Habitat Wake Happenings

Habitat Wake was recognized, along with four other Triangle Home Builders, for our excellence in green home building at an award reception on August 1. Green building is especially important to Habitat homebuyer partners because lower utility costs and better indoor air quality improve our construction of safe, affordable housing.

I'd like to introduce our second guest blogger: one of our wonderful volunteers.  Janelle is a first year full-time MBA Candidate at NC State University's Jenkins Graduate School. She has a BBA in Marketing from James Madison University. Most recently before starting business school at NC State, Janelle was marketing manager at Wilkinson Supply Company. She's a lover of running and Pinterest. When not in class, you could probably find her exploring the restaurant scene in downtown Raleigh.

Yesterday, we hosted Frank Reed, Habitat for Humanity International’s, National Director of ReStore Support.  Frank came to congratulate our ReStore staff and volunteers on the results from our most recent fiscal year, where sales grew by 18% and the contribution to our mission reached nearly $900,000!  He also left us with many great ideas on how to continue to grow this part of our work and serve even more families in the future.

Last Wednesday, we had the privilege of dedicating our most recent new home in Augusta Crossings that was built in partnership with the Ali/Karim family and our sponsors from Red Hat, WalMart, and Grifols.

Tomorrow, Norma Smith is retiring after serving 16 years with Habitat Wake.  Norma is Habitat Wake’s longest tenured staff member in our history.   Thousands of volunteers from near and far have interacted with Norma over the years and have been greeted by her as they came out to volunteer.  I always tell our staff that we are here to set the stage and enable the work of volunteers.   Norma’s work embodied that.  Everyone is welcome and everyone has something to give.

I hate it when I have to miss a house dedication.  They are such beautiful celebrations of an act that provides a life changing opportunity.  Last Saturday, I had a family graduation celebration in Virginia and I was unable to attend the dedication of our most recently completed home in Augusta Crossings.  I reached out by e-mail to our homebuyer partner, Ty, to tell her I was sorry to miss her big day.

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”     Matthew 21:21-22

Professional builders would rather build than talk, so in that spirit, I’ll keep this short.  Thanks to Savvy Homes, Regency Centers, A.R. Nix Construction, Williams Realty & Building, and the Triangle Builders Guild for showing up with their subcontractors and suppliers last week on our sites in Augusta Crossings in Raleigh and leaving the week with four completed and beautiful homes.  Several other companies also  participated by supporting all 4 homes:  Stock Building Supply, PlyGem, and Baker Roofing.

At a recent house dedication in Augusta Crossings, Pastor J. Vincent Terry of SE Raleigh’s Mount Peace Baptist Church shared with us a quote that really spoke volumes to me:

“We all drink from wells that we did not dig and we eat fruit from vines we did not plant.”