Hometown Habitat News

In the pink and ready to build

 

The program's past and future homeowners gathered at the event. From left. Latoya Sankey, Ashton Watson, Shannon McPherson, Tori Duket, Katy Black, Debbie Duket, Sandra Young, and Dionna Alston.

 

Like-minded, hard-working women got together March 9 at a pink champagne party to kick off Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter’s six-week fundraising campaign to build a local resident a new house.

Women Build is an annual nationwide initiative that invites women from all walks of life to join together to fundraise and eventually lend a hand in the building of a new home. This will be the area’s fifth project.

At the event, held during Women’s History Month at the RoMac Training Center in Leesburg, Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter CEO Danielle Stroud said that with the average Lake County household income being just around $35,000, it’s more important than ever to take a grassroots approach to providing houses for people in need.

We build for our families,” Stroud said. “It has become increasingly difficult and challenging for people to afford to buy their own home, and we at Habitat want to bridge that gap. Women Build is an important part of this.”

So far this year, Women Build has nine teams and 37 participants. The goal is to raise $100,000 in six weeks to build a two-bedroom, one-bath property that the women will help to build in May

The property will be the first house to be built in The Cottages at Heritage Grove, Habitat’s first 55-plus age restricted community in Tavares. This is a project that has been some years in the making and ultimately is to provide 23 cottage-style houses and townhomes.

As of March 9, the ladies of Women Build had already raised $14,148 toward their huge record-setting goal.

Click here to read the full article by Sharon Keeble, Triangle news Leader