Great things happen when our community comes together. Our partnership with Seacoast Bank is a perfect example.

Seacoast Bank is an integral partner of Habitat Lake-Sumter, helping us create opportunities for local families while investing in the next generation of builders.

On August 17, we celebrated the groundbreaking of a new Habitat home in Lake Panasoffkee with students from The Villages Charter School’s Youth Construction Academy. With support from Seacoast Bank, these students will spend the 2026–2027 school year gaining hands-on construction experience while helping build a home for a local family.

They’ll take what they’ve learned in the classroom and put it to work on an actual Habitat construction site—learning from construction professionals, developing valuable skills and getting a firsthand look at careers in the trades.

But this project is about more than construction.

It’s about opportunity. It’s about community. And it’s about giving a deserving local family a place to call home. 

When this home is finished, a family will have a safe, affordable place where they can put down roots, celebrate milestones and make amazing memories for years to come. At the same time, the students helping build it will walk away with new skills, confidence and an experience they’ll carry with them into their futures.

That’s what makes the Youth Construction Academy so special—and what makes partnerships like this one with Seacoast Bank so important.

“Seacoast Bank believes in investing in the communities it serves—and there is no better way to demonstrate that commitment than by helping a local family build a stronger future through homeownership.”

— Jason Pittman, EVP Market President, Seacoast Bank

We’re incredibly grateful to Seacoast Bank for investing in our community and helping make this project possible. Together, we’re helping students build their futures while helping a local family build a future of their own.