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Habitat For Humanity Seeks 200 More Volunteers For Big Project

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Volunteer Jack Palmer caulks a door frame inside a Habitat for Humanity house recently in Lake Placid.

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: October 19, 2008

SEBRING -- Penne Manar says she still gets goose bumps when she recalls how, seven years ago, she came to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity of Highlands County.
She balked at a friend's invitation to join this non-profit, Christian faith-based organization that helps hard working people work and save their way into a new home that otherwise would be unreachable.
Nearing the end of two years as volunteer president of the Florida Hospital Auxiliary, Manar worried that joining another service organization would stretch her time and energy too thin.
But she accepted an invitation to attend a Habitat home dedication.
Manar watched as a single mother with three young children, having saved the down payment and completed her 400 hours of "sweat equity" work, was given a Bible and house keys and became a first-time homeowner.
"She took the microphone and thanked everyone, with tears streaming down her face, and then she said something I'll never forget," Manar said. "She said, 'I always knew that I had a home in heaven, but I never dreamed I'd have a home on Earth.'
"That was it for me," Manar said. She soon served as Habitat's volunteer coordinator, and then began painting and caulking at home building sites, too. Since 2006, when a back problem curtailed her construction work, she has served on the board of directors.
Habitat for Humanity was building five or six homes per year back when Manar joined in 2001. With more than 300 active volunteers today, the organization has built 85 new homes over the past five years.
A Big, New Project
Now, Habitat for Humanity has set the ambitious goal of recruit ing an additional 200 volunteers over the next five months.
That's what it will take to tackle Habitat's biggest project ever in Highlands County, building 100 two-story townhouses over the next three years, two years if possible, at the Ridgeview project, said Mike Jacobson, Habitat's executive director.
"I'm hoping that we're able to recruit at least 200 new volunteers who can commit at least one to two work days a week, beginning with the commencement of the Ridgeview project, because it's only through our volunteer labor that we're able to deliver a project at the price we do," Jacobson said.
"We're looking for 200 volunteers with a wide variety of skills, or with no skills, because we can train folks with the skills they need," he added.
Ridgeview will be Habitat for Humanity of Highlands County's first affordable cost community. The 100 townhouses will go on 20 acres on the east side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a few hundred yards south of Arbuckle Creek Road.
In addition to extensive green space, walking trails, parks and playgrounds and a community center, Ridgeview also will feature about an acre and a half of retail, offering community services such as a day care center, a convenience store and a bank branch.
"We're taking a holistic view to building a community, and that's totally new to Habitat," Jacobson said.
Recruiting 200 new volunteers may sound daunting, but Jacobson said he's confident that goal will be reached.
"It's not just about building homes, it's also about building friendships," Jacobson said. Once a volunteer himself, he said, "Many of our volunteers talk years later about the lasting relationships and friendships they've made."
Building Friendships
That's the case with Jack Forrest, a retired electrician, who with Jack Warner, retired from careers as a missionary and a loan officer, runs a Habitat electrical crew.
Forrest said the chance "to help people and give back to the community" drew him to Habitat. At the same time, he added, "We have a good time working together.
"All of the fellas we work with are very good friends. And the new ones who come on, it doesn't take them long to learn a trade and become one of the group," Forrest said.
"We have very few people who come on a job site once and don't come back," he added. "They tend to keep on volunteering for Habitat once they get started."
Volunteers on his electrical crew run the gamut from retired teachers and a school superintendent to a crane operator, a machinist and a financial agent.
"Anybody can help an electrician," Forrest said. "They can learn their job, whether it be pulling wire, drilling holes, hanging fans."
Jack Palmer regularly spends Tuesday mornings leading a wood working crew of anywhere from six to 12 fellow members of the Highlands Ridge Men's Golf Association.
"We give up Tuesday golf to work for Habitat," he said. He joined eight years ago after hearing his pastor, the Rev. Bill Breylinger at Union Congregational Church in Avon Park, speak about Habitat's goal of eliminating substandard living conditions in Highlands County.
"We look forward to Tuesdays when we get together with friends" for Habitat work, Palmer said. "It's an enjoyable way to pass the time, and sometimes it's a challenge, and you look forward to the challenge.
"And it's a great satisfaction when you can walk away from a job and say, 'There, we've done a good job.'"
His wife, Marilyn, volunteers at the Habitat for Humanity Home Sales Store, on South Commerce Avenue, just off The Circle. She's done everything from marking prices to cleaning items for sale to working the cash register.
She said she thoroughly enjoys the people she works with and the customers.
"It's a great opportunity to give back, but most of the time you don't feel like you're giving, because it's so much fun," she said. "Sometimes it's more fun than playing golf."
Nadia Hoffman, volunteer coordinator for the organization, said Habitat offers many ways to contribute, from construction work to helping in the office or the home supply store, serving on a committee or as a mentor to families, and providing meals to work crews.
Serving Volunteers
About 15 to 20 times a year, Terry and Ed Sager, the minister at Highlands Grace Reformed Church, have been serving lunch to work crews at building sites, with Ed reading a Bible passage and giving a brief devotional.
With the help of several women from the church, Terry said, "we cook up a decent lunch to show them that we appreciate their work for Habitat."
"It's a ministry of the church," Ed said. "And it's a joy to share with other people ... We've met so many nice people, interesting people from all walks of life and from every corner of the country." He calls Habitat "a practical way to help people and it's a Biblical way to help people, a community based outreach to people."
Hoffman said a majority of the Habitat volunteers are seasonal residents. With work on the Ridgeview community expected to start by the end of the first quarter of 2009, she said, "we're really in need of recruiting year-round volunteers to keep up with the construction, especially in the summer months, because we work all year."
Jacobson said Ridgeview will provide a big boost not only to meeting the housing needs of working class families struggling from paycheck to paycheck, but also to the local economy.
Economic Stimulus
"Ridgeview is not just about helping hard working families achieve their part of the American dream, it's also about economic development and economic stimulus."
He explained, "If you ask our retailers and those in the commercial and services industries what would be the quickest way to ensure economic health, what are they going to say? 'Customers.' They're going to say, 'I need more customers.'
How does Habitat make that happen?
"If you build 100 Habitat homes in this Ridgeview community, now you're putting $12- to $15 million of taxable home value on the tax rolls," Jacobson said.
"But most importantly, the average person on the Habitat waiting list is paying $750 per month in rent and as a result is financially crippled, because that represents greater, in many cases, than 40 or 50 percent of their gross monthly income.
"What that means," he continued, "is that in many cases buying all the groceries they need, taking their child to the dentist, replacing a pair of sneakers, is often deferred due to that imbalance in their basic budget.
"Now, turning that person into a Habitat homeowner paying $450 in a mortgage (including taxes and insurance) automatically frees up $300 a month in spendable income which, almost without exception, winds up getting put into savings accounts, and it means not deferring medical appointments and buying that new pair of sneakers, or a new outfit for their child.
"Simply stated, it winds up back in the local economy in real cash."
'A Lot Of Praying'
Alan Ball, construction manager for Habitat, is supervising completion of 12 single-family homes begun over the summer. About 2,500 volunteer hours of labor go into each one.
"We're trying to get our plate cleared for our larger multi-family projects," he said. "We have a bunch of good volunteers, not enough, but we've got good people."
Ball said he's encouraged about taking on the huge Ridgeview project because everybody connected with Habitat is spreading the word.
"You just do a lot of praying" for enough new volunteers, he said. "I hope that the volunteers come out of the woodwork. God is going to send them. I don't have any reason to doubt ... .
"People come back and bring a neighbor with them," he added. "That happens all the time. People work for a season and bring a friend the next season."
Jacobson said the hope is that, when Habitat's volunteer army grows to 500 strong, Ridgeview will be the first of more large-scale Habitat communities in Sebring, Avon Park and Lake Placid.
"I hope that in a few years," he said, "we can look back and say we were part of the turning point that will end the cycle of working class poverty in Highlands County, and this project was the launching paid to bring about that end."

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