DICKSON CITY - Home- owners from throughout the region joined with volunteers and leaders of NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania to celebrate the organization's 30th anniversary of helping create and preserve responsible homeownership.
What started as a nonprofit organization that helped a neighborhood in Scranton in 1982 then grew to help the entire city and then the county. Now it helps people throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.
To recognize longevity and success in helping homeowners, the organization's staff invited volunteers and people who have benefited from home repairs, homeowner education workshops, foreclosure prevention and other services to help people in area communities.
"Being around for three decades doesn't happen by accident," said the organization's executive director, Jessie J. Ergott.
In three years, the organization has helped 116 people renting a place to live to buy a home. According to the organization, its total direct investment in communities in the most recent three years has been more than $16 million.
NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania is one of more than 230 affiliates of the larger organization, NeighborWorks America, a congressionally funded program. Eileen M. Fitzgerald, CEO of the national organization, joined more than 250 people at the gathering at Genetti Manor. She said the local nonprofit has positioned itself to continue helping people own homes, which strengthens communities.
"We're confident your next 30 years will be even stronger and have even more of an impact," Ms. Fitzgerald told the group.
At the gathering, photos were displayed of people who had received assistance from the organization to help buy a home or help homeowners at risk of foreclosure keep their home. For years in Carbondale, the organization has held NeighborsWorks Week, where young people from throughout the United States visit to help with construction projects.
Nancy Zenker of Carbondale attended the celebration with her husband and daughter. She said young people helped replace the unsteady back porch at her house with a more sturdy structure and painted her daughter's room.
"I'm so blessed to have this work done," Mrs. Zenker said. "They're just a blessing."
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