To conclude National Volunteer Month, more than 130 volunteers from Universal Orlando Resort and the Golf Channel joined us to paint 10 homes in the Greater Washington Shores area of west Orlando. The event was part of Comcast Cares Day – NBCUniversal’s companywide celebration and the nation’s largest single-day corporate volunteer effort in the country.
One of the homes painted was that of Virona – a centenarian that has been taking care of others her entire life.
As we were giving her home a fresh coat of paint, she told us stories about volunteering for Meals on Wheels in her “younger days” (meaning in her 60’s and 70’s!). Virona didn’t just deliver meals, she delivered love and compassion.
Over time, she built relationships with the senior citizens she visited. Several of her elderly clients desperately needed to have their homes painted, but they were living on fixed incomes and simply didn’t have the financial resources to get the work done. Virona would go to the discount section of her local hardware store and buy paint with her own money. Then she would paint the houses all by herself!
Virona has given so generously to help others, which made it even more rewarding to help her in return. When we were finished painting, Virona looked at her home of 35 years with tears of joy in her eyes. She was actually jumping up and down as she exclaimed, “It looks like a brand new house! Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you have done for me! May God bless all of you and may God bless Habitat for Humanity!”
In addition to annually participating in Comcast Cares Day, through a Universal Orlando Foundation grant, Universal employees will paint and provide minor exterior repairs to 100 homes surrounding the Butler’s Preserve community by December 2016. To learn more about this Neighborhood Revitalization program, call 407-648-4567.
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