A Day in the Life of a Northern Ocean Habitat Volunteer Coordinator

After an inspiring day on the job, volunteer coordinator Lizzie shares what it’s like to spend a day with the Northern Ocean Habitat family.

This morning at 8:30am I met the Navy group at the ReStore before taking them to volunteer building a deck for a very deserving partner family. The father, Peter, has a prosthetic leg and was unable to go out on his very small back deck in his wheelchair, so Northern Ocean Habitat is making it bigger for him and easier to maneuver in and out of the door. We also widened the bathroom door and installed grab bars in his bathroom, as well as a few other things. Chris, our construction supervisor, welcomed the volunteers with open arms and, of course, was excellent with explaining everything to them and teaching them what to do.

After a little while, I left to meet one of our volunteers, Nancy, and a group from 21 Plus (a day program for adults with disabilities) to hang up Walk to Build posters in Seaside Heights. We were almost done and we walked into Optimum to see if we could hang a poster there. A gentleman named Frank overheard us talking about Habitat and told us to stop by Stewart’s Root beer after we were done to pick up a donation for the Walk to Build. We thanked him and said we would be by after. As we walked away, he rolled down the window of his car and told us not to eat anything before we went over there because he wanted to treat us to lunch. The 6 of us went over there and had a great lunch [hot dogs, burgers, fries, and root beer (obviously!!!)] and Frank gave us a sponsorship for the Walk to Build.

After that, I picked up pizza (one of the pies was donated) from Pizza and Panini and brought it back to the construction site for the Navy volunteers, who were all extremely grateful for lunch!

I must say, its days like today that truly make me realize how wonderful, thoughtful, compassionate, and generous people can be!

– Lizzie, Volunteer Coordinator