Neighbors Helping Neighbor (NHN), a non-profit organization serving Putnam and Greene Counties, celebrated its amazing success during the past three years with music, money and memories at its semi-annual membership meeting in November.

Lake Country’s 100+ Women Who Care presented NHN President Bob Massey with a $10,000 check during the event. The organization selects four local non-profit organizations each year to support financially.

“We sincerely appreciate the help from the more than 100 women in the area who support our cause,” Massey said. “Every dollar donated to NHN goes directly into projects and this money will dramatically impact many people.”

The Oconee Performing Arts Society provided entertainment with a brief but powerful performance by five-time Grammy Award trumpeter, singer and composer Jumaane Smith. His jazzy spin on some popular classic tunes brought the audience to its feet in applause. Smith will be the featured artist at the March 14OPAS Lounge Series concert.

Massey reminded some 200 members and guests at the meeting that Neighbors Helping Neighbors focuses on one-time critical needs — necessary home repairs, beds for needy children and cars for families without transportation — offering a hand up not a handout.

Since its beginning in late 2020, the organization has repaired problems in more than 150 homes. Using photos and videos, Massey showed how NHN aided individuals who faced challenges such as inaccessible bathrooms due to handicaps, living in deteriorating homes with leaky roofs causing ceilings and floors to collapse, enduring a lack of running water for as long as five years, and coping with a clogged septic system without the means to repair it.

In the last three years, more than 425 local children who were sleeping on the floor, a couch or in the same bed with siblings received beds as well as bedding and pillows of their own through NHN’s Beds for Kidz program. The organization partners with the Greensboro-Lake Oconee Methodist Church to build and deliver new beds to the recipient’s home.

NHN also purchases and repairs used vehicles for families without a means of transportation. Since late 2020, more than 25 individuals who struggled every day getting to work, the grocery store, and were unable to take their children to school or doctors’ appointments, have received cars from NHN.

NHN primarily serves low-income families, older adults, children, single working mothers and their children, military veterans and developmentally and/or physically challenged individuals in Greene and Putnam Counties.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a 501(C)3 non-profit member-based organization. 100% of all donations go directly to projects for those in need. For more information, to join or to donate, go to www.nhnga.org.