'This donation means so much to us’: Windsor sober recovery home gets boost from local realtors

Efforts to help those on road to recovery A truck load of food was donated to a transitional sober living home for men in recovery. Chris Campbell with details.

A Windsor real estate team is once again supporting a local community service provider through the holiday season.

Rick Rose and Ben Puzzuoli from the Rose Team at Keller Williams Lifestyles Brokerage donated a U-Haul truckload’s worth of food to Hand in Hand Support, a non-profit organization for the marginalized and individuals who are seeking recovery from addiction for a better life.

“These people are incredible,” Rose said Wednesday morning. “They've been through some stuff in their life.”

“They have told me every little bit helps and we're just trying to do our little bit too.”

This was the fourth such donation Rose recently made. Earlier this month, another truckload of food was delivered to the Downtown Mission as demand in every food bank in Windsor continues to grow.

“The timing of the year right now seems to be pretty perfect,” Rose explained. “Every one of them came over and shook our hands and you know, a genuine thank you so, that means more than anything else.”

“This donation means so much to us,” said executive president of the board Liz Geddes. “We do rely on the food banks to be able to feed our clients.”

“We are so grateful for Mr. Rose’s generosity as we could not make this happen without this type of support. This season, we want to ensure that our men who are staying with us, will be able to be a part of our family here at Hand in Hand, in recovery, so that they are able to spend many more of these special times with their own families, in sobriety.”

Geddes told CTV News they are currently housing 48 men in Windsor along with 15 more at another sober living home in Essex.

“Many are estranged from their families due to their addictions,” Geddes said. “They're getting their lives back together. We're trying to make them be better dads, be a part of the family and be able to spend their Christmas in sobriety.”

The donation came one day after another opioid overdose alert in Windsor-Essex.

“I'm getting those notifications on a more frequent basis,” Geddes said. “We still have an opioid crisis in our community, and it's not going away. So we want to be able to be there to support those who want to get into recovery immediately because too many of our loved ones are dying.”

“These people are trying to recover from an addiction, whatever it is. And I've been touched by that,” the Rose Team’s Ben Puzzuoli note.

“I have family members, I have friends, very good friends. I have people that have passed away. So this is really really, really, really heartfelt for me because it's the people here really appreciate and I think that's what makes me feel the best.”