Latest news with #HosannaIndustries
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
EXCLUSIVE: Cambria County Veteran will receive brand-new home for free
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — After interviewing five candidates on Saturday at the War Memorial Arena, a panel of representatives selected the veteran who would receive a new home, free of charge. WTAJ received an exclusive interview with the candidate on Sunday. Darren Hill served in the U.S. Navy from 1987 to 1994 after graduating from high school. In 2006, he moved back to Johnstown, where he started to get involved in the community and his local church. Hill was selected as the recipient of a brand-new free house through the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, Vision Together 2025 and Hosanna Industries. He will live in the home with his family. 'I wasn't confident that someone like me would win something like this,' Hill said. The home will be constructed on Somerset Street in Johnstown and gifted by the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, led by JWF Industries President William Polacek. 'Truly deserving veteran, who was in need of a home. And we're happy to be able to provide him with one. So it's been great from beginning to this point. And, it's gone so well that the plan is to continue to do this. This is going to be the first of hopefully many, many veteran homes in the Johnstown community. So it's been great,' The newly constructed home will be built with the latest in sustainable and accessible design to provide comfort and security for the future. 'I feel blessed, I feel like a long time coming because I really need a home that's going to be brand new, and I don't have to worry about all the maintenance and having to fix something up. So I feel really blessed,' Hill said. It will be a 864-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house built by Hosanna Industries. 'Building new opportunities in Johnstown, not only for Mr. Hill and his daughter and his aunt, but the community at large, is very, very rewarding. Johnstown is such a special town, and we were starting to see a lot of really great energy come to the town,' Brian Hetzer, Construction Services Supervisor for Hosanna Industries, said. Volunteers will begin construction for the new home in July, and it is estimated to take four days. Hetzer said the blitz build is a four-day process of organized chaos. On the first day, there are between 50 and 100 volunteers. The foundation will already be in the ground with the walls waiting to be erected. By the end of the first day, there's a complete structure with siding on it, windows and doors installed. The roof is on, and all of the electrical, plumbing, and heating systems are completely done and inspected. The second day, insulation, drywall and mudding are also completed. By the evening of the second day, the house is painted on the inside. On the third day, volunteers start installing the flooring, doors and trim, as well as the cabinetry and work on the outside decks. On the last day, all of the furnishings are moved in, and the house is dedicated. If you would like to volunteer your time or services, visit the Hosanna Industries website, or call the office at (724)-770-0262 and ask to speak with the Volunteer Coordinator. Hetzer said volunteers of all types are needed, including plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Veteran selected for new home to be 'blitz' built in Johnstown; recipient to be introduced later
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A veteran has been selected to be the recipient of a brand-new free house through a collaborative project of the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, Vision Together 2025 and Hosanna Industries. A panel of representatives from local veterans organizations made the pick after privately interviewing five finalists on Saturday. The application process was open to honorably discharged veterans from Cambria and Somerset counties with dependents, who met other criteria regarding military service, community involvement and personal finances. The home, which will be constructed on Somerset Street in Johnstown, will be gifted by the Polacek Veteran Home Initiative, led by JWF Industries CEO and Chairman Bill Polacek. 'Bill has a very respectful understanding of veterans and service members because a good portion of his business is involved in that,' said retired Army Col. Jeff Pounding, who helped organize the application and selection process. 'And he has a very good sense of honor.' Pounding said the groups will now figure out when to introduce the recipient to the community. The entire process is expected to move quickly. Vision is currently undergoing the legal steps to acquire the property and prepare it for construction. Allegheny County-based Hosanna Industries is expected to do a blitz build from July 14-17. A foundation will be established before that time. Then, over four days, volunteers plan to construct an entirely new home that will be ready to move into, with flowers on the table and towels in the bathroom, on the 17th. It will be a 1,000-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch house. 'We've done this several hundred times, but it's always a leap of faith,' Johnstown area native Rev. Donn Ed, founder of Hosanna Industries, said. 'We always hope and pray that it's all going to work well, and it always has. "I don't want to minimize the effort. It's a monumental effort on the part of hundreds of people to make all those pieces fit together properly in the right sequence at the right time. This blitz building procedure that Hosanna has kind of invented, it's extremely time-critical. 'From Day 1 until the very end, every moment is accounted for. There can't be any slop in the gears because there's not enough allowance of time to permit it. Everything's got to be right on.' About 150 volunteers are needed. Even people without construction skills can help in other ways, such as cooking or donating landscaping materials. Anybody interested in participating can contact Hosanna Industries at 724-770-0262. 'People who know nothing about home construction are welcome to volunteer, because their energies will be properly channeled into productive results by the Hosanna team,' Ed said. 'Skilled volunteers are also needed: block layers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, drywall mechanics, all of these are very much needed and invited to join in this unique community building venture.' This is the first home in Vision's plan to construct 21 new houses throughout Johnstown, using revolving funds provided by community organizations through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development's Neighborhood Partnership Program tax credit initiative. The other houses will be sold to people, unlike the first home, which is free to the selected veteran. 'The ones going forward are for anybody,' Vision Together 2025 Executive Director Robert Forcey said. 'In fact, that's kind of a misconstrued assumption that a lot of people have been making that these are only for low-income families. We made them affordable enough for somebody that they should be able to afford it on low- to middle-income. But for these houses we've had applicants all the way from a first-year graduate from UPJ (the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown) all the way to a couple that's been renting for 30 years and they want to move into their first house for the first time.' Forcey said one of the goals of the first free house is to 'show everybody that it's a viable project and it's going to move forward.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Housing, health projects receive Community Foundation for the Alleghenies grants
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Projects to renovate Johnstown homes and bolster transitional housing in two counties were among 74 initiatives across the region to be awarded spring grants from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies. The season's total included $279,874 in grants to support projects across Cambria, Somerset and Bedford counties, CFA officials said. 'We always look forward to our small grant rounds during the spring and fall because it gives us the chance to hear directly from the local nonprofits that are serving our communities daily,' said CFA Executive Director Angie Berzonski. 'Their requests help us identify their priorities and the changing needs of our region.' Among them, the Women's Help Center, of Johnstown, received $6,000 for its 'The Way Home Transitional Housing Expansion' project. Those funds will enable the center to furnish and equip a newly secured duplex that will feature eight beds for people experiencing homelessness, organizers said. 'Our community has been facing a growing need for affordable housing, along with an increase in housing insecurity for many individuals and families,' said Roxann Tyger, executive director of the Women's Help Center. 'We have been working to develop alternatives that will enable individuals facing homelessness to have affordable short-term housing with a variety of supportive services to help them regain stability as they work towards finding their permanent home.' Similarly, Next Step Center Inc., of Somerset, received $4,300 to support its Transitions Program. The evening shelter care program provides daily life skills and case management to aid people experiencing homelessness to achieve self-sufficiency and safe affordable housing. 'The funding we received for the Transitions Program has been instrumental in providing critical support and resources to individuals experiencing homelessness, helping them move toward stability, independence and long-term housing,' said Lisa Wengerd, executive director of the Next Step Center. 'This investment has strengthened our ability to offer case management, life skills training and access to essential services.' Hosanna Industries, which has been upgrading homes across the area for the past several years, received $7,500. The group's ongoing Johnstown Resurrection Project provides charitable home repairs for low-income homeowners in the Johnstown region, using volunteer labor when able, to 'uplift' and create more vibrant communities. Rebecca Hetzer, director of mission resources at Hosanna Industries, said the organization was 'excited' for the grant. 'This funding will be used to bring hope, help and healing to multiple households in the Johnstown region,' she said. 'We are excited for the opportunity to use these funds to do so and continue to resurrect Johnstown and make it a better city in which to live.' Hosanna Industries' work was among 31 Cambria County projects to receive funding, with amounts ranging from $750 to enable Summerhill Township Volunteer Fire Company to upgrade equipment, to $7,500 each for Crichton McCormick Park in Portage and the Cambria County Backpack Project's food insecurity mission. Education, arts and local health and human services groups also received support, including Southern Alleghenies EMS Regional Council Inc., which received just less than $7,000 for a mobile EMS training simulator project. Community and economic development, culture and environmental projects also received aid. Some of Somerset County's largest grants included $7,500 for Confluence Creative Arts Center's EcoArt Camp, and $6,500 for the Somerset County Mobile Food Bank. The Community Foundation for the Alleghenies has been issuing grant awards each spring for years in the region. The public, nonprofit foundation manages and works to build up funds, including county-specific endowments, to support community efforts in Bedford, Cambria, Indiana and Somerset counties.
