Partner Families in the Walk for Housing on Sunday.
By Nancy Peckenham
Habitat for Humanity’s 12th annual Walk for Housing started quickly this year, led by a half dozen runners from Newburgh Free Academy who sprinted out on the 5K course shortly after 2 pm on Sunday, April 3rd. The crowd had gathered under sunny skies in the Ann Street parking lot, where the rousing drums of Jeff Haynes and the Newburgh Percussion Ensemble got everyone ready to take off.
Some 600 people followed the runners along a course that wound down Washington Street to William Street, then up Hasbrouck to Mill Street then on to Newburgh Heights, passing houses that have been built or restored by Habitat for Humanity along the way.
NFA track runners lead off the Walk for Housing.
Habitat’s partner families led the walkers. They are people who have taken ownership of some of the 43 different homes that the group has rehabbed or built in the city of Newburgh since 1999. Habitat’s goal is to provide safe, decent and affordable homes to these families that can help them break out of a cycle of poverty.
Many church and civic groups, including labor unions that donate much needed construction skills, raise the funds and gather the volunteers who work on the houses. On Sunday, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians along with students from SUNY New Paltz, Mount Saint Mary, West Point and Marist took part in the Walk for Housing, which ended back at the Habitat for Humanity headquarters on Washington Street. Musicians Osinski and Henderson entertained the walkers on their return.
Members of the Cruz family welcomed walkers to their Hasbrouck St. house.
The walk was not just a celebration of what has been accomplished. It also provided an upclose view of the abandoned and dilapidated housing that is still a common sight on the streets of Newburgh. Maureen Crush, the president of Greater Newburgh Habitat for Humanity, reminded walkers before they set out that they will be seeing tneglected properties that saturate each block. “You may be uncomfortable as you pass through these areas. There would be something wrong if you weren’t. The need is great; so great, that it cannot be ignored,” she said.
Habitat reports that there are 1,800 Newburgh families that qualify for a Habitat home. This year’s walk raised, at last count, $35,000 that will be put to work to rescue other properties.
Walkers attracted the attention of local residents, too.
Marci Gurton, who is the group’s director of development, stressed that Walk for Housing was a community event that it couldn’t have happened without the support of local businesses, including Barton Chevrolet Cadillac, the Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, and Nannini & Callahan Excavating. Dr. Lane McEwan has been participating in the Smiles for Life campaign – where people can get professional teeth whitening at 50% off and raise money for Habitat – through June 30th.
Gurton also acknowledged the involvement of students from Newburgh Free Academy. Nearly 50 Junior ROTC students volunteered over the weekend, cleaning the streets on the route beforehand) and students in the film department created commercials to publicize the event that were aired on Time Warner Cable for free.
Loading...
