Why I Donate My Haven

Our vacation house on the Vineyard is our “happy place.”

You can see the ocean from our back deck and, if you listen very carefully, you can hear the ferry blowing its horn in the distance as it steams into port. We’re a pretty walk to a private beach and we have running trails all around us. It’s a little slice of heaven.

We use our house a lot in the summer. We also rent it out. But every year, it seems as though we have stretches of time when no one is there. The house just sits empty.

Since the Summer of 2019, we’ve been donating our home to Vineyard Havens during a week when it sits unused. Their team then carefully matches our house with a family and they take care of the check-in, check-out and cleaning. Vineyard Havens even does a walk-through of our house before a family arrives to make sure that all the details have been taken care of. We don’t have to do a thing. It’s that easy.

This year, our house is being renovated for most of the summer and then, in late August, we’ll be renting it out for a month. Because it can’t be used this season by a Vineyard Havens family, we’ve decided to earmark $5,000 of the rental income we’ll make this year and donate it to Vineyard Havens in tribute to my mom who is a breast cancer survivor.

It brings us so much joy to know that something as simple as a week in a house that sits empty, or a portion of our rental income, can make such a huge difference in a family’s life. We feel lucky that we are able to do this. It really is a privilege to give just a little bit back - and the team at Vineyard Havens makes it so easy to do!

If you’re interested in using your house to help a family facing cancer, please contact Caitlin Burbidge to learn more.