Sure, it’s hot, but would you prefer for example, floods that can wash your house away? Mudslides perhaps? Wildfires that reduce everything you own to ash? Maybe an earthquake?
When enduring Florida’s Dog Days of Summer its important to have the proper perspective. Just check out The Weather Channel and you’ll see that we perspiring Floridians are pretty Lucky Dogs, indeed.
Spent a bit of time in New York City with my son – my visit window managed to avoid 100-plus degree weather on the top end and storms and threat of tornadoes and damaging winds” on the bottom end.
He texted me that, the next day, the subway station he uses for work was flooded out and getting home was a bit challenging and a lot wet.
I got in touch, via e-mail, with the gal who heads some of the Habitat projects in NYC. Current projects include new construction as well as renovation projects in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Here’s a Habitat homeowner story that grabbed me:
Meet Theresa Lyde, Hart-Lafayette: Theresa Lyde will never forget the night she was accepted as a Habitat-NYC homeowner. Joy – and immense relief – swept over her as she returned to her crime-ridden neighborhood to tell her 17-year-old son Olufemi that they would soon be living in safety.
Later that night, as they slept, a young man was murdered on their doorstep.
That’s why you’ll see Theresa and Olufemi on Habitat-NYC construction sites whenever they can squeeze a few free minutes out of their lives.
Every panel of drywall that goes up, every brush full of paint, every drop of sweat equity brings them a little closer to an affordable home and a safe haven.
The Lyde family will be living in a two-bedroom condominium, one of the 16 Habitat homes now under construction in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Here in Indian River County, our future homeowners toil, like Theresa and Olufemi, putting in their Sweat Equity hours in whatever weather Mother Nature dishes out.
If you’d like to help Habitat provide decent, simple, safe homes for qualified famiies in need but, like most of us, your finances are not what they used to be – here’s a new program you might consider.
It’s called “Sponsor-A-Week” and it works like this – instead of shouldering the entire home sponsorship amount of $50,000, individuals or businesses can sponsor a week for a gift of just $4,200.
Thus you, along with all the other week sponsors, will have the joy of providing a home for/with a family, you’ll get involved with Habitat, be recognized during volunteer opportunities and home dedication ceremonies – and you’ll get to know the family you’ll be helping.
You can call Peggy Gibbs, 772-562-9860X209, if you’re interested.
Stay cool, hydrate and – have a good one.
Sam Baita, Public Relations
Indian River Habitat for Humanity
772.562.9860 X220
