Do Something Groundbreaking...

Today we sent out a mailing to all of the Groundbreakers Club members

introducing our latest homeowner, Felicia Rich!

Felicia a single mother of twin boys has begun the adventure building her Habitat home! Last week Felicia joined the BP, St. Christopher Church and the Regulars as we raised the walls for the next Habitat home in Dickinson. Felicia works hard as a care taker at Hope Village Home for mentally retarded adults. She is described by her peers and co-workers as a hardworking reliable and a "super" person! We feel very blessed to partner with her to build this new home.

If you would like to join the Groundbreakers Club and donate $25 every time we break ground on a new home, visit our website!http://www.bahfh.org/donate/index.php

Laura Santos and Mary Kay Are Trying to Help Habitat Win A FULL House Sponsorship!

Mary Kay Representative, Laura Santos, approached Bay Area Habitat for Humanity with an AMAZING opportunity!...

Mary Kay has decided to hold a contest in which the main prize is a FULL House Sponsorship for an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. This is a HUGE deal! Our homes cost approximately $65,000 to build, and initial funding is not easy to come by. Having the security of knowing someone will sponsor an entire build allows us to continue our mission of building homes in partnership with hard-working, low-income families in our community with more hope and less stress!

We can accomplish this by having as many women as possible agree to get "made-over".

Laura has been amazing in organizing groups and striving to have as many women as she can sign up for this opportunity to help.

The cost to enter: 15 minutes of your time and the willingness to have your "before and after" photos reviewed by a small panel of judges.

What you receive: A FREE Mary Kay makeover, entry into the individual grand prize of a $2500 vacation getaway and $2500 to donate to the charity of your choice, and the chance to offer a life-changing opportunity to a homeless family in your community.

There is no obligation to buy any Mary Kay products, and your photos will not be shared with anyone who is not connected to the judging of the contest.

"Getting Beautiful" has never been so easy and so rewarding!

To "Get Beautfiul" and give back, please join us at our "Mary Kay Makeover Event" scheduled for next Friday, June 10, from 11am-6pm.

Location: TBA (tentatively League City United Methodist)

For more information and to RSVP, please contact Laura Santos:
lsantos@marykay.com
281-332-1339

All other questions, comments, and concerns, please contact the BAHFH office:
281-337-3590

We Need YOU! Won't you help?

BAT Blog #2 and AmeriCorps Awareness Week

The AmeriCorps are back and in the full swing of things here at Bay Area Habtiat for Humanity. Rhia, Nathan and Jackie spent one week working with Pensacola Habitat to build 3 homes and raise the walls on 3 more!! They worked alongside Pensacola staff, homeowners and dedicated volunteers, as well as a group of Blue Angels! What a rewarding week!

Rhia worked with Family Services AmeriCorps members and staff to compile a welcome packet for new homeowners. Nathan and Jackie worked on the construction site. The affiliate had materials prepared for the crew to build 3 homes, but everone's expectations were exceeded! The last day, more walls were delivered and the skeletons of 3 more homes were put up. One of the homeowners received their address that Friday morning, and when they came to the worksite, they were pleasantly surprised to see a group of AmeriCorps members and Blue Angels raising their walls! The wife and husband team, along with their five children, thanked all of the volunteers and work crews at the closing ceremony Friday afternoon. At the ceremony, the Navy choir and colorguard performed, Pensacola's first Executive Director who just retired her position this year came to show her support, and the homeowners received hardhats that were signed by all of the AmeriCorps members present.

It was a long week full of blisters, bruises and hardwork, but it was well worth it for the AmeriCorps members. Though that week is over and our 3 AmeriCorps are safely back home, this week marks the 3rd week of the 2011 AmeriCorps Build-A-Thon. This week is also National AmeriCorps Awareness Week! We would like to invite everyone to learn more about the AmeriCorps program, how it works, who can benefit from it and the amazing things that get accomplished when a group of people decide to dedicate their lives to serving others. Please take a minute to visit the AmeriCorps Build-A-Thon website to read stories and see pictures of Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps taking action around the country. After that, head over to the official AmeriCorps Awareness Week website to see what else and where else AmeriCorps are involved!

"This year of service has been the most formative year of my life. College wasn't working for me. I got to a point I needed to refocus my time and energy into something good, something more meaningful than myself. With my year almost over, I feel confident that I am ready to go back to school and start the next chapter in my life. AmeriCorps did that for me." - Jackie Moran, AmeriCorps VISTA Member

BAT Blog #1

Greetings from sunny Pensacola, FL! The 2011 AmeriCorps Build-A-Thon is well under way! This year is the first time Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps are meeting in 8 different locations over a 3 week period to help over 80 families in North America through new home construction and rehabs. This week, approximately 60 Habitat AmeriCorps members from the southeast region of the country are working with the Pensacola affiliate to construct 3 new homes for local families. The 3 homes are just the beginning of 240 homes Pensacola Habitat has promised to build over the next two years! Bay Area Habitat's own Rhia, Nathan and Jackie feel blessed and honored to be a part of it!

Arriving late Sunday evening, the AmeriCorps members bonded over dinner and making beds in their dormitory accomodations, graciously provided by the University of West Florida. Monday and Tuesday were long days of building and Community Mapping. Nathan and Jackie raised walls, secured hurricane clips, installed trusses and tar-papered roofs, while Rhia scoped out local schools, hospitals, churches and other "need-to-know" places; The location information compiled by the Family Services crew will be put into a new welcome packet for the future homeowners. The progress they have made in just two days has been incredible! It has been wonderful for them to work with other Habitat AmeriCorps members, get to know their styles and the best (and not so successful) practices of their affiliates.

Fun Fact: Nathan and Jackie have been working under two Pensacola Crew Leaders who are Habitat homeowners turned full-time Habitat employees!! Way to go Rich and Cal! Y'all are awesome!

Each night on the UWF campus, HFH International and AmeriCorps team members have prepared fun activities for all of the "worker bees". Monday night was karaoke and board games. Tuesday, baseball and wings!

Wednesday is a much needed day off! No work, all play! Members will enjoy an agile and aerodynamic performance of the Blue Angels in the morning, and spend the rest of the day soaking up the Florida sun on the beach.

We will continue to keep you updated on Jackie, Rhia and Nathan's Build-A-Thon adventure throughout the week!

Please keep them in your prayers as they work to help fulfill the mission of Habitat for Humanity that have learned to love. Please pray that they are safe in their work, travel and play.

Thank you and God Bless!

Women Build Event = HUGE SUCCESS

Flowers arrangements on the worksite? A gourmet Salad Buffet? Over 70 Women "getting their nails done" at our Dickinson worksite? This only means one thing - National Women Build Week!! This past Saturday, over 70 women volunteered and raised all 4 walls of the Women Build home. It was an incredible day and the Bay Area Habitat crew would like to send out an extra special thanks to our Women Build Chairman, Kay Davey who worked tirelessly to make sure the day was not only organized, but also rewarding for all of those involved. Also, a huge thank you to our Construction Manager and Construction Assistant, Tom and Nathan for allowing us to invade their construction site with our pink hammers! Thank you to our "regulars" for being such great mentors week after week no matter how many volunteers we schedule, you are all a blessing to Bay Area Habitat and we couldn't do it without you!!

Don Zimmerman: Forever Building Hope

Last Saturday, we blessed the "Spring Building on Faith" Home on 26th Street in honor of Don Zimmerman.

Don was a dedicated Bay Area Habitat for Humanity construction volunteer. He was a hard worker and a problem solver. No problem was too big for Don. Calmly, he would consider a situation and come out with a solution. He was patient and kind and worked well with all of the passing volunteers, especially the younger ones. He offered his opinion when necessary, but trusted the instincts and craftsmanship of his fellow "regular" volunteers. Don never complained. Even to the very end, he made it a point to help out on the worksite in any way he could: cleaning up, doing a few odd jobs here and there, and continuing to spread joy and hope to everyone he encountered.

Ann Zimmerman, Don's wife and also a BAHFH volunteer, and his two sons, joined the crew on the worksite last weekend. Don's family and other volunteers who worked alongside Don for many years, shared stories of their time together. It was a bittersweet ceremony as everyone reflected on this great man and the impact he had on their lives. He has touched the lives of so many people in this community, and he is greatly missed. But the legacy he left behind will forever shine wherever BAHFH builds. Even though he is gone from this world, his memory continues to build hope in the community he cared so much for and committed his days to serving.

You were, are and will always be a blessing to this world.

We love you, Don. Rest in peace.

Click the photo above to view other pictures from the ceremony and build day.

Science and Technology Meet Nitty Gritty!

Last week, a group of students and teachers from the Denver School of Science and Technology flew down to the Texas Bay Area to spend some time getting "down and dirty" helping to get our final house on Florida Street ready for it's new homeowner! The group consisted of 34 high school students and 6 of their teachers.
 
A few facts about the school from which they hail:

Denver School of Science and Technology is the #1 high school in Denver!

The school is made up of a very diverse group of students and teachers of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. "100% of its first class of seniors was accepted into a four-year college or university last spring. The 100% acceptance rating is particularly inspiring considering the diversity of this Senior Class, which included 62% minority and 40% low income students. Additionally, 50% of this first graduating class is first generation college students." (Facts taken from the school's website: http://www.dsstmodel.org/) All of these students went on to continue their studies at the top schools in the nation.

 

Their enthusiasm and energy were hard to miss as they assisted us in working on many of the finishing touches on our last home on Florida street. Paint was spread on walls, ceilings, sheds, and clothing! The students matched the houses as they left the worksite, making them a walking testimony for the project they were working on. All of the grass was laid out in a beautiful brick pattern surrounding the house. What normally takes us up to two weekend workdays to accomplish, was done in two hours of work by this speedy group, quickly transforming the structure from a pile of assembled building materials on a construction site to a HOME.
 
The arrival of the students also marked the beginning of our transitional period from Florida Street to our new "build home" on 26th street. Old beat-up storage containers were emptied; materials were sorted and organized; good wood was transferred to the new site, and bad wood was carried away to the mulch yard. Another very cool project some of the students and teachers got to help with was learning how to lay rebar in preparation for pouring our next two concrete house slabs! They literally got to "lay the foundation" for the futures of our next two Partner Families :)
 
Through all of the labor intensive work, the group still took time to play! Their Art Instructor molded small, yet detailed, creations out of the clay of the earth. Here is a picture of the elephant he constructed on their second and final day with us:

 
In the midst of digging trenches, a game of Dirt Clod Baseball broke out, and some students made new friends with a couple of the local "freeloaders":



 

The students were so wonderful. Smart, funny and unique. One girl had a special connection to the project as a Habitat home recipient. She and her family are so grateful for their home, and she was happy to be a part of creating this opportunity for someone else.
 
It was such a joy having this group share their time and talents with us! We hope they enjoyed their time working with us and exploring the wonderful sites in Galveston and the Houston Bay Area!
 
To all of you who came out from Denver School of Science and Technology: We cannot thank you enough!
 
Much Love and Thanks, The BAHFH Crew