By Staff
The ultimate goal of Habitat for Humanity is to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the face of the earth by constructing adequate and basic housing. The Brewton affiliate has been working toward this goal in our own community since 1996. We have built or renovated 13 houses and more significantly have given 13 local families a simple, decent, affordable place to call “home”.
March 1-8, 2008 the Greater Brewton Habitat for Humanity will try something we have never done before: build one house for one family in one week. We are calling this ambitious project “Mission Possible”. The obvious goal is to raise the walls on Saturday, March 1 and have the house completed and ready for occupancy the following Saturday. The less visible but more important goal is to offer help and hope to a hard-working local family who is currently living in sub-standard housing conditions and whose income is not sufficient to buy their own home through conventional means. The house will be built on Brandenburg Street in East Brewton in partnership with the Woods family, Larry and Jennifer and their three children. The Woods family has already made a cash down payment and are well on their way to earning the required 450 hours of “sweat equity”. Once the home is completed, this family will accept responsibility for repaying the no-interest, no-profit loan. The repayment of their loan to the Greater Brewton Habitat for Humanity will generate funds to offer other families in similar circumstances a “hand up” instead of a “hand-out”.
The idea for this “house in a week” challenge was born as result of the great success of our “Building on Faith” blitz so generously supported by our community this past summer. Because of the outpouring of community spirit, we were able to complete two homes in 29 days using primarily volunteer labor in the intense summer heat. Our building coordinators feel that completing a house in a week is a challenging but attainable goal with sufficient volunteers working throughout the week.
We invite your business to participate in “Mission Possible” by encouraging your employees to volunteer. You might consider “loaning” employees to us for a few hours, or offering some special incentive to employees who volunteer with us on their own time. We will be working at the construction site (716 Brandenburg St., East Brewton) from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day of the blitz with some evening work hours scheduled as well. All volunteers will receive t-shirts, lunches, drinks, snacks, and instruction as needed. Construction volunteers must be at least 16 years old.
Businesses who support our “Mission Possible” project with volunteer hours or other resources will receive a “Habitat Friendly Business” certificate of appreciation. To discuss details of how your business can support “Mission Possible”, please call or e-mail our office: 251-867-0095; habitat@fumcbrewton.org.
Alecia C. Glaize,
Executive Director
Greater Brewton Habitat for Humanity