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Montpelier, VT
Change City

The "Geezer Team" Builds Homes and Hope in Vermont

Posted on 12/11/24 by Laura McDonough

You’d think that a group of retirees would spend their time on the Florida beaches, but not this crew!

You can regularly find this group of around thirty volunteers on a Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity (GMHFH) construction site every Tuesday and Thursday. They call themselves the Geezer Team, since their average age is over 70.

The Geezer Team builds homes for GMHFH, a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International. Along with generous donors and volunteers, GMHFH builds and sells affordable homes to hardworking, low-income families at cost. This program helps families gain stability, break cycles of poverty, and build generational wealth.

Many of these volunteers had no construction experience prior to volunteering with Habitat, but that didn’t stop them from continuing to volunteer week after week, year after year.

“The volunteers that make up our self-acclaimed Geezer team are an integral part of our home building program” said Caitlyn Conibear, Volunteer Manager at GMHFH. “They are all retired and many over the age of 75, and they still have so much to give to their community. They dedicate time, week after week to being out on the build site.”

The group has built several homes together in towns across Northwest Vermont, including Milton, Essex, Colchester, and Burlington. They are currently working on a duplex in Burlington’s New North End.

Over the past 40 years, GMHFH has built 117 homes and touched the lives of countless individuals from partner families and volunteers to donors and community members.

“It helps other people. I’ve seen some families who have changed their lives because of it,” Joe Lovering said in an interview with WCAX when they covered the Geezer Team in their Super Senior segment last summer.

The group prides themselves on building high-quality homes that are also energy efficient. Each home that the Geezer Team builds passes an inspection from Efficiency Vermont and receives an Energy Star rating. This helps keep utility costs low for partner families as well.

“Not only do the Geezers get a chance to get out of the house and hang out with a great group of people all supporting the same cause, but they have learned so many skills and talents while building more affordable homes that will soon go to local, deserving families in Northwest Vermont,” said Conibear.

To get involved with GMHFH, visit vermonthabitat.org/volunteer to learn more and register!

Geezer.png

This story is provided by AARP Vermont. Visit the AARP Vermont page for more news, events, and programs affecting retirement, health care, and more.

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