By Staff
story by Lydia Grimes
Alecia Glaize never dreamed she would one day help build a house, but these days she spends much of her time doing just that.
Glaize has only been in Brewton since 2005, coming here with her husband, Ed, who is the pastor of First United Methodist Church of Brewton.
Habitat already had an organization in place, but Glaize became the executive director, the first employee to be paid for her work. When Glaize started, she was working about 20 hours a week, but that has quickly grown into at least 40 hours.
There is a lot to do with an organization that is growing by leaps and bounds. Habitat has a board that Glaize works with and they work with the families that are receiving the homes. There is a family selection in which the decision is made as to which applicant will be the recipient of a new or renovated house. The chosen family is given support and information to prepare them for ownership.
Habitat volunteers have helped build homes in other states and even in Costa Rica.
Last fall the Brewton organization expanded  to include the entire county.
Glaize said their group of volunteers have even inspired a new organization to be formed in Opp, and the Brewton team may be going there to help.
Glaize was born in Troy, and grew up in the small community of Glenwood. She is the older of two daughters and rode 10 miles from Glenwood to attend school in Brantley.
Glaize grew up in the Methodist Church and spent some of her summers at the Methodist camp at Blue Lake. She volunteered there and said it was then that she began to realize what she wanted to do with her life.
She chose Huntingdon College in Montgomery, with Christian education as her major. While she was going to college she was hired as youth director at Dalraida United Methodist Church and worked part-time. “I learned a lot,” she said. “They were very supportive and it confirmed the feeling that I had of going into the ministry.”
She also met her husband, Ed, while she was going to Huntingdon. When she was finished at Huntingdon, she went to Scarritt Graduate School, a Methodist school in Nashville, Tenn. She received her master’s degree in Christian education.
She and Ed Glaize were married in 1985. He had been in ROTC in college and after his graduation he was assigned to southern California. The couple moved to Victorville, and she continued her education at Clarmont School of Technology, where she received another master’s degree.
After Ed served four years in the military, the Glaize family moved to Atlanta, where he went to seminary and she worked as a youth director at Mount Zion Methodist Church. Their next move put them back in Alabama, first in Lee County, and later to Montgomery to First United Methodist Church for six years. Both of their children, Curtis, who is now 15, and Anna Grace, who is 12, were born in Montgomery.
The family moved from Montgomery to Tallassee, where they spent seven years. At that time, Glaize was teaching at Huntingdon College and even after the family moved to Brewton in 2005, she continued to teach for a while.