Milwaukee Brewers players Ryan Braun and Matt Garza picked up a hammer Tuesday to help kick off Habitat for Humanity's June Blitz Build.
Over the next week, volunteers will frame five new homes and rehab three others as they kick off the build season.
The homes are located near 31st Street and Garfield Avenue. More than 350 volunteers will work on the homes that will be completed over the next year.
One of the new homeowners is Renee Robinson.
"It's overwhelming to see something come from just a poured foundation into a house that I will make into a home," she said.
Robinson said it wasn't until she saw the work getting done Tuesday that she felt she could finally call herself a homeowner. She is a mother of six with two young children still living at home. She works at a jewelry store and says she assumed she would rent forever.
"I've been through some things in my life," she said. "Each year it gets better and better and now the good Lord has blessed me with a beautiful home."
Robinson also had the chance to meet Braun and Garza who offered her congratulations on her new home.
"You just recognize what a difference it's going to make in their lives and the confidence it will give them, the stability hopefully it will give them, it's so cool to be able to contribute to that," Braun said.
Both players donned hard hats and picked up hammers to contribute to the builds.
The Brewers Community Foundation is the presenting sponsor of the June Blitz Build and has partnered with Habitat since 2006.
According to the organization, since Habitat began focusing on the Washington Park neighborhood, crime has decreased by nearly 50 percent on the blocks where they built Habitat homes.
More than 220 Habitat families live in the neighborhood now.
Over the next year, 35 new families will receive homes or home repairs.
