Habitat Wake Happenings

It’s all about perspective.  This week, 130+ AmeriCorps volunteers from throughout the country have descended upon the Northeast End community in Wake Forest with the task of building three homes from framing to finish, 2 homes from painting to finish, and providing much needed exterior repairs to 10 owner-occupied homes—all the while living with co-workers in a freshman dorm at NC State.

Last Saturday (the day after Valentine’s), we celebrated the culmination of a very special partnership between Coastal Federal Credit Union and the Koledji family building a home near Triangle Town Center that the Koledji’s will purchase and realize their long-held dream of becoming homeowners in the U.S.

Habitat for Humanity of Wake County is excited to announce the selection of Mark Systems' Integrated Homebuilder Management System (IHMS) as our enterprise software suite. Mark Systems’ IHMS will be an ideal match for Habitat due to their capability to combine and leverage resources and knowledge, share information across a broader extent and create efficiencies that were not previously available. This new service will allow our organization to save more money that can be better spent towards building more homes for the families we serve.

This past week, Habitat for Humanity of Wake County was featured in the North Raleigh News as part of an exciting announcement. Habitat Wake will begin breaking ground on five new homes in the Wake Forest area this spring. The work will be focused on the Northeast End of Wake Forest, which in general houses families who are of lower income. Wake Habitat is looking not only to build homes but make a lasting impact that will help the whole neighborhood to flourish, through A Brush With Kindness (exterior repairs) and Neighborhood Revitalization initiatives.

It is definitely the season for giving and for that we are grateful. I often say that if our donations were at the December level throughout the year, imagine how many more families we could serve.

Last month, we met an amazing woman volunteering with our A Brush with Kindness exterior repair program.  Her name is Amber May, and she and her husband are students of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  She revealed that Habitat for Humanity has a very special place in her heart.

I made my way out to our White Oak Villas site in Apex on Saturday morning to help greet our 100+ construction volunteers.  Instead, I was greeted by the Town of Apex’s entire planning department, who had arrived early to do all the landscaping for our first 8 homes in the community!

We work with planning departments to get our site plans and house plans approved as well as all of the various inspections necessary in new home construction.  One of the staff members mentioned how cool it was to help build one of the communities she had actually approved!

Last night, we celebrated with Jane & Yabesh, the dedication of their new home at White Oak Villas in Apex.  What a story of triumph they had to tell.

Five years ago, they won an “immigration lottery” in their homeland of Kenya to immigrate legally to the U.S.  This had been a goal of theirs for literally years so that their four children could receive the best education possible.

In celebration of World Habitat Day this week, Habitat Wake hosted our good friend, Alberto Benitez, national director of Habitat for Humanity in Honduras.