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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Habitat Newburgh receives Rockefeller Christmas Tree
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
The Rockefeller Christmas Tree
found its way, once again, to the City of
Newburgh and into a home dedicated to
a Habitat for Humanity family. “I feel
extremely blessed,” said Lakisha Atkins,
who will be moving into a new home with
her family around Christmas time.
Two years ago, Atkins lost her
husband to a violent crime. Now raising
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh volunteers Jim Ferguson (left) and Frank Notaro (right) work with milled lumber from the 2017
Rockefeller Christmas Tree. The wood is being used to rehabilitate a home for a family of six on Johnston Street.
Lakisha Atkins and her daughters Mia
Johnson, 14, and La’Maya Atkins, 9, stand in
front of their soon-to-be home, now being
rehabilitated on Johnston Street by Habitat
for Humanity of Greater Newburgh.
her children on her own, she described
the house being rehabilitated at 25
Johnston Street as a gift from God. When
completed, the home will own parts of the
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, milled
and delivered to Habitat for Humanity of
Greater Newburgh earlier this month.
It was Habitat’s Volunteer Build Day
last week, and volunteers were busily
working inside the building, soon to
become a two-and-a-half-bathroom, six-
bedroom home. A pile of the Norway
Spruce was being cut to size on the front
lawn.
According to the Habitat Newburgh
website, the 75-foot tree came from
State College, Pennsylvania. “This gift
is not only extremely meaningful to
the homebuyer family, but the honor
of receiving this lumber for the third
consecutive year shines a spotlight
on Habitat Newburgh’s work in this
community,” said Habitat Newburgh
Executive Director Cathy Collins in a
June press release. “The joy and hope
that the Rockefeller Center Christmas
tree represents is definitely present in the
neighborhood where the lumber has been
built into five H