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" As we saw in the aftermath of the recent hurricanes, when disaster strikes, people from all backgrounds and of diverse means reach deep within themselves to provide whatever relief they can for those in need. Of course, such need doesn&amp;#039;t arise only as the result of cataclysmic events\u2014it is ever present. So this year we launch the Home Shelter Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that extend vital support year-round. Our editors studied hundreds of entries detailing compassionate deeds, and then selected five award winners to honor this fall in New York City at a major fund-raising event cosponsored by Bank of America and benefiting Habitat for Humanity&amp;#039;s Hurricane Recovery Effort. We hope their stories, featured on the following pages along with those of a host of worthy honorable mentions, will inspire you to foster the spirit of home in your area\u2014one room, one house, or one park at a time.        John Gonsalves Homes for Our Troops      Rita Fiorentino The Gathering Together      The Abedons Operation Home        Operation Backpack      Milenko Matanovic Pomegranate Center   Honorable Mentions     Homes for our troops Powered by a vision and 20 years of contracting experience, this Massachusetts man started a revolution John Gonsalves  Surely, John Gonsalves thought, someone else was already doing it. But the Massachusetts contractor&amp;#039;s search for an organization providing universally accessible homes for severely wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq proved that that was not the case. So, inspired by a televised interview with a group of soldiers describing an attack on their convoy and the resulting casualties, he decided to build such a group from the ground up. Since early 2004, Homes for Our Troops, to which Gonsalves now devotes about 80 hours a week as president, has been raising money, soliciting building-material donations, and galvanizing hundreds of volunteers to construct or remodel houses for veterans adjusting to life with long-term physical disabilities\u2014all at no cost to them.  Intending to &amp;quot;make it so they can maneuver around their homes as best they can,&amp;quot; says Gonsalves, he and a posse of building pros, most of whom work pro bono, meet with each veteran to determine specific needs. &amp;quot;Sergeant Damon is an arm amputee,&amp;quot; Gonsalves says of the recipient of the first house HFOT built (nationwide, eight projects are under way), which was dedicated in October. &amp;quot;So we made sure to install easy-access lever-type handles on all the doors, body sprays in the shower, and roll-out trays in the kitchen cabinets.&amp;quot; Damon, a mechanic in the Army National Guard, lost both his arms in an accident while repairing a Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq.  In July more than 300 people, 70 of whom were members of the National Guard, participated in a volunteer day to help complete the construction of Damon&amp;#039;s new Middleboro, Massachusetts, house. &amp;quot;In the hospital, I knew I wouldn&amp;#039;t ever be able to do the jobs I was used to doing again,&amp;quot; says Damon, who lives with his wife, Jennifer, and two kids, Allura and Danny. Then, he continues, &amp;quot;Homes for Our Troops came along; it was like a big weight was lifted off my shoulders,&amp;quot; he says, referring to both the emotional and financial relief the home will provide. &amp;quot;Now I can pay for my kids&amp;#039; education and go back to school myself.&amp;quot; \u2014Jessica Dheere For more information or to contribute, call 866-7-TROOPS or visit homesforourtroops.org The Gathering Together A hospice nurse opens her heart and home to those in need of comfort and compassion Rita Fiorentino  They say charity begins at home, and Rita Fiorentino is living proof. A registered nurse, she owns and operates the Gathering Together, a residence for the terminally ill in Plainfield, Indiana, that gives the run of her 1850s Gothic Revival\u2013style house to one family at a time. &amp;quot;I inherited the gift of hospitality from my parents,&amp;quot; says Fiorentino, who worked in a hospice in her native San Francisco for 10 years before relocating to Indiana in 2001. &amp;quot;One day I went to church, and God told me that this is where I need to be,&amp;quot; she recalls. &amp;quot;And the next day I went out and found this big, beautiful house.&amp;quot;  The four-bedroom home needed major improvements, which Fiorentino made over two years with the help of her brother Loy Linebarger, a general contractor. With a new, spacious first-floor bedroom, bathroom, parlor, dining room, and kitchen, the home is open to patients who are in their last days and weeks of life. &amp;quot;There was no place for primary caregivers to get physical and emotional support,&amp;quot; Fiorentino explains. &amp;quot;So many are older people caring for sick spouses, and they get overwhelmed and scared, especially at night.&amp;quot; Families come to the house to relax and spend time with their loved one free from the stress of meeting everyday needs. A local hospice offers nursing care, medicine, social work, and access to chaplains. Along with a few volunteers, Fiorentino provides round-the-clock support for the resident family, as well as all meals and creature comforts. The length of stay is not restricted.  The Gathering Together is funded in part by donations, but mostly by Fiorentino herself, who still works for the San Francisco hospice doing nighttime triage over the phone. Seemingly unfazed by the level of her commitment, Fiorentino says, &amp;quot;It is all wonderfully rewarding. I get to live in a beautiful home and also fulfill my mission in life.&amp;quot; \u2014Carolyn Weber For more information or to contribute, call 317-837-9570, or visit thegatheringtogether.com. Operation Home This south carolina couple is dedicated to keeping a roof over their neighbors&amp;#039; heads Emily &amp;amp;amp; Todd Abedon  If a storm left you roofless, you&amp;#039;d call a contractor. If an accident put you in a wheelchair, you&amp;#039;d hire a pro to build a ramp. But many people don&amp;#039;t have the means to make adjustments to their living spaces. Instead they put down buckets when it rains and find other ways to climb steps. Todd Abedon and his wife, Emily Perlman Abedon\u2014he&amp;#039;s a real estate investor and she&amp;#039;s a freelance writer\u2014wanted to help. So in 1997, the couple founded Operation Home in Charleston, South Carolina, where they reside with their four children. Operation Home&amp;#039;s mission is to coordinate emergency house repairs for the region&amp;#039;s severely down-and-out. Roof fixes and wheelchair-ramp installations are the most common projects, but the organization also takes on simpler jobs, such as installing air conditioners during dangerous heat waves. &amp;quot;Oftentimes the goal is nothing short of homelessness prevention, where we&amp;#039;re making the repairs necessary to keep a family living safely in their home,&amp;quot; says Todd, who is president of the board; Emily serves as director of communications.  The grassroots nonprofit operates largely through a word-of-mouth network of volunteers. Social workers, for instance, alert Operation Home to desperate cases they observe during routine house calls. Most aid recipients are among the approximately 74,000 people in Charleston, Dorchester, and Berkeley counties who live below the poverty line. Others are hampered by &amp;quot;heirs&amp;#039; property&amp;quot; issues, a legal snag that makes them ineligible for government grants. The organization does pay contractors and businesses that provide materials, though at cut rates. &amp;quot;Nobody out there is asking us for top dollar,&amp;quot; says Todd. Still, the money has to come from somewhere, so the group relies on churches, businesses, and individual donors for funds. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m always blown away by how many people are willing to help,&amp;quot; he continues. &amp;quot;I think this is the type of organization that could be duplicated in a lot of places across the country.&amp;quot; \u2014Dan DiClerico For more information or to contribute, call 843-853-3211 or visit operationhome.org. Operation Backpack Volunteers of America-Greater New York eases the first day of school for homeless kids  More than mere protection from the elements, a home provides a sense of rootedness to nourish healthy relationships to family and community. If, that is, you have a home. But approximately 11,000 school-age children living in the New York City shelter system do not. Although it doesn&amp;#039;t build them homes, Operation Backpack, an initiative of Volunteers of America-Greater New York, does try to offer &amp;quot;some modicum of confidence,&amp;quot; says. Linda McNeil, VOA-GNY&amp;#039;s chief development and communications officer. How? By giving the kids new backpacks outfitted with new school supplies. It buoys their sense of hope while decreasing their parents&amp;#039; financial burden. Says McNeil: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s really about normalcy.&amp;quot; And with the disruption of their schooling, normalcy is at a premium. According to VOA-GNY figures, 62 percent of homeless children score below grade level in reading, and 77 percent are below grade level in math.  In 1999 workers at VOA-GNY shelters (the group is a major provider of homeless services), seeing kids start school each year without basic school supplies, launched a drive to collect them. The effort blossomed to include backpacks in 2003, and this year 7,000 new backpacks were donated (up from 2,500 in 2004). When Hurricane Katrina rocked the Gulf Coast in August, VOA-GNY was tapped to replicate its successful program for kids displaced by the storm.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not just about backpacks, but about raising public awareness,&amp;quot; McNeil says. Helping publicize the 2005 effort were spokespeople Tom Glavine of the New York Mets and TV personalities Paige Davis and Tony Danza. Davis, who also volunteered, says, &amp;quot;People really visualized the individual children getting the backpacks and vied to get the best stuff.&amp;quot; VOA-GNY hopes the kids aren&amp;#039;t the only ones to benefit. Its mission is also to &amp;quot;create opportunities for people to experience the joy of serving others.&amp;quot; \u2014Joel Bernstein To get involved or to contribute, visit voa.org; voa-gny.org; or operationbackpacknyc.org. Pomegranate Center An artist and community organizer works to bolster the social well-being of neighborhoods nationwide Milenko Matanovic  Pomegranate Center, a nonprofit community design and development organization based near Seattle, received a grant in 2000 to assess the social conditions at Springwood Apartments, one of Washington State&amp;#039;s largest subsidized housing projects. The study revealed that some animosity had arisen among different cultural groups within the community. The research also focused on the availability of outdoor communal spaces, and found that there were none. &amp;quot;Not even a bench,&amp;quot; recalls Milenko Matanovic, the organization&amp;#039;s executive director.  Matanovic began attending local planning meetings when he arrived in Seattle in 1984, about ten years after emigrating from Slovenia. &amp;quot;I noticed a lack of imagination and curiosity in the decision-making process,&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;and I thought that as an artist I could bring something more to the table.&amp;quot; So in 1986 he founded Pomegranate Center with the help of a private donor. Then, in 1991, he launched the program for which the center is best known: Gathering Places. Based on the idea that &amp;quot;the physical design of our villages, towns, and cities either enhances our social vitality or hinders it,&amp;quot; Matanovic and his staff have sought to revitalize more than thirty communities like Springwood. They do so by designing and building attractive public gathering spaces such as gardens, playgrounds, and amphitheaters. &amp;quot;We are trying to get people to turn off the TV and come out of their houses,&amp;quot; says architect Duncan Chalmers, a project manager.  One solution at Springwood was a set of wooden mailbox shelters, one with a picnic table and benches. &amp;quot;The mailboxes were their version of the village well\u2014every resident had to stop there sooner or later,&amp;quot; Matanovic explains. &amp;quot;Now, hopefully, they linger and maybe meet one of their neighbors.&amp;quot; Since residents help throughout the process of creating a Gathering Place, they also get to know one another during planning meetings and in the construction phase, where they learn how to build, paint, and fabricate. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s the sum total of these encounters,&amp;quot; Matanovic says, &amp;quot;that creates a sense of safety and a feeling of home.&amp;quot; \u2014Meryl Cohen Levin For more information or to contribute, call 425-557-6412 or visit pomegranate.org. Honorable Mentions Everyday people prove that even the smallest gesture can make a big difference Kathryn Raby &amp;amp;amp; Gail Bunn Thanks to Tom Bunn, his wife, Gail, and interior designer Kathryn Raby, eight preteen girls get to live in a great-looking space. When the Bunns learned that Crossnore School, a private facility in North Carolina where children can seek refuge from abusive home situations, was building a new cottage, they decided to furnish it and enlisted Raby&amp;#039;s help. &amp;quot;We wanted to foster a positive home-life situation,&amp;quot; says the designer. Taking cues from the school&amp;#039;s wooded surroundings, they outfitted the entrance and kitchen with wood-look vinyl floors, and the dining area with hickory tables and chairs. In the bedrooms, the two &amp;quot;used light maple furniture and then popped the color on the quilts,&amp;quot; says Bunn. Then they placed a book on each bedside table. Finally, Bunn and Raby made activity stations\u2014chock-full of puzzles and board games\u2014the focus of the rec room. &amp;quot;The most exciting thing was to see the children&amp;#039;s faces when they walked in,&amp;quot; says Bunn. \u2014Nicole Sforza Joanie &amp;amp;amp; Herb White  One Winnetka, Illinois, couple have had 107 babies. Well, sort of. For 27 years, foster parents Joanie and Herb White have nurtured ailing children\u2014many born to drug-exposed mothers\u2014back to health. The impulse to help came after Joanie read a newspaper article about one of her former classmates doing so. The Whites&amp;#039; golden rule? One infant at a time. &amp;quot;We take them wherever we go, even to the symphony,&amp;quot; says Joanie. The couple, rarely without a newborn (placed by the Children&amp;#039;s Home &amp;amp;amp; Aid Society of Illinois), care for each baby for about three to six months, until the birth mother is in recovery or a long-term foster family is found. And it&amp;#039;s not easy to see them off. In fact, the Whites stay in touch with some of the children through visits and letters. &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;ve stolen our hearts,&amp;quot; says Joanie. &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re part of our family and they know it.&amp;quot; \u2014N.S. Kris Dunlap  &amp;quot;I think I was a cat in a former life,&amp;quot; says Kris Dunlap of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. More likely, though, it was the passing of her beloved feline, Max, that spurred Dunlap and her kids\u2014Amber, 10, and Jake, 6\u2014to begin fostering kittens in 2002. Dunlap saw an ad in the Animal Humane Society&amp;#039;s newsletter seeking caring families to take in and socialize abandoned animals. For two- to three-week spans, families are expected to lavish the animals with love, restoring their trust in people and easing their transition to permanent adoption. Dunlap signed up for kittens. After a two-hour training session, she was given her first charges\u2014five newborn kittens and their mom. Since then the Dunlaps have taken in dozens more. &amp;quot;I still cry when I give them back,&amp;quot; says Dunlap. &amp;quot;But I&amp;#039;m happy to know they&amp;#039;ll make someone a great pet, and my kids will walk away having learned the value of second chances.&amp;quot; \u2014Kristine Solomon Cassie Barrett  &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t just cut hair\u2014anyone can do that,&amp;quot; says hairstylist Cassie Barrett, who pampers the elderly at Angel River Health and Rehabilitation, a nursing home in Newburgh, Indiana. &amp;quot;I spend time with them. This is the last part of their lives, and they should enjoy it.&amp;quot; At the on-site Shear Heaven salon, Barrett keeps busy at her four-day-a-week gig with nonstop, scheduled visits from the roughly 120 residents. 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