Monday, May 19, 2025
Building Homes for Heroes, a nonprofit dedicated to providing mortgage-free homes for injured veterans, first responders, and their families, will host a 5K Walk/Run at Eisenhower Park this spring. The Long Island-based organization which has established itself as a group with a significant national reach is hoping to raise funds and spread awareness for its mission and cause.
The nonprofit’s origins trace back to the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center. Building Homes for Heroes’ founder Andy Pujol, a businessman and philanthropist, volunteered in search and rescue efforts at Ground Zero. As the U.S. responded overseas, Pujol wanted to find a way to support wounded veterans returning from service. Building Homes for Heroes was born with the hope of gifting a single home to a single veteran.
David Weingrad, director of communications for Building Homes for Heroes, said it wasn’t until 2012 when the organization started to get more national recognition, after partnering with larger corporations, allowing the nonprofit to build 25 to 30 homes a year. Over a decade later, the organization celebrated a significant milestone in 2024, when it completed and gifted its 400th home to a veteran.
“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,” Weingrad said. “We build homes, we modify homes, all free for the veteran. It’s our way of saying thank you to the servicemen and women.”
The organization’s work extends beyond the gift of a home, however.
“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.”
When veterans are gifted homes, a huge ceremony follows, Weingrad explained. “When we gift the home, it’s not just like, ‘Here’s the keys, goodbye,’” he said. “We work with the local community, the local police departments, fire departments, and actually like processions. We invited the community, hand out flags, and it’s really like a welcome home parade.”
It’s been about a decade since Building Homes for Heroes hosted a race on Long Island. The nonprofit was first based out of Valley Stream, but now it has offices in Island Park, where its founder, Pujol, is from. Daniel Hernandez, a veteran who’s worked at Building Homes for Heroes since 2019, said that during the coronavirus pandemic he got into running, and started participating in races around the country while raising 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.”
That hometown visibility is something Building Homes for Heroes is aiming to achieve.
“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.”
Hernandez, a former U.S. Marine, elaborated as to how he got involved with Building Homes for Heroes — and how it really is making a difference in people’s lives. After high school, he said he joined the Marine reserves, based out of Farmingdale, and ended up going to college through Adelphi University. After seven years, he left the Marine Corps and began working at a job in Oyster Bay but wasn’t satisfied. After seeing an advertisement for a role with Building Homes for Heroes, he connected with the organization and joined the team.
“I missed the camaraderie,” he said. “Even though I didn’t deploy in my time with the Marines, I thought helping veterans and just being there for them was great.”
Building Homes for Heroes: Honoring Our Heroes 5K Run/Walk is slated to take place on April 12, rain or shine, in Field 2 of Eisenhower Park. There’s a Kids Fun Run at 8 a.m., followed by the main race at 8:30 a.m. When runners sign up at Events.EliteFeats.com/25HonoringHeroes, there’s an option to donate to the nonprofit. All registrants will receive a free T-shirt, and the top 150 runners will receive a medal.
There’s also plenty of opportunities for businesses to get involved and sponsor the event, which will also draw in more funds for Building Homes for Heroes. Businesses interested can reach out to Hernandez at daniel.hernandez@buildinghomesforheroes.org.
Building Homes for Heroes is at 4584 Austin Blvd., Island Park. For more on the organization and its work, visit BuildingHomesForHeroes.org.
