Eight Days of Hope Helps Buffalo Residents in Need: Free Home Repairs

Buffalo, New York (WBEN) – Eight Days of Hope, a nonprofit organization that helps provide for communities during natural disasters and other tumultuous times, is helping build a better Buffalo this week with free home repairs for homeowners in need in Buffalo’s Ellicott neighborhood.

Kim Lackey, director of Eight Days of Hope Buffalo, says this is the fifth year of service. Each year, the organization helps a different district in the city of Buffalo.

“We’ve worked Fillmore, University and Masten, last year it was Lovejoy and this year it’s Ellicott District,” Lackey told WBEN Friday.

“When we first came in and started the outreach in Buffalo in general, our founder, Steve Tybor, met with the mayor and the council members that were there at the time and just worked with them to think about who was on board with this. Everyone was so happy to have us here in the city and we’ve found wonderful partners every year. So this year, we’re just working with the city to see where the greatest needs are. What’s a district that we haven’t visited that we can love and serve? That’s our motto, we want to love and serve the brokenhearted.”

More than 1,600 volunteers from over 60 organizations in 37 states across the country started this Saturday, and many volunteers worked in the City of Good Neighbors for most or all of the 8 days. Volunteers will work on projects such as roofing, painting, window installation, landscaping, porch repairs and more.

“That’s a record number for us, if they all come. But last year we had 200 walk-ins the first day, so those are people who just come because they heard about it and they come and want to serve. It’s amazing to see that kind of energy, people from the Buffalo area wanting to serve in that way.”

Lackey says the work is long but rewarding. They have an orientation at 7 a.m. and leave for work at 8 a.m. They eat lunch on site and finish work every day at 4 p.m.

In addition to home repairs, a group of volunteers will also be working at JFK Park this year and groups will also perform lawn care services for the district.

“We’re going to be beautifying, working on the baseball field, the playgrounds, the mini-amphitheater, they have basketball courts. And then we also have a separate thing we call Love and Serve Lawn Care. We go door to door on different streets in the Ellicott neighborhood and beautify the yards that they have (like) planting flowers, putting down mulch and pulling weeds,” Lackey added.

To learn more about how you can donate your time to Eight Days of Hope and if you would like to sign up to receive updates, click here.