Highlands County Habitat for Humanity's loss is certainly a big gain for the DeSoto-Arcadia Habitat for Humanity. Jane Breylinger, a true believer in the monumental mission of eliminating substandard housing, is leaving her job as executive director of Highlands Habitat to take a similar job in DeSoto County. We hate to see her go, which is likely the sentiment others who are involved in Habitat have. Breylinger has done an an exceptional job and is apparently leaving Highlands Habitat in great shape. ...more

June 14, 2008

SEBRING — Jane Breylinger was a stay-at-home-mom who needed some "me time" with other adults when she first volunteered to hammer nails for Highlands County Habitat for Humanity. ...more

June 7, 2008

SEBRING — Habitat for Humanity has a new way to help the environment — recycling houses. Instead of demolishing one of the houses on Magnolia Street slated to eventually become a parking lot for county offices, they moved the house to a new location a few blocks away. "We took a house that was donated to us by the county to a piece of property donated to us by the city," said Jane Breylinger, executive director of Highlands County Habitat for Humanity. "It's was a good way for us all to work together." ...more

May 31, 2008

The foreclosure crisis that has forced thousands of families from their homes has given something good to the nation's best-known housing charity: cheap properties for sale in communities around the country. ...more

May 20, 2008

SEBRING — With shoppers usually waiting outside for the doors to open, the Habitat for Humanity Home Supply store is easily the busiest place in downtown Sebring. Although many Habitat for Humanity affiliates have similar stores selling furniture and building materials, most are not as popular or profitable as the one on 137 S. Commerce Ave. "We have one of the most successful home supply stores in the nation," said Jane Breylinger, executive director of Highlands County Habitat for Humanity. Store Manager Chuck Ball said the store had more than $600,000 of sales last year. That's enough not only to cover the administration costs of the nonprofit organization but also to build two houses every year. ...more

February 23, 2008

TAMPA - Amid the international supermodels and voluptuous celebrities who are in the 2008 swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated is Tampa's Milly Figuereo. ...more

February 11, 2008

SEBRING — Two suspects were cooperating with Sebring police investigators Friday in its investigation into 13 burglaries in the downtown Sebring area. The two suspects, Lamar F. Wilcher Jr., 19, of Sebring, and James L. Gardner, 21, of Sebring, were riding around town Friday morning with Sebring police detectives helping to recover some of the stolen merchandise, said Sebring Police Cmdr. Steve Carr. The detectives have obtained confessions from both suspects and were in the process of obtaining arrest warrants, Carr said. ...more

February 2, 2008

County officials on Thursday approved plans for a potential Habitat for Humanity community off U.S. 98 north of Dade City. ...more

January 25, 2008

LAKE PLACID — Nobody would have known from a distance that Habitat for Humanity volunteer John Boyden from Windham, Maine, was working hard in the midday sun with a splint on his thumb. Boyden had earlier pounded his thumb with a hammer and broken the finger nail. He said, with a grin, that the splint was only a precautionary measure, but was needed since he tended to hammer the thumb again and again. Boyden is one of more than two dozen nomadic RVers or CARE-A-Vanners who are visiting Highlands County for two weeks, while building homes with the local Habit for Humanity. ...more

January 9, 2008

LAKE PLACID –– Dave Alden remembers his brother-in-law, Wendell, fondly, although he was only a child when his adopted sister married. It was partly because Wendell's life was a success story but more importantly he always made time for Dave. That mentoring of honesty and setting a good example made a lifetime impact. Born in Vermont, Alden retired in 1989 as a project engineer with Kennicott Copper. He and his wife, Marie, traveled the United States and Alaska for two years before the snowbirds decided to find a warm place in Florida to land. While zigzagging across the state, they discovered Lake Placid and fell in love with this town of murals and caladiums. Dave feels that their secret to being married 48 years –– besides luck –– is that they love each other and have the same goals. Marie was the type who wanted to help people and he was brought up the same way. ...more

December 31, 2007