• Square-facebook
  • X-twitter
  • Instagram
Time to read
2 minutes
Read so far

Building a future in Graham

Tue, 07/30/2019 - 10:27 am
Graham Habitat for Humanity dedicates fifteenth home
  •  
    Kristy Garvin and her daughter stand in front of their new home which was constructed with help from Habitat for Humanity of Graham. The home serves as the fifteenth the local affiliation has provided to a family in Graham since they started in 2006. The organization builds one home per year, with the exception of their second year. With the help of local organizations and businesses, the home was constructed over the first half of the year. (Leader photo by Thomas Wallner)
  •  
    Family, friends and community members attend the open house Sunday for the house of Kristy Garvin which was constructed with the help of Habitat for Humanity of Graham. Garvin worked 100 hours up to February with the plan of starting construction on the home in March. (Leader photo by Thomas Wallner)
editor@grahamleader.com

Habitat for Humanity of Graham completed a milestone of 15 houses Sunday, after dedicating their latest home to the family of Kristy Garvin.

Starting in 2006, the Graham local affiliation of Habitat for Humanity has been building houses in Graham, with two constructed during their second year. The program searches for donated land and then designs and builds simple, affordable homes with donations from local individuals, businesses, churches and sponsoring organizations.

The basic home plan is 1,050 square feet with three bedrooms, two baths with vinyl siding, costing approximately $56,500 to construct. In the Graham Habitat for Humanity, different local groups sponsor days to work on the home and this year nine local organizations contributed to the completion of the project. Those organizations were Faith Center Church, Highridge Church, Oak Street Baptist Church, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, Graham Rotary Club, Lowe’s Weatherford, First National Bank, First State Bank and Graham Savings and Loan.

“That is something our board of directors came up with from the beginning,” Guinn said. “We decided to see if we couldn’t spread it out and get different groups to sponsor each of the 12 different days and bring their own volunteers and also provide the funds needed when they sponsor work days in order to help our materials donated. So that is the way we started back in 2006 and that model has been successful all the way through. A lot of our day sponsors are still with us from the very beginning.”

A dedication program was held for family and friends at Oak Street Baptist Church Sunday to recognize the work done by both the partner family and those from the habitat program. Executive Director Jimmy Guinn gave background on the history of Habitat for Humanity and dispelled the myths regarding the program.

“... most folks assume that it is some kind of a government housing program,” he said. “The reason they often times think that is even though Habitat was founded in 1976 in a little town in Georgia, the president of the United States was from Georgia, Jimmy Carter, and his wife actually grew up 30 miles from Augusta, Ga., so every one kind of takes that step.”

Guinn said the program was founded by a preacher who wanted to make a difference in his community with Habitat building over 800,000 houses across the world. The family who is chosen for the project is made based on the need of the family, the ability to pay off the 20-year mortgage payments and the willingness to work and provide ‘sweat-equity’ hours into the project.

“These folks are going to have to work at least 300 hours of what they call “sweat equity” in order to complete the program,” Guinn said. “Kristy has worked over 100 hours after she was selected at different nonprofits across the city or we will work on other Habitat house if they are selected soon enough, but that 100 hours has to be performed before we will ever pour the slab.”

For the rest of the story, see the Wednesday, July 31 edition of The Graham Leader.