By Staff
The last few Habitat for Humanity projects have been more of a sprint than a marathon, with volunteers building houses in a week or even just a few days.
This weekend’s building blitz on the corner of Hollinger and Brannon streets is the kickoff for several weekends of work on a new home, and Habitat Director Alecia Glaize said she hopes volunteers will spread out their hours as well.
Habitat is also aiming to build the house to Earthcraft standards — a stringent building process that will make the house more energy efficient and better for the environment, Glaize said.
Building a house to such standards while also not spending a lot of money is challenging, Glaize said. If it passes inspection as an Earthcraft home, the house will be the first such house built in Escambia County.
A Home Depot grant has helped Habitat with the Earthcraft project.
In addition, some new volunteers have stepped up to help this year, including the Garden Club of Brewton, which is designing a landscape plan for the home. Even that will follow Earthcraft standards, Glaize said.
Upward Bound students from Jefferson Davis Community College, T.R. Miller female athletes and student government members from Escambia County High School are just a few of the other groups who have registered to help this year, Glaize said.
Volunteers are encouraged to register ahead of time, either at the Habitat office or online at escambiahfh.org, but they can also show up at the site this weekend.
The build begins at 8 a.m. Friday and will continue until 4 p.m. that day. Workers will be on site from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Additional workdays are scheduled for the weekends of Oct. 24-25, Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and Nov. 7-8.
Anyone who wants to help cannot do the building can also bring snacks for the builders or make a monetary donation, Glaize said.