William (Bill) Fitzgerald

Daily Point of Light # 4601 Sep 26, 2011

William (Bill) Fitzgerald is an avid runner, having completed 65 marathons around the world. Through a chance meeting at a marathon in 2000 he was introduced to Habitat for Humanity, and participated on a short-term Global Village trip to build houses in Beius, Romania.
He was identified as a potential trip leader, took the challenge, and has since led ten more trips to Romania and other countries, guiding close to 100 people through an intense field experience that he described as one of the hardest, most strenuous, dirtiest, and emotional experiences of his life. In addition to leading trips as part of the Global Village program, Bill has also served six months every year for the past five years as a full-time volunteer in the Habitat for Humanity headquarters office, helping to administer the Global Village program. His service in helping to train other volunteers and reconciling expense reports increases the capacity of the department to provide a meaningful service opportunity for more volunteers.
Bill states that poverty housing is such an overwhelming and insurmountable problem, it seems difficult to think about eliminating it from the face of the Earth. He serves such a significant amount of his time with Habitat because he feels that if everyone contributes in a small way, we can have an impact on the problem. He looks at his work in terms of “families helped” rather than as numbers, which makes it possible to see that even though he hasn’t solved an overall world crisis, he has made a difference for as many families as possible.
Bill is a very positive person to have in the workplace and community; he has a real sense of the global poverty need and how to connect others to make the largest impact. This is why Bill is a Daily Point of Light.


jaytennier