Month: October 2020

30 Oct

HBL & Hand In Hand Ministries 2019

by Aziel Cowo in News
HBL & Hand In Hand Ministries 2019

Heritage Bank & Hand In Hand Ministries - Partner to build home for deserving citizen!

"If everyone helps to hold up the sky, then one person does not become tired." - Askhari Johnson Hodari. As we read this quote, we instantly reflected on this year's house build with Hand in Hand Ministries. Building a house seemed farfetched as it is a very tedious and time consuming project. However, with team work and determination, the HBL and Hand in Hand Ministries crew completed it in 3 days.

The House Build started in the afternoon of October 9th and finished on October 11th. The first day was the most important day because we had to set the walls together and ensure it was levelled perfectly. The second and third day is when all the details like installing the windows and doors, the roof, and the paint job was completed. Ms. Smith and her family assisted in any way possible and it was amazing to get to know her and help to build her home at the same time.

This was a heartwarming and unforgettable experience. It definitely instilled gratitude and humility in everybody that contributed to Ms. Smith's home. At the start of the House Build, we had no experience in building a house. However, we felt extremely knowledgeable after completing this project thanks to the Hand in Hand Ministries. Majority of us felt little to no fatigue in the end because we kept a positive mindset and completed the task with passion and love. Seeing Ms. Smith's tears of joy almost brought tears to our eyes as well because we felt like one big family. As Bob Marley once said, "One love!".

Contributed by: David Sabido, Administration Support

 

 

 

29 Oct

HBL & Hand In Hand Ministries

by Aziel Cowo in News
HBL & Hand In Hand Ministries

Heritage Bank & Hand In Hand Ministries - Partner to build home for deserving citizen!

This year marked the second time around that Heritage Bank has teamed up with Hand in Hand Ministries to ‘Lend a Hand and Change a Life,’ and we are honored to have helped them built the 360th home for a deserving family. NGO’s such as Hand in Hand Ministries can’t do it alone therefore it was our honor to once again be a part of this endeavor. To make this a success each payday our staff members committed to giving a dollar towards this initiative and the bank matches the remaining cost of the house.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine of work and our social life that we often take things that we have for granted. Giving back to the community was an eye opener to many of our staff members because it made us much more appreciative of what we have. It also gave us the opportunity to see a part of the community that many of us don’t get to see very often.

I was a bit skeptical about how we could even finish an entire house within three days, but we did it, because we knew we had a job to get done and we were determined to finish within the expected timeframe. On the second day the manual labor started to take a toll on most of our bodies and that’s when most of us started to say how grateful we were for our office job. Mr. Ferguson and his family were there every day and helped in whichever way they could have. Despite being confined to a wheelchair Mr. Ferguson tried to be around all the action, and if he could have gotten up to help he would have.

I knew we all felt a great sense of gratitude as we saw the house come together and we knew that we had played a vital role in building it. Mr. Ferguson’s wife kept saying “this is not a house, but a mansion.” Indeed, it was just a house to many of us but to her and her family it was a mansion. After three days of hard work the smiles on their faces were all that mattered to us. We had not only built a home for a deserving family, but we developed a bond and gained another family. The Heritage Family is growing and as long as we are fortunate we will continue to give back to the community because the biggest reward is realizing that we’ve made a significant change in someone’s life.

Contributed by: Cherrange Velasquez, Human Resources Support