A 'mind-blowing' experience: Good Neighbor Week helping homeowners with repairs

Building a village through home improvement. This week marks the 5th year of Good Neighbor Week in Green Bay.

• Video shows neighbors, Home Depot volunteers and Mayor Eric Genrich assisting a local homeowner with minor home repairs.
  
• This week marks Good Neighbor Week — a time encouraging community engagement and free home repair assistance.
  
• You can apply or nominate a neighbor repair assistance or property improvements on Neighborworks Green Bay website
  
• The application opens again Spring 2025. More volunteers are encouraged by organizers to sign up as well.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

"This is an amazing opportunity we were given," Amy Patrick of Green Bay, said.

Wednesday marks home repair day for Amy Patrick.

"It's definitely long overdue and it's great to see that it's going to be done today," Patrick said.

She also has a lot of helping hands. That's because she was chosen for free home improvements during Green Bay's Good Neighbor Week.

Her home is one of 14 projects that help alleviate the challenges of home repair.

Amy and her husband applied for additional assistance after juggling at-home projects, their growing family and the loss of her father.

"When I applied and was accepted, I was excited because I was going to be able to learn from them while getting our house updated at the same time," Patrick said.

Homeowners can apply for home repair assistance in the spring through Neighborworks Green Bay.

Volunteers and local organizations groups are then assigned to accepted projects.

Video shows Green Bay mayor, Eric Genrich, taking part in the action. He says this week is simply about getting to know your neighbors.

"In this case, lend a hand, if there's a project that people are in need of doing and can't necessarily handle it on their own, that's what we're doing here," Mayor Genrich said.

"It's mind-blowing," Patrick said. "I'll watch HGTV and watch other people do it, but to actually be in the middle of it, it's exciting."

Amy and her family moved into their house in Fall 2021. She said she's seen tremendous improvement since the first day they moved in.

"It goes from being a house you bought, to a home you made," Patrick said.

She said with everything her family is learning, they plan to renovate the second floor on their own.

Projects for Good Neighbor Week run through Thursday and applications open again in the spring.

The Good Neighbor Week committee and NeighborWorks Green Bay are also looking for more volunteers in order to take on more projects in the future.