40 Years of Building Together

Celebrating 40 Years of Building Homes, Communities and Hope

Habitat Wake is turning 40! Since 1985, we’ve been building homes, communities, and hope across Wake and Johnston Counties—helping hundreds of local families achieve their dream of homeownership. In 2025, we’ll build our 1000th home, a milestone made possible by the dedication of our volunteers, donors, homeowners, and partners.

Join us throughout the year as we celebrate this legacy and look forward to framing the future.

Then | Now Conversation Series

Then + Now celebrates Habitat Wake’s 40-year legacy by bringing together generations of Habitat homeowners, volunteers, and team members for meaningful conversations. Through this storytelling series, we’ll reflect on how far we’ve come, honor the people who helped shape our mission, and explore what the future holds for affordable homeownership in our community.

40 Years of Building Together

40th Anniversary

A Lifetime of Showing Up
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40th Anniversary

Blueprints for the Future: Barbara Quinby
In 1987, Barbara Quinby and her husband had recently relocated to Raleigh from Florida with their two children. She was working as a draftsperson for a building company, utilizing her degree in interior residential design

“When I heard Habitat had started around here, I just knew that was something I had to get involved with if the opportunity presented itself,” Barbara recalls.
- Read more about Blueprints for the Future: Barbara Quinby
40th Anniversary

40 Years of Building Together
This year Habitat Wake turns 40. In 1985, while serving as a seminary intern at Millbrook Baptist Church in Raleigh, the pastor gave me the freedom to help form a local Habitat organization as the focus of my internship.

God was already at work. Various groups were gathering to pursue a housing ministry, including a group in Wake Forest and Franklin County that was pursuing the Habitat model.
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40th Anniversary

Dorothy Smith and the Power of Firsts
As we reflect on 40 years of history at Habitat Wake, we find ourselves contemplating the power of “firsts.”

Those first hopeful conversations. The first home built to completion.

Another landmark worth celebrating: the first church to fully and independently sponsor a Habitat Wake home — and the homeowner whose voice helped shape the future of our mission.
- Read more about Dorothy Smith and the Power of Firsts
40th Anniversary

The Power of Beginnings
"It all started from a prayer request." -- Habitat Wake's first Board Chair, John Wilson.

John Wilson had recently met a woman in Raleigh who was living in a tenant home on the edge of a larger property. "The house had no running water, and the windows were plastic. It was cold, and she was just in a terrible situation," John said. It was 1984.
- Read more about The Power of Beginnings

40 Years Building Together

40th Anniversary

Celebrating 40 Years of Building Homes, Communities and Hope

Celebration Events + Sponsorships

Then | Now Conversation Series

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Milestone Sponsors

Friends + Supporters

40 Years of Building Together

A Lifetime of Showing Up

Blueprints for the Future: Barbara Quinby

40 Years of Building Together

Dorothy Smith and the Power of Firsts

The Power of Beginnings