On Saturday, nine Wake Countians will be traveling to Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras as part of Habitat Wake’s first ever Global Village trip to Honduras. I’m excited to be one of the nine and traveling back to the area I visited and served in last year.
Heather and her family moved into a Habitat house in Wake County 16 years ago. Heather was 10 then. Today, Heather serves on staff at Durham Habitat as their volunteer services manager, coordinating the thousands of volunteers for their program.
It’s always an exciting day when you get to participate in a house dedication—a time to celebrate with the homebuyers, the volunteers, the sponsors, and the Habitat staff who have worked so hard, in partnership, to create this incredible new opportunity for a family.
We are dedicating two homes later today—with the Pender and Johnson families—on Skycrest Drive in NE Raleigh close to our offices and Raleigh ReStore. It will be a great celebration, as they always are, especially in this beautiful, early spring weather!
Sometimes things work out.
As part of our Long Acres work in SE Raleigh, the City of Raleigh had acquired a house on Parnell Drive that they planned to demolish in order for Habitat to come in and put a new structure in its’ place. The home definitely needed to be demolished, but it was occupied. As with any federal grant, there were provisions to financially compensate the occupants for relocation.
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." Chinese proverb
A key theme at Habitat on the Hill is the creative, albeit, sometimes unlikely partnerships that are developing due to reduced funding. This tightening of the belt is being faced at all levels -- from governmental agencies to nonprofits to the individual families served by Habitat affiliates across the country. While the economic environment is challenging at best, there is a silver lining.
I just had the distinct privilege of attending the closing for Ricky Mitchell and the house we built together with him in Long Acres in Raleigh. Habitat is a partnership, not a charity give-away. And with Ricky this couldn’t be truer. Ricky himself was actively engaged in all aspects of the construction. Ricky’s brother, a professional roofer, installed the roof shingles. Ricky’s co-worker, a trim carpenter, installed all the interior doors in a matter of hours and then cut the baseboards which Ricky installed.
This past Sunday was our 11th annual Holiday Home Tour fundraiser and the crowd gathered was not only treated to some good food and music, but also to hearing from our current homebuyers in Garner, Michael and Waldrena Robinson and their experience with Habitat Wake. As we approach Thanksgiving, I find myself grateful and blessed to be a part of an organization that can make such a huge difference in people’s lives in such a simple, but profound way.
Last Saturday was the long-anticipated opening of our second ReStore, located at 181 High House Road in Cary. It was a great occasion with speeches, ribbon cutting, balloons, and lots of eager customers. For us, ReStore has a three fold mission: 1) Assist families in securing low-cost products to upgrade their own dwellings 2) Raise funds for Habitat for Humanity’s mission to provide simple, decent, affordable housing for those in need and 3) to promote re-use of products rather than discarding them to landfills.
I stopped by one of our build sites a couple Saturdays ago and had a chance to chat with our homeowner-to-be. I wish you all could have been there to just see the joy that Habitat has brought into his life. It was so evident. All of our volunteers and donors help make that possible. It really is precious.
I went to lunch last Tuesday, with my 22 year old twin sons. While I stepped away to the restroom, the check arrived, and to my pleasant surprise, my son Micah picked up the check! My take-away on this is that things do change in significant ways over time. I’ve bought Micah many meals over the years and to have him pay for one signifies a major change that is a generation long in coming.