Staff from MVP Health Care and the 17 government entities that make up the Finger Lakes Municipal Health Insurance Trust, held a day of community service to help build multiple homes in conjunction with the Flower City Habitat for Humanity. Together, MVP and FLMHIT also donated $2,500 to support Habitat for Humanity’s mission and programs.

Finger Lakes Municipal Health Insurance Trust (FLMHIT) was formed ten years ago under three guiding principles: having open access to health care providers, managing health care costs, and developing a wellness program for all employees within the consortium. FLMHIT originally started with nine members and has grown to a group of seventeen government entities including: the towns of Pittsford, Perinton, Penfield, Webster, Victor, Chili, Henrietta, Greece, Ogden, Brighton; the villages of Fairport, East Rochester, Bath; the cities of Geneva, Canandaigua; the Rochester Housing Authority and Monroe County Water Authority.

A wellness committee, which has representatives from each member organization in FLMHIT, partners with MVP health Care well-being strategists to develop and implement innovative consortium wide wellness programs for employees such as: walking challenges, weight management programs, wellness fairs, exercising, the importance of drinking eight to hydrate, and more.

The FLMHIT wellness committee recently expand their involvement within the community to a Volunteer Initiative Project and chose to select Habitat for Humanity for its inaugural day of community service. Both MVP and FLMHIT donated $1,000.00 each to support the effort and many individuals within the consortium also made donations.

“At MVP Health Care, we believe that social factors such as housing, have a substantial impact on a person’s overall health and well-being,” said Christopher Del Vecchio, MVP Health Care’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are so proud to be able to partner with FLMHIT and Habitat to Humanity to assist with building new homes in Rochester that will ultimately lead to a healthier community.”

“Wellness is an essential pillar of the FLMHIT Consortium’s mission,” said Supervisor Jack Marren, Chairman of FLMHIT. “As such, we are so proud to provide our members and their families the continued opportunity to participate well-being activities. Volunteerism is a unique way to engage with your surroundings in a social setting, which helps establish new relationships, new skills, a sense of purpose, and allows them to make an impact in your community. We thank MVP for their continued support for our wellness initiatives and we applaud Flower City Habitat for Humanity for their hard work and dedication to building a stronger Rochester.”

“We are truly gratified to be in partnership with MVP Health Care and the FLMHIT consortium. We know the impact of this build day on our homebuyers and their families will be a lasting one,” said Matthew J. Flanigan, CEO, Flower City Habitat for Humanity. “We look forward to continuing to work together to achieve our Mission of building homeownership, communities, and hope.”

Today we celebrated love in action, on Love Street!

Dozens of members of the Habitat Family: staff, board members, volunteers, donors, faith partners, city & town partners, and more joined together as we celebrated another Habitat home on Love Street. (1 of 8 Habitat homes on Love Street)

When Eudosia first applied for the Habitat homebuyer program, she explained that her preference for Habitat was in large part due to the financial and home maintenance education that is part of our program.

After furthering her own education, including teaching herself to read and write English as a young adult, she is now investing in her future through homeownership. Her goal is for this home to not only provide stability for herself, but also to be an asset to her young adult children.

The Brighton Churches Habitat Coalition has been building homes in partnership with Flower City Habitat for Humanity since 1998, when four Brighton pastors decided among themselves to launch the Coalition.  The faith-based membership has grown considerably over the past 21 years to include ten pastoral communities.

The Bright Coalition now includes: Atonement Lutheran, Baptist Temple, Edgewood Free Methodist, First Baptist, St Damien of Molakai Knights of Columbus, Our Lady of Lourdes-St. Anne Cluster Community, Peace of Christ, Saint Thomas Episcopal, Trinity Reformed, and Twelve Corners Presbyterian.

This year’s home on Love Street is the 7th Habitat home and first rehabilitation project sponsored by the Brighton Coalition, which previously built Habitat homes on Taylor Street (1999-2000), Rauber Street (2002), Love Street (2005), Orange Street (2008-2009), Orchard Street (2011-2012) and Brown Street (2014).  The refurbished home being dedicated today is the second on Love Street sponsored by the Coalition.
 
Now entering a third decade of partnering with Flower City Habitat, the Brighton Churches Habitat Coalition is a prime example of our mission to put God’s love into action by bringing partners together to build homeownership, communities, and hope.

We were also honored to be joined by partners from the City of Rochester, Town of Brighton, and Town of Pittsford; represented by: Dana Miller, Rochester Director of Business Development & Chairman of Rochester Land Bank Corporation; Bill Moehle, Brighton Town Supervisor; and Matthew O'Connor, Pittsford Town Council & Chair of Brighton Church Coalition.

All of these partners coming together - to lift our neighbors and ourselves - is how Habitat builds homes, community, and hope.

Learn how you can help build a home for yourself through our homeownership program or with your neighbor by volunteering or donating today.

​Bank of America and Habitat for Humanity are kicking off the sixth Global Build in 108 communities, including here in Rochester!

Yesterday, our local branches brought 24 volunteers and a generous $20,000 donation to support the construction of 105 Holworthy Street, one of four new homes being built at the intersection of Holworthy & Dakota Streets.

Habitat and Bank of America have partnered for more than 30 years, with nearly $80 million in funding invested from the bank's charitable foundation and 40,000 volunteer hours from employees annually, ranging from board service to home build initiatives and financial literacy training.

Locally, Kristina Dengler, VP, Rochester Market Manager serves on our Board of Directors, and more local volunteers will be out on Holworthy Street again this afternoon!

This year is the largest Bank of America #GlobalBuild to date with nearly 2,800 #BofAVolunteers across 10 countries!

​We lost a dear friend but we are also truly celebrating the life of Ann Woolston. Ann had an impressive career of service in Washington DC, then selflessly returned home to Honeoye Falls to care for her mother, and continued her giving by spending her last five years volunteering in our office three days a week.

Below is the just part of Ann's eulogy that was written by her dear friend Tom Rosshirt. They are profound, thought provoking words which were so beautifully put together out of love for Ann.

"That, in the end, was Ann’s highest purpose and passion – creating a beloved community where everyone knows everyone, everyone loves everyone, and we all come together in communion. That’s when Ann was most fulfilled. That’s when we could see her shining with happiness – when she was able to create a joyous gathering of happy souls.

So Ann should feel at home in her new home – because the purpose of heaven is joyous reunion, and the purpose of Ann’s life was creating heaven on earth.

She has found her full measure of happiness now. But what about us? It’s hard not to feel diminished with her absence. If the sum of our power is the number of people in our lives who love us, who encourage us, who believe in us and will fight for us, then all of us here are less powerful today – because we all lost someone who would do anything for us.

Unless – somehow – the change that’s taken place upon Ann’s leaving the earth doesn’t diminish us, but enhances us.

Ann has always helped us by asking for favors from friends in high places. But she’s never before risen this high!

So we might see more blessings coming to us, moments of grace we can’t explain -- the chance meetings, the precious surprises, the unexpected gifts that come into our lives. They may be more numerous than before. She has always used her connections to help us -- and now she is connected to the source of all kindness.

Her giving won’t end with her dying. It will go on. It will rise up. She will do more than before. Ann is relentless. She is irrepressible. Her affection, her loyalty, her dedication, her devotion are undying. She is not done loving us."

We love you Ann! ❤️❤️❤️

We're excited to be partnering with Foodlink Cooking Matters, a national program that works to make sure all kids have the healthy food they need every day.

Thanks to a sponsorship from Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, 20 Flower City Habitat families are participating alongside volunteer culinary and nutrition experts, to learn to select nutritious and low-cost ingredients, and prepare them in ways that provide the best nourishment possible to their families.

Learn more at: https://foodlinkny.org/fight_hunger/cooking-matters