Sometimes an offer of help hits unexpectedly close to home. This happened recently when a group of Riverside volunteers offered to take part in Habitat for Humanity’s National Women Build Week. It turns out the recipient of the home in Hampton will be a Riverside team member.
“That made it all the more gratifying,” said Sally Ryan, Vice President of Physician Services and Chief Operating Officer for Riverside Medical Group. She lent her skills to the project on May 6 along with nine others from Riverside.
National Women Build Week is held each year before Mother’s Day. It’s a chance for women to learn and use construction skills. It also helps volunteers make a personal contribution to improving the affordable housing crisis in our community and across the nation.
LaToya Crippen is the Riverside team member who will be moving into the home with her two children when it’s completed in August. “Finding out I was qualified to be part of the Habitat for Humanity program, applying and then learning I would be a recipient, was a lot to take in. I’m still processing it. One of the requirements is 200 hours of sweat equity, so I’ve been working on the house since construction started. I’m very appreciative that volunteers from Riverside are involved during National Women Build Week. There’s a lot to be grateful for and I feel very blessed.”
Riverside Senior Vice President Sally Hartman, another volunteer on the project, believes community service is just as important for the giver as it is for the receiver. “For me, what Habitat for Humanity accomplishes is important work and I’m glad to be even a small part of it,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we can do to improve our communities and I encourage everyone to get involved with something you’re passionate about. Most likely you’ll get more out of it than you put in.”