Mini Habitats for Humanity

Project Playhouse

Posted on Feb. 26, 2016 in “Students”

Greek community teams up with Habitat for Humanity in building play houses for veterans’ children

Both sides waited in anticipation, each just as excited as the other. Craning necks, nervous smiles, shuffling feet.

Finally, it came time for the unveiling; the cluster of students stepped aside to reveal brightly colored, freshly painted, newly assembled playhouses. Across from them, the children standing with their parents gasped, smiled, and then did what any kid would when presented with such a treasure: Ran over to explore.

“Everyone was just smiling,” says Jake Rogers ’16, of Alpha Phi Omega.

The event, held Saturday, Feb. 13, was a joint effort of several WPI fraternities, numerous sponsors, and Habitat for Humanity Metrowest/Greater Worcester. Dozens of WPI students spent the better portion of the day building and painting playhouse kits that were then presented and donated to the young children of local veterans. The parent recipients included Chris and Emily Olivo of Southbridge, Brendan and Amy Conlin of Chelmsford, and James and Devon Pallotta of Templeton.

The effort was part of Habitat for Humanity’s Project Playhouse initiative, which serves as both a build and a fundraiser benefitting veterans. As part of the WPI event, which was held in the robotics pit in the sports and recreation center, playhouses were built for three local families, and at least $2,250 (or $750 per house) was raised to help with Habitat’s veteran’s critical home repair program.

“It’s a heartfelt and heart-warming event for everyone involved,” says Seth Jajliardo, community outreach manager for Habitat for Humanity MetroWest/Greater Worcester, which began the initiative in 2014, following the lead of Habitat affiliates in California.

Habitat of MetroWest/Greater Worcester partnered with the national organization Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc., to help identify local veterans with children between ages 3 and 10, Jajliardo explained, and also enlisted students from Worcester Technical High School, who cut and primed playhouse kits that are then assembled by volunteers of sponsoring companies or organizations during an all-day event.

Since launching the effort two years ago, the local Habitat has raised around $80,000 to help with repairs, such as roofing, siding replacement, or installation of wheelchair ramps, at the homes of local veterans. As Jajliardo explained, the organization has done five such critical home repairs over the past six months, and has a target of 10 per year.

Genzyme, UNUM, and several other local companies have sponsored builds over the past two years; 25 playhouses were built in 2015, according to Jajliardo, and the organization is on track to do 40 this year. Each mini house is custom designed based on the recipient child’s interests, with themes ranging from Barbie to the Bruins.

Ultimately, it’s an event that benefits everyone, Jajliardo points out. “It’s really a great team-building exercise, and we’re serving our veterans,” he says.

At WPI’s build, the houses—which are roughly four feet wide by five feet long—were decorated in Disney motifs, including Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

According to Rogers, students spent about four weeks organizing the event and fundraising for it. The playhouses were sponsored by several campus fraternities, including Alpha Phi Omega, Zeta Psi, Alpha Chi Rho, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. During the day of the event, more than 70 students were involved in assembling, shingling, painting, and decorating them.

“It was definitely fun the entire time. Everyone was getting their hands dirty,” says Rogers, a biology and biotechnology major. “As the day went on, the energy increased, as people saw the houses coming together. By the end, everyone was ridiculously excited to get to reveal all their hard work to the families.”

Both he and Jajliardo agreed that it was a great partnership, and one that both WPI and Habitat for Humanity would like to establish as a regular tradition.

“We all worked really hard to make sure that this event went well for the families,” says Rogers. “Everyone who participated would love to get the chance to do it again.”

– BY TARYN PLUMB

Original story link.

From the Archives: The Cold Grip of Addiction

Exposure: Victim’s family says addiction killed him

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

By Taryn Plumb TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER— When driving through Worcester, James McKeon often glanced at the pale, downhearted faces milling about on Main Street, hoping — but at the same time not hoping — that he might see his brother among them.

Allen McKeon, his half-brother, spent his life on and off the streets during his 30-year battle with substance abuse.

“It grabbed him. He was just stuck in it,” James McKeon, 44, of East Brookfield, said of his brother’s drug and alcohol problems. “We knew this was going to happen someday. We waited for the telephone call.”

It finally came a week-and-a-half ago, when Allen McKeon, 55, was found dead at the Washington Square rotary, an apparent victim of the cold.

His death has sparked outrage among local human rights activists, who are calling on the city to deal with its vagrancy problem.

Family members, meanwhile, didn’t consider Mr. McKeon to be homeless — they said he was a man who just didn’t come home. His severe addiction governed his life, and he would steal, lie and sabotage relationships to keep it going, they said. Thus, when faced with the choice of a warm place to sleep or the ability to drink, he chose the latter, they believe.

“The city of Worcester is not responsible for Allen’s death,” his sister-in-law, Linda McKeon, said in an e-mail to the Telegram & Gazette. “Neither is his family. The disease of alcoholism is responsible, just as surely as if Allen had died of cancer.”

The trouble started early — Allen grew up in an abusive household in Rochdale and his father often poured hard liquor into his bottle to placate him, according to Mrs. McKeon’s e-mail. One afternoon, police found his mother, Betty, badly beaten and tied to a chair. His father was ordered to stay away, the e-mail said. He did, and never returned.

Betty remarried and had seven more children — three girls and four boys.

“Allen was always surrounded by love and laughter in his home,” Mrs. McKeon explained in the e-mail. “(He) was offered and given everything he needed to grow and become whatever he desired in life.”

As a youth, he worked at his stepfather’s general store, and was described as a meticulous dresser who spent long hours in front of the mirror. According to his family, he was good looking, clean-cut and popular with young ladies.

Things changed, however, when Allen and one of his brothers, Paul, enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Allen, because of his asthma, was honorably discharged, his family said. He began drinking and, at age 21, tried to rob a gas station. He was sent to jail for several years.

“Allen’s (step)father and mother were broken hearted,” his sister-in-law explained in the e-mail. “Yet, he would pile his other children into his big, old station wagon and make trips to prison to visit his son. They visited and wrote Allen all the time.”

After that, Allen served two other prison sentences, and frequently lived on the streets, family members said. He periodically reappeared and had “very short” periods of sobriety. Ultimately, though, he’d disappear again. His last known place of residence was Brockton, his brother said.

“Even if we found him, he just wanted money to drink,” James McKeon explained. “He’d tell me right out, ‘I need money for a drink, that’s what I want to do.’ ”

It was a hard cycle, his brother admitted, because the family was moved to help, but untrusting. Allen would often steal from them and, on one occasion, smoked crack cocaine in front of his young nieces and nephews, James McKeon explained.

“Every time we put our hand out, we just got bit again,” he said.

The last time his family saw him was in November, when he showed up unannounced and claimed to be living in a halfway house. James, who also suffered from alcoholism until 15 years ago, told him to get help and offered to bring him to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

“That’s what you gotta do,” James said. “Some people just can’t grab on to it.”

Despite his struggle with alcoholism, James described his brother as a handsome man with a great sense of humor.

“(He was) just a nice guy,” he said. “We didn’t get to see much of that.”

2016 Business Leaders of the Year: Atlas Travel

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

2016 BUSINESS LEADERS OF THE YEAR

Large Business Leader: Elaine Osgood

TARYN PLUMB

As the saying goes, the third time's a charm. That's particularly true in Elaine Osgood's case.

Thirty years ago, after a short career as a teacher in Worcester schools and another as an investigator with the Massachusetts Department of Department of Children & Families, Osgood was armed with a master's degree in psychology, casting around for a new, fulfilling livelihood.

Intrigued by franchise Uniglobe Travel, she soon opened a Milford office.

"Ok, sell the world?" she recalled of her piqued interest. "What's a better product than the world?"

And sold it she has.

Over the last three decades, Osgood has grown that initial franchise into the global, increasingly-expanding enterprise, Atlas Travel and Technology Group, Inc. – she dropped the franchise 20 years ago to branch out on her own. With hundreds of virtual offices and thousands of clients, that umbrella corporation comprises of Atlas Travel and Prime Numbers Technology, which together emphasize not only on the logistics and details of travel for corporate and private customers, but the analytics and metrics behind it.

"It's a very exciting, evolving industry," Osgood said. "No two days are the same. We don't know from one year to the next what we will be doing."

Atlas Travel, which is headquartered in Milford, has an office in London, hubs in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as roughly 200 virtual offices across the United States and the United Kingdom. Agents offer private vacation planning services, as well as management for corporate clients that includes meeting planning, and incentive, reward and recognition programs.

The company will soon roll out a division focused on consulting and fulfillment, Osgood said, that will involve back-end work on various travel apps.

Meanwhile, Prime Numbers Technology, which was launched eight years ago, offers data analytics, performance metrics and benchmarking tools that enable corporate customers to track and report travel spending, supplier usage and policy compliance.

The travel management industry is ever-developing along with technology, Osgood said. The information-gathering and reporting shifts based on what travelers want and how they want to receive it; today's travelers have a myriad of apps and devices on which to keep up-to-date on every aspect of their trip.

"Technology is critical," she said. "We have to make sure that as the world evolves, we have the technology so that, from start to finish, we're supporting our travelers, helping them travel the way they want to travel."

Part of Osgood's goal going forward is to re-attract younger people to the field. She stressed perceptions the Internet would eliminate the need for travel agencies have simply not come true.

"We're on a crusade to tell the world that the travel industry is alive and well," she said, "and can provide a very wonderful, fulfilling career."

Atlas partnered with Milford Public Schools in 2014 to create a hospitality management program. The two-year program is the first of its kind at a non-vocational high school, said coordinator Katie Maloney. Students come in as juniors, learning both in the classroom and onsite at partner companies including Atlas, and organize pertinent events.

Maloney said interest has greatly expanded in two years; the first class was nine students, the second of 13, and the incoming 2016 class will have to be whittled down from 50 applicants to 20.

Atlas is an "all-encompassing, great company to be partnered with," she said. "They are helping these students make connections outside of Milford."

As it helps to infuse the next generation, Atlas' evolution will be determined by the needs of tomorrow's travelers.

"Our growth is really very strategic," said Osgood. "It's not ego-driven. It's not about reaching a certain number on the top line so we can say 'We're X millions of dollars.' It's about growing and expanding based on our customer needs."

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