Alex George Poulos Naples: Get In There and Build

Alex George Poulos Naples: Get In There and Build Alex George Poulos is a Naples, Florida native who has lived and worked in Atlanta, Georgia for more than ten years. He runs a successful gold and diamond wholesaling business there, and is active in several worthy causes, including the Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. He has volunteered his services there for the last five years.

Alex George Poulos of Naples says that Habitat for Humanity partners with working families and others to build quality homes that are both affordable and green. "I like to get in there and build," he says. "I've always been good at carpentry and building, and it is a huge privilege for me to be able to use these skills for the betterment of my community."

Habitat for Humanity could not do what it does without its volunteers, says Alex George Poulos, a Naples native. He is one of some twelve thousand volunteers associated with the Atlanta chapter, who are not only engaged in the physical construction of affordable housing but are involved in community outreach and numerous other responsibilities. No special skills are required to volunteer at a Habitat for Humanity work site, he says.

Alex George Poulos, a Naples native, says that he has been keenly aware of social inequities since he was a child. "I saw this man – I can remember it like it happened yesterday. He may have been a military veteran, I'm not sure. But he was standing down at the end of the freeway exit ramp with one of those signs, ‘will work for food.' We pulled over. My dad gave me a five dollar bill and asked me to reach out the window and hand it to him, which I did. I can still see that guy's dirty hands clutching that five bucks. He said ‘Thank you,' very sincerely. But I thought: this is not right. In a nation as rich as ours, in a world that can provide for itself when commerce is removed from the equation – this is not right, and this should not be allowed to happen."

Alex George Poulos says that the five years he has spent with Habitat for Humanity have been an incomparable experience. The volunteers who get involved, he says, tend to be people of great integrity whose concern for addressing serious social issues is at least as strong as his own.

In addition to Habitat for Humanity, Alex George Poulos, a Naples native, volunteers his time at his local food bank and other nonprofit organizations aimed at alleviating hunger and homelessness, including Food on the Table, a nonprofit he founded to address the issue of hunger and food waste.