Eight Days of Hope lends a hand to Buffalo’s Ellicott District

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Eight Days of Hope volunteers are donating their time to the City of Good Neighbors.

Throughout this week, more than 1,500 volunteers from all over the country and Canada are helping lift ladders and lend a hand to neighbors in the Ellicott District in Buffalo.

Our goal is to serve as many people as possible,” president Steve Tybor said. “We have an old housing stock in Buffalo, and working with about 95 churches and different businesses, and all of these volunteers, we’re going to help out hundreds of families with roofing and brand new windows painting their house, fixing their porches, and so much more.”

For the past five years they’ve picked a district in Buffalo and offered roofing, painting and paint removal, landscaping and more. This year’s mission is to help renovate more than 100 homes and transform JFK Park.

I love these people, there’s a lot of my friends, people I don’t see unless [there’s] a disaster, and there’s people I haven’t seen in a year or two,” volunteer Jim Dobmeier, of Lancaster, said. “It’s like old home day, everybody’s here it’s great to see all of my friends.”

“I have made friends with people that I have nothing in common with,” said Joe Bobo, a volunteer from Winchester, Ohio. “Except for our love for the lord and it’s like another family.”

For more information on the group, click here.

Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here .