This past weekend was a busy one for Austin Habitat, and a great start to the 2010 build season and our 25th anniversary year!!!
On Saturday at 8 AM, we raised the walls of Austin Habitat’s FIRST-EVER Baptist Build. Highland Park Baptist, University Baptist, Church of the Savior, Manchaca Baptist, First Baptist, the Sanctuary, and Little Mt Zion have partnered together to give a home to Sylvia Rodriguez, her 15 year old daughter, Amy, and her 6 year old son, Luis. The Rodriguez home will be at 7403 Thanna’s Way, and it is the first we are building in our Meadowlake subdivision near I-35 and William Cannon, in vibrant southeast Austin.
The emotional wall-raising ceremony started off with a rendition of “This is the Day that the Lord has Made,” led by President and CEO Michael Willard. Then, Sylvia said a few words about how excited she was to own her own home, as well as how thankful she was to her generous church sponsors. Next, Rev. Marcus McFaul from Highland Park Baptist led the assembled group of pastors and church volunteers in a prayer for Sylvia and her family and Austin Habitat. The members of the steering committee then raised and secured the first wall of the home alongside Sylvia and her mother, who has been alongside her for many months helping her complete her sweat equity hours.
At 10 AM, we dedicated two beautiful new homes at 7419 and 7423 Thanna’s Way. These homes went to the Coronadao and Valencia families. They were made possible by partnerships with both Reytex and the city of Austin. After the dedication ceremonies, both families opened their homes to their families, friends, and Austin Habitat staff and volunteers. Delicious fajitas were served!!
At 3 PM, we moved to the Devonshire neighborhood in northeast Austin to dedicate the Pride Build house. For the third year in a row, the Austin Pride Build brought together the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community to build a home for a family in need. The Austin Pride Build is in honor of Bettie Naylor, who has more than three decades of social activism under her belt and is one of the nation’s most highly regarded gay rights lobbyists.
The home went to single mother Kimberly Fabian, whose grandparents, mother, sisters, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and cousins all gathered together to see her dream of home ownership come true. Kimberly was filled with emotion that her young son Elijah, a very smart 4 year old on scholarship at a Montessori school, will have his own home to grow and learn in. Steve Dobie, Pride Build regular volunteer who this year earned his red “site leader” hat, gave Elijah a toy Home depot tool belt and hard hat as a gift. He said if anything goes wrong in the house now, Elijah can fix it!!
This Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we also had a three day blitz build on the Exit Realty house at 2417 Towbridge Circle in our Devonshire development. A portion of every transaction fee collected by EXIT Realty Corp. International is applied to its charitable fund and to-date, more than $1.68 million has been pledged to Habitat for Humanity in both Canada and the U.S. The home being built in Austin for the Santana family is Exit Realty’s TWELTH corporately sponsored Habitat for Humanity home. Many of the company’s executives flew to Austin to volunteer on the project, and the company’s founder even joined us from Canada!!
It was a very busy weekend, and we would like to thank all of the volunteers who came out to help build or support our partner families at wall raising and dedication ceremonies! Next weekend, we raise the walls on the home sponsored by Distressed Property Institute!!
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