Second Wind Cottages, a project to build cottages for homeless men in the area, began last year with Guidi donating land behind his business to house six local homeless men in temporary mobile homes for the winter.
The next step will provide a more permanent housing solution for these men. Working only with donations raised by local organization Community Faith Partners and volunteers, the six cottages are nearing completion, and they have raised $61,424 of their current $80,000 goal.
Guidi said he was originally inspired to help the homeless after a missions trip to Haiti moved him to think less about making a profit and more about helping others.
“My business is secondary to what I do here,” Guidi said. “My son works [in the shop] now, so it’s reached a point where I can just oversee the operations and be here, which is kind of convenient because I can help out in here and do Second Wind.”
Guidi’s activism in supporting these homeless men early on 2012 did not go unnoticed, and he was eagerly supported by the faith-based, non-profit organization Community Faith Partners, where he also serves as a member on the board of directors.
Community Faith Partners started in 2000 and has since been lending a hand around the community anywhere it can, said Nancy Crawford, who assists her husband, Jim Crawford, in organizing incoming and outgoing funds for the non-profit.
“[Community Faith Partners] came out of people responding to a project to help put lighting into some of the housing that’s down in Ithaca,” she said. “That began these men and women getting together and seeing if there was something they could do to help those in need.”
In addition to Community Faith Partners’ support, over 100 businesses, individuals and organizations are donating time and materials to this project.
These organizations include Snug Planet, supervising insulation materials for the cottages, 84 Lumber, Smith Plumbing Heating and Electric, Bethel Grove Bible Church and many individuals donating more than $100 per person.
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One such individual is Barry Segal of Segal & Sorensen LLC. Segal is in charge of the numerous volunteers who assist with the building. He said helping out with Second Wind has given his own business a boost.
“If you read my business card it says ‘Do all the good you can for all the people you can for as long as you can,’” he said. “So when someone asks how do I get work, I say that I go out and do stuff and help people. Then people say that I’m a good guy and realize that I have a business.”
Guidi said that in the end, he considers himself primarily in the business of helping others.
“I had nothing to do with where I was born, ‘Why wasn’t I born in Haiti? Why wasn’t I born poor?’ So I look at that and say ‘Since I wasn’t, I should extend as much as I can of myself to those that didn’t have anything to do with being born into their situation,’” he said.
