Nearly two decades after it debuted at Huntington High School, the Habitat for Humanity club is still doing whatever it can to provide housing for those in desperate need of it, both near and far.
Huntington’s club chapter has always drawn committed and energetic students and this year is no different. Robert Gilmor III is the organization’s founding faculty advisor. He is just as enthusiastic today as he has ever been about the group’s mission.
Huntington Habitat founder Robert Gilmor III.
Mr. Gilmor organized the club in 2003, shortly after he joined the high school’s faculty as a dean of students. Since then the group has pursued projects on Long Island, in the great New York metropolitan area and in several southern cities on week-long trips during school vacation periods.
“We are trying to put together a build that will happen in May or June,” said Aaron Chin, who serves as the club president. “We are also trying to put together a fundraiser at Johnny D’s Pizza, but that is not definite and still in the works as well. We also hope to do some builds in the summer and go on a trip if safety protocols enable us to do so.”
Raising funds to support its efforts is vital to the success of the club. But fundraising over the past 13 months has been extremely difficult due to limits imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, club members are positive thinkers and the group is developing several ideas to generate monies.
“I know the officers have been working hard to plan some fundraiserd to close out this year,” Victoria Befumo said. “Ideally as a club we will be able to plan a summer local build similar to the experience we had at the build we went on during February break.”
The Huntington Habitat club welcomes new members of any grade level. It also hopes to receive community support and even corporate sponsorship. Interested in joining the campaign to make the world a better place? Send a message to Mr. Gilmor at rgilmor@hufsd.edu.