Habitat volunteers tackle Waldwick home to house four families

The Record - May 5, 2011
BY ALLISON PRIES
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Volunteers toiled inside and out at a Wyckoff Avenue condominium Thursday that will soon be home to four local families.
                                                                

A half dozen men and women used pick axes and shovels to dislodge stones from the dirt in front of a converted 1790s Dutch colonial. Inside the four units, tiles and laminate flooring were laid and walls were getting a second coat of paint.

The renovation is being done by Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County and will result in homeownership for families who now live in cramped apartments in Mahwah, Ramsey, Waldwick and Hackensack.

Extra hands were on site Thursday to help bring the project closer to its expected August completion. About two dozen people from Franklin Lakes-based BD, a medical technology company, and Habitat’s Cars for Homes program pitched in with a full day’s work.

Several representatives from Cars for Homes, a component of Habitat for Humanity International, were in Waldwick as the third stop on their “Jersey Road Trip.” The week-long event brought Habitat employees and volunteers from across the country to work at project sites in Summit and West Orange.

Friday they will help weatherize a 20-year-old Habitat home on Main Street in Paterson by siding, insulating and patching the home’s drywall.

“I love to come out and do the physical work,” said Marcia Rundle, who runs the Cars for Homes program from her house in Montana. “It’s great meeting the families and volunteers.”

Four North Jersey Habitat affiliates – Bergen County, Paterson, Newark and Morris County – won a challenge grant from Cars for Homes, which sells donated cars or scraps them to raise money that is used for building projects. Cars for Homes will match the money raised through cars donated in honor of the four affiliates between November 2010 and June 30, 2011, up to $100,000.

“These affiliates are awesome,” Rundle said. “Each one had a project that had something to do with restoring, recycling or making a building green.”   Read the rest of the article here