive the care I needed to keep me going for many years to come. I received a couple of new windows and the preparations for a fresh coat of paint, but suddenly it stopped. This was right around the time when the housing market took a nose dive and the economy was in dire straits. I was so disappointed! It appeared that I had reached the end of my useful life.
Then a ray of hope appeared one day in 2009. On this sunny spring day, people arrived in trucks to examine me. They wanted to see if I was worth the time and money for structural and cosmetic improvements. One person checked my rooftop, another checked the interior and yet another person checked my foundation. I did not know whether they would return. Did I pass the test? Would I receive the improvements necessary to continue serving families? Many days or was it weeks, went by, but no one else visited.
I tried not to get my hopes up to only be disappointed. But this time it was different. They came back! These folks were interested in restoring me back to my glory days. I heard bits and pieces of what could be done to me so that I could meet Danbury’s building codes. It was going to be a lot of work but they were up to the challenge. Through my cracked windows I saw a name on one of the vehicles – Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. I now knew that I would be saved; restored and best of all, a family will be living with me once more.. This Housatonic Habitat for Humanity group is well known throughout the community for giving homes like me, new life and making it a reality for a family to own a home. I looked out again and noticed another group – Shemin the Landscape Supply Company. This company is based in Danbury and has locations across a large portion of the United States for providing products ranging from plants and trees to tools and grass seed. I knew I was in good hands with this partnership.
The wall breaking ceremony took place on December 11, 2009 and so many representatives from Housatonic Habitat and Shemin were present to witness the start of a new me. Over the next few months many workers arrived with tools and materials in hand. They stripped me down to my studs and tore off the back side to make way for a new foundation to support an expanded kitchen and proper second story bathroom. Though I was vulnerable to the outside elements, I trusted the workers that all would go well.
In early 2010, I met my new family - Lester & Stephanie Lopez, Stephanie’s mother, Kathy and their son Danny. I was ecstatic knowing that I would once again hear the happy sounds of a family under my roof. New windows, new siding, and a new porch dramatically improved my appearance in the neighborhood. My neighbors and their families began to notice. And, not only was my physical structure being restored but also the grounds around me. My new outside was complemented by the addition of a new sidewalk, a freshly sodded lawn, a new driveway and fresh shrubs at my doorstep.
2-13-11 Then things really got moving inside. The first thing you will notice when you step inside is the openness of my first floor. My family will be able to be together even if they are in different areas. You will then notice I have a new staircase that leads to the sleeping quarters on the second floor. No more spiral stairs that made it difficult to climb up. I am giddy just thinking about all the new things that were added to me like the new bathrooms and kitchen that includes a new stove and refrigerator. The changes are too numerous to list. Lester and Stephanie can fill you in on the rest.
Thanks to the many community groups and individual volunteers, Housatonic Habitat, Shemin, and the sweat equity of the Lopez family, I am completely restored and new. I am ready to provide my new family with the comfort, warmth, and a stable foundation so that they can start building memories. I will once again hear the laughter of the children playing, meaningful family conversations; and my proud walls will be decorated with their family photos. Recently, I was thrilled to hear about a new addition to the household, another son named Tyler who was born in September on the 27th. I see he is here today.
To my new family. . . I dedicate myself to you to be your home and serve you the best I can today and into the future. I am now known as the Crown Jewel of the neighborhood!
Friday, December 10, 2010
“EVERYTHING!”
That’s what seven-year-old Darius loves about his new Habitat for Humanity home!
Darius had never celebrated Christmas in the same house twice before. His family had moved, year after year, from one cramped space to another, and Darius had never even had a room of his own. Every year, Darius had to make new friends, go to a new school, and ride a new bus. Darius could only dream of the stable life that all children deserve.
Today, Darius shares a bedroom with his older brother, by choice, and he’s getting ready for the day when he can finally move into the bedroom that’s already waiting for him down the hall. Today, Darius knows that his parents own this home, and that they will paint his bedroom purple if he asks them to. Darius feels safe now. He knows his family can stay in this house until he goes off to college or becomes a fireman.
This is not a fairy tale. Darius is just one of 38 truly deserving children whose lives have been transformed by the local efforts of Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. Darius smiles now, and he now looks forward to “Everything!” because Housatonic Habitat for Humanity helped his family with one very basic thing – having a decent place to live.
And Darius is not alone. Over the years, Housatonic Habitat for Humanity has helped 80 people achieve their dreams by helping them build and finance their own homes when otherwise they might never be able to. Our goal is and always has been stabilization, not quick fixes. Housatonic Habitat builds more than homes. We build lives. We build families, neighborhoods, and communities. We build solid bases of committed volunteers, and we strengthen the towns we work with. We build community.
And when economic conditions make the lives of deserving families all the more difficult, we at Housatonic Habitat for Humanity feel compelled to do even more to keep their lives intact. Our model is simple and effective. We start by carefully screening truly deserving families, choosing only those with strong work ethics, limited incomes, no criminal records, and a willingness to join us for at least 400 hours in building their homes.
Then we build. The homes we create are modest by Fairfield county standards -- three bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths -- and lack many of the routine amenities that most of us take for granted. We acquire land or homes in need of repair in areas on the upswing, and we use teams of dedicated volunteers to improve those properties.
But our impact goes far beyond the homes we actually lay hands on. Our projects almost inevitably reinvigorate the neighborhoods we work in. Often, as we begin transforming what is typically the most run down house on the block, neighbors will just start showing up to work with us as we put up walls and lay floors. Just as often, nearby homeowners start sprucing up their own properties, and suddenly the neighborhood improvement that Housatonic Habitat for Humanity aims for begins taking on a life of its own. By then, often and not least, many local companies begin donating manpower, appliances, and money, laying a solid and lasting foundation for the resurrection of a street, a block, a neighborhood.
The families we’ve helped are no longer part of state or federal rental subsidy programs. They contribute to the tax base, build personal equity, and add their share to our local economies. And nearly all Housatonic Habitat homeowners will stay in their homes for thirty years or more, putting an end to what might otherwise be a series of unending downward spirals.
Today, in Danbury alone, there are 600 people on the waiting list for affordable apartments, and another 450 waiting for Section 8 rental assistance. That means that over 1,000 families are struggling to survive in typically substandard housing right alongside us, right here in one of the most affluent states in the nation. These are our neighbors, and, like Darius’ family, they are hardworking, decent people who just want their own front porch. We offer them a hand up, not a handout. We build floors so they can build lives, and together we can all build better communities.
The Habitat for Humanity model moves people out of the assistance cycle and into economic and family stability. Please give generously and help us to do more. With your generous support, we can acquire more properties, build more homes, stabilize more families, revitalize more neighborhoods, and together build a more sustainable community, a community that we can all be proud to be part of. Together we can give these deserving, hardworking families a chance they will get nowhere else. Please help us keep pulling good people off long waiting lists.
Please help us give another seven year old boy a purple bedroom. We can only do it with your help.
Your gift means: “Everything!”
Mary Aly
Executive Director
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Local Boy Scouts have raised over $40,000 to build homes for deserving families
Ridgefielders bring their deposit only plastic bottles and aluminum cans to donate to the program. Every weekend the scouts - from 3 Ridgefield boy scout troops and 2-3 cub scout packs- empty the bins, sorting the bottles from cans and bagging them for pick up.
Ridgefielders can bring their deposit containers (no glass) to the ScoutsCAN bins adjacent to the Ridgefield Recycling Center on South Street. Ridgefielders have been extremely generous in donating their deposit bottles and cans to this program. They forgo redeeming the deposit for themselves and separate out the bottles and cans from the rest of their recyclables that they drop off at the recycling center.
Housatonic Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization and depends on donations like this to fund their mission. HHFH seeks to eliminate poverty housing from sixteen towns in western Connecticut and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. In view of that vision, HHFH mobilizes the local community to provide responsible homeownership opportunities to families with limited income.
Housatonic Habitat for Humanity covers New Canaan, Wilton, Weston, Redding, Ridgefield, Danbury, Bethel, Brookfield, New Fairfield, Sherman, New Milford, Bridgewater, Roxbury, Gaylordsville, Newtown and Washington.
For more information, call 203-744-1392 or email info@housatonichabitat.org with Scouts CAN in the subject line.
Photo Caption: Ridgefield Cub Scout Den #10 from BES Pack 126 collecting recyclable deposit-only plastic bottles and cans for
Housatonic Habitat for Humanity.From left-to-right are: Brett Anderson, Carter Anderson, Malcolm McGrath, Peter Kirchner, and Paul McCarthy.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Ridgefield mother-daughter team starts project to aid Habitat for Humanity
By the News Times
RIDGEFIELD -- Ridgefield residents Anna Zukowski and her mom, Lisa Gillingham, have launched a new project to benefit Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. They have put together a team in their hometown to host demolition sales. The pair arranges with homeowners tearing down or renovating their homes to let contractors come in with their own tools to remove usable items like appliances, light fixtures, counter tops, cabinets, and trim work. The business is "cash and carry." The team is initiating the project in Ridgefield, Wilton and New Canaan, and the goal is to include all 16 towns covered by Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. Anna is a sophomore honor student at Ridgefield High School. Her mother is the senior vice president of Customer Service and Operations at Priceline.com.
RIDGEFIELD -- Ridgefield residents Anna Zukowski and her mom, Lisa Gillingham, have launched a new project to benefit Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. They have put together a team in their hometown to host demolition sales. The pair arranges with homeowners tearing down or renovating their homes to let contractors come in with their own tools to remove usable items like appliances, light fixtures, counter tops, cabinets, and trim work. The business is "cash and carry." The team is initiating the project in Ridgefield, Wilton and New Canaan, and the goal is to include all 16 towns covered by Housatonic Habitat for Humanity. Anna is a sophomore honor student at Ridgefield High School. Her mother is the senior vice president of Customer Service and Operations at Priceline.com.
Published: 04:19 p.m., Friday, November 19, 2010
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