Saturday, May 24, 2025
The rain and cold stop supporters from showing up to Eisenhower Park on April 12 for the Building Homes for Heroes: Honoring Our Heroes 5K Run/Walk, as over a hundred runners braved the weather to back a cause close to home.
Building Homes for Heroes, a nonprofit dedicated to providing mortgage-free homes for injured veterans, first responders, and their families, returned to Long Island for its first local race in about a decade. While the weather was far from ideal, the spirit of the event shined through as runners and walkers hit the course to raise funds and awareness.
The Long Island-based organization, which now has a significant national presence, has its roots in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. Founder Andy Pujol, a businessman and philanthropist, volunteered in search and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. Inspired to support wounded veterans returning from service, Pujol launched Building Homes for Heroes with a goal of gifting just one home.
Since then, the group has expanded dramatically. “In the last few years, we’ve actually reached 40 homes a year, and we have a lofty goal to reach as many as 50 this year, in 2025,” said David Weingrad, director of communications for the nonprofit. “We build homes, we modify homes, all free for the veteran. It’s our way of saying thank you to the servicemen and women.”
Over a decade of steady growth culminated in a major milestone earlier this year, when the organization gifted its 400th home. Its work doesn’t end there.
“The struggles don’t end when they complete their deployment — they still have their whole life to figure out,” Weingrad added. “We support them with financial advisors to get their finances in order, we provide emergency funding if they have emergencies or illnesses in their family and we do team building events to bring all of our veterans together.”
The idea to bring a race back to Long Island started with Daniel Hernandez, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who has worked with Building Homes for Heroes since 2019. Hernandez took up running during the pandemic, using races as an opportunity to raise money for the nonprofit.
“Two years ago, I ran my first half-marathon for in Virginia for Building Homes for Heroes,” Hernandez said, “and since then, I pretty much was hooked on running. One day, I was with David, and we were just talking like, ‘Why not set up a race for the company?’ I found that we did one like 10 years ago, and it never became an annual thing. So, I’m really trying my best to make it an annual thing — I want the community to know that we exist, and I know that Long Island likes to support their veterans. This is a great way to have the community come together.”
While the turnout may have been hampered by the weather, the event still made an impact — especially in terms of visibility.
“We are a national organization, but one thing we’ve noticed is that a lot of people on Long Island don’t realize that we’re a homegrown charity,” Weingrad said. “All of the people that work in our Long Island office are from Long Island. So that was part of the inspiration for Danny to do this. We think we’re doing pretty good work, and we just want people to know we’re here, we’re local, we’re part of the community. That’s a big part of helping raise awareness.”
Participants at the 5K received free T-shirts, and the top 150 finishers were awarded medals. A Kids Fun Run kicked off the morning, with the main race following shortly after.
For more about Building Homes for Heroes and how to get involved, visit BuildingHomesForHeroes.org or stop by their office at 4584 Austin Blvd. in Island Park.
