The Adobe Acrobat, pdf, files of the following newsletters are available for download:
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| Below are copies of some recent news articles. |
 Support Habitat for Humanity through Donations and
Purchase of used Building Materials and Furniture.
Although Orange County Habitat for Humanity does not have the facilities to store used and donated building materials and furniture, larger chapters in Charlottesville and Fredericksburg do.
Habitat ReStores ReUse, ReCycle and ReSell functional building materials, furniture and tools, diverting thousands of tons of usable materials from local landfills. The community gets affordable and sometimes unusual items for home improvement and renovations at discounted prices. All proceeds are used to benefit Habitat's mission to provide affordable housing for low income families.
The Greater Charlottesville Habitat Restore is at 1221 Harris Street. You can call them at (434) 293-6331 for further information or check out their website at http://cvillehabitatstore.org.
The Greater Fredericksburg Habitat Restore is a 4755 Jefferson Davis Highway (4 Mile Fork Business Center, next to J&J Tile). You can call them at (540) 891-5009 or visit their website at http://www.fredhab.org/resale.html.
Both stores are open 6 days a week. |
Both ReStores will pick up gently used furniture, construction supplies like cabinets, sinks, lighting and so much more depending on the quantity and how far donors are from the store. Besides individuals, businesses often donate surplus materials and furniture making these stores a good place to check if you are building a home or remodeling an existing one. Both stores accept donations of and have available for sale:
- A large variety of kitchen appliances.
- Kitchen and Bath cabinets and countertops.
- All kinds of interior and exterior doors.
- Windows and screens.
- Interior and exterior lighting.
- New carpet, rugs and flooring of all kinds.
- Tables and office furniture.
- Sofas, chairs and other home furniture.
- And many other items you can use.
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The Hedinger Family's New Home Dedicated
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On August 29, 2010, the twenty-fifth home completed by Orange County Habitat for Humanity was dedicated. It is now the home for Kerri Hedinger and her family. Kerry, and her son Devin, are shown in front of their new home. They have now moved in and settled.
Kerry and all of us thanks to Bill Nowers & Bud Dominick for the leadership and work they provided and to all the other volunteers and contributors that made this possible. Bill, Kerry, Harold Thompson and Tim Tigner have worked on the house at least 3 days a week for the last couple of months. (Check out the pictures of volunteers building the home.) |
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| Check out the winners of the summer and fall, 2010, raffles that helped fund our home building. |
Our New President
 Hi everyone…my name is Cindy Reid, and as of March, 2010, I’m the new President for Orange County Habitat for Humanity. I feel so lucky to have started this volunteer job with a new house just starting. That’s the most exciting time to be a part of Habitat! I look forward to a house dedication in the near future, and then we’ll start the work of raising funds for the next house and the next family.
Be a part of this wonderful organization. Please contact us with your talents and skills. If you can swing a hammer, then great. If you don’t want to swing a hammer, there are many, many other jobs that go into the process of helping a partner family become a successful homeowner. Call us and let’s talk. |
The Worth of a Volunteer
Much effort goes into trying to determine the monetary value of a volunteer hour. Currently it runs about $20.85. But can a volunteer hour be reduced to a monetary value? As someone famous once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted.”
How do you count the selfless giving of someone who gives up their day off from work to work for someone else? Our country has a grand history of helping others, of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We have seen it time and time again, and we still see it today. Ordinary people working to help others, working to improve their communities.
When I think about Habitat for Humanity, I certainly think of all the wonderful volunteers that have made this housing ministry a mission in their lives. At Orange County Habitat for Humanity, we are all volunteers. There are volunteers who search for affordable land, volunteers who do the selection of qualified families, who mentor, who work with families on their sweat equity. There are volunteers who spend countless hours doing fundraising, and putting articles in the paper or producing a newsletter.
Anything OCHFH does, it’s done by a volunteer!
There are also volunteers who wield hammers and help us with the physical work of building a house. Many times we need willing volunteers, not necessarily skilled workers. Sometimes we need very skilled workers, like masons, plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating people. There are times we need many bodies and times we need very few bodies.
And sometimes that can be frustrating for someone who wants to volunteer…it’s all part of the house building process. When the skilled workers are doing their jobs, there is very little for us regular folk to do. Don’t be discouraged!
Contact us and tell us you want to volunteer. It’s not a promise that you’ll come out every time we call you. But it is our promise to let you know when there is a volunteer house building job that needs you.
I volunteer because it enriches me. I have met so many ordinary people who do extraordinary things, and I’m a better person, a better Christian because of it. |
Partnerships Vital to Habitat
Habitat for Humanity depends on partnerships at all levels to accomplish their goal of building homes for families in need. At the national level, there are companies who help Habitat for Humanity affiliates all over the country get the building materials they need.
Whirlpool provides a range and refrigerator for every Habitat home, and they sell us a washer & dryer at their cost. Yale provides interior and exterior locks and deadbolts for our latest house and Square D provided the panel box and breakers. These are valuable partnerships that help us keep the cost of our Habitat for Humanity homes affordable.
Here at Orange Co. Habitat for Humanity, we have a number of local partnerships that are critical to our mission. On the home we our building now, we have partnered with 84 Lumber and they are providing building materials to us at cost. This results in a huge savings! We have partnered with Glen Tolbert to build the foundation, and with Paul Breeden to do the plumbing.
We partner with many, many individuals who give a day or many days to help us build. We particularly depend
on our partners, Bill Nowers and Bud Dominick who are overseeing the building of this home. And we partner with individuals who help us raise money for the things we have to purchase.
Churches are another valuable partner. They pray for our mission and they hold fund-raisers and they include us in their mission budgets. Habitat for Humanity is a Christian ministry and our church partnerships mean a great deal.
Habitat for Humanity also believes in building a house in partnership with a family in need of a house. Habitat does not build a house “for” someone; they build it “with” someone. We work side by side doing the labor needed to build a house. We call this sweat equity for the partner family, but it is all part of tying us together into one community. And that is really our goal…to build community.
If you or your church or your civic organization wants to become a partner in this ministry of Habitat for Humanity, please email us at ochfh@ochfh.org.
Many hands make light work, and community is a goal we can all work towards. |
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