2022 Keystone Award Recipient: Joe Battaglia
2022 Most Valuable Pro (MVP) Award Recipient: Steve Poole
2022 Keystone Award Recipient: Joe Battaglia
It takes all walks of life to make our neighborhoods better places to live. HomeFront was especially blessed to cross paths with a tough, successful, long-time Manhattan-based hair salon entrepreneur who has people skills in spades and a heart of gold. His name is Joe Battaglia.
Joe Battaglia, leading by example
For years, we have held up Southbury as an exciting example of community unification. Since the late 1990s, members of a few faith communities within Southbury have been banding together to fix up a home in need each year. In some years, they have fielded 70 or more volunteers! For many years, Joe Battaglia rolled up his sleeves as part of the Southbury Faith in Action (SOFIA) team, as they dubbed themselves.
It takes a very special individual to coordinate dozens of volunteers from multiple faith communities. In 2011, their long-time coordinator had to retire. Many worried that this might be the end of a great run.
Joe Battaglia had other things in mind. Joe took up the mantle and capably led SOFIA volunteers to take on projects of the largest scale with us for 10 years. His limitless sales skills landed landscapers, roofers, masons and others to take HomeFront places even we did not know we could go. Every step of the way, it has always been about helping families with what they need the most.
L-R: HomeFront Executive Director, Sean O’Brien, presenting this year’s Keystone Award to Joe Battaglia.
And, his involvement did not end there. Joe stepped up to do our home evaluations in the Fall and Winter. He always thought of HomeFront when he knew of materials that could be donated. And, he was a welcoming ambassador for our program for many a community service fair in town. We had a chance to catch up with Joe when we presented him with this richly deserved award.
HF: What drew you to home repair volunteering in the first place?
Joe: I have a brother who is an architect and I have always been handy. I built two homes with him and my father. Putting that knowledge to helping people in need
seems like the right thing to do.
HF: What was one of the more moving experiences you’ve had helping a deserving family with us?
Joe: In 2018, we had a project that looked to be rather typical. While working with the family, we learned that the wife was diagnosed with cancer and would need a wheel chair ramp. We built a special ramp donated by a construction company.
HF: A ramp that you were able to get donated, I might add. What might you say to others who may be thinking about leading a volunteer group project?
Joe: It has given me the chance to work with some beautiful people: volunteers and HomeFront staff. It has helped to make me a better person.
Some 15 years ago, HomeFront staff created the Keystone Award to honor outstanding volunteer service.
Definition of keystone: A wedge-shaped piece at the crown of an arch that locks the other pieces in place — OR — something on which associated things depend for support.
Congratulations to Joe! Thank you for helping to find and put all of the pieces of community betterment in place. We also want to thank Joe’s family for sharing him with us over the years!
If you would like to learn how to get a group of volunteers involved with our work, please contact us and we can provide more information.
Joe (seen waving) along with his fellow volunteers
Most Valuable Pro (MVP) Award Recipient: Steve Poole
“Everyone should have clean water, indoor plumbing and heat.”
This might be a thought that enters into all of our minds, but finding someone who has the skills and makes the time to do something about it is where the miracles happen. For years, Steve Poole has been carving our time from his busy work and family life to contribute his expertise to deliver these basic needs where they are lacking.
Steve Poole was first bit by the bug of volunteerism when asked to help fix up homes in Appalachia. A plumber by trade, Steve’s talents were invaluable to families lacking safe clean water.
L-R: HomeFront’s Associate Executive Director, Lou Valenti, and Executive Director, Sean O’Brien flank this year’s Most Valuable Pro Award winner, Steve Poole (center).
Before too long, his volunteer duties grew beyond plumbing needs. Over time, this Bethel resident found ways to be a skilled Samaritan closer to home. Steve soon became acquainted with HomeFront’s Associate Executive Director, Lou Valenti.
Lou updated Steve on a growing trend that we were working towards addressing. HomeFront had notched decades of mission work in a very specific way: through groups of 20 or more volunteers working together on one home for one day. In time, we were becoming more aware of requests that involved heartbreaking need, but their repair worries were not a fit for our established way of helping people. We began tracking these types of needs as Critical Pro Repair (CPR) candidates. Soon after, Steve became one of our first CPR volunteers — and never looked back.
One year ago, a family in Bethel made us aware of Michael, a military veteran and active member of the community who was diagnosed with ALS. Steve sprang into action working with HomeFront to convert Michael’s bathroom to the point of installing a lipless shower. Prior to connecting with Steve, HomeFront would receive desperate calls from families lacking heat in the middle of winter.
A few years back, when doctors told the family of a child with brain cancer in Watertown that his home would have to be made mold-free in order for his immune system to survive the treatment, Steve donated many days toward the cause.
In the process, Steve has helped to shape HomeFront into a more versatile service provider. In some cases, his work fully resolves the most important needs a family may face. In others, Steve’s plumbing expertise helps to prep a project for our volunteers to work on or complete the final phase of an effort after the volunteer groups have done their part. This has especially been true of the large-scale, multi-phase projects for veterans made possible by The Home Depot Foundation.
Steve brings a great deal of perspective to his work with us since he has witnessed standards of living in Appalachia that are unthinkable to those more fortunate in the tri-state area. Through the lives he has touched in Connecticut, however, Steve has found it eye opening to see the basics that are lacking in homes right in our backyard. The actions he has taken and the sacrifices he has made distinguish him as this year’s HomeFront’s Most Valuable Pro (MVP) Awardee.
If you are a building trades professional or happen to be handy, HomeFront can find a home nearby that can benefit from your expertise – even if it is just for a couple of hours or one day per year. You can contact our Associate Executive Director, Lou Valenti, to learn more.
Steve pictured here in Bridgeport, making a bathroom usable for a grandmother, her grownup daughter and grandson who were taken advantage of by a contractor.
Our Most Valuable Pro seen here replacing steps for Tina, a 50 year-old woman with multiple sclerosis who lost her mother and brother recently (finished product below).
HomeFront’s staff and Board of Directors salute and thank Joe, Steve and all of our amazing volunteers.
We also want to thank you for considering the best way to help us put needed tools and supplies into the hands of Joe and Steve as we embark on fixing up more homes in need this Spring and Fall. HomeFront volunteers deserve a project that maximizes the time and talents that they have to share. A donation of any amount can help us do just that and direct it to homes we have confirmed to be in greatest need for older adults, persons with disabilities, single-parent households and low-income families.
