'Home Sweet Home' is Almost a Reality for Local Family

February 28, 2014

On February 1, a crew of Brookhaven Lab volunteers revisited Woodlawn Drive, located in the waterfront hamlet of Mastic Beach, to help with the next phase of construction on a new home that Kimberly Gilbreath and her teenage daughter Ryan will soon be able to call home. Gilbreath, a veteran of the U.S. Army, made a home wherever she was stationed, but following her military service, she returned to Long Island to care for her parents while working as a job coordinator for homeless veterans.

Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk teamed up with sponsors Bank of America, National Grid, and Brookhaven Science Associates (the company that manages Brookhaven National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy) to help build the home for Gilbreath. BSA donated $10,000 to this project, half of the $20,000 it gave to Habitat for Humanity as part of BSA’s Hurricane Sandy relief effort. 

During this recent visit to Woodlawn Drive, Brookhaven volunteers installed and sealed the fiberglass insulation in the new home. In September 2013, volunteers helped raise the walls of the house, add sheathing, and attach hurricane straps that will help provide protection from future storms. According to Walt Mackey, a construction crew leader for Habitat for Humanity, the framing is done, the electrical and plumbing inspections are complete, and the work is on schedule with a completion date projected for the summer of 2014. 

“In usual fashion, Brookhaven Lab volunteers have come together to help our neighbors,” said Brookhaven Lab’s Interim Community Relations Manager Nora Sundin. “I think we all share in Kimberly’s excitement as we watch the construction progress.”

“It’s been a lifelong dream to own my own house where I can raise my daughter,” Gilbreath said on her homeownership application to Habitat for Humanity. “It will give us a sense of stability.”

Her dream is about to become reality.

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