Our First Friday Dutch Treat Lunch is scheduled for Friday, April 7. This time it will be held at Shoney's in Dunbar. Shoney's has been happy to offer us their meeting/dining room for our monthly lunch. Our previous site needed us to committ to a definite number of attendees. We just weren't ready to provide a guaranteed attendance. We have the room from 11:30 until 1:00 so we'll have time to eat and discuss issues as usual. Again, I encourage all of you to come join us. I also hope that you'll help us spread the word about the change in location. We intend to hand out volunteer T-shirts at the meeting so try to be there!

One more note about next week's visitors. They have a web site that is great. Check it out at

http://www.montini.org .

I thank Wendy Tipton for the very kind and inspiring comment she left on our blog. I think everyone of us, volunteers, donors, homeowners and staff, believes what she says makes this all worthwhile.

Have a good weekend!

Just a reminder that the Montini High School youth group will be arriving on Saturday March 25. Montini High is in the Chicago area. Jim Segredo will be leading the group. These young people have decided they want to spend their spring break doing something constructive and meaningful. They will be here for a week doing any and all jobs needed. The term "spring break" conjures up images of parties but these kids are travelling here at their own expense to help our families become homeowners.
These work camps always amaze me. We've met some great kids who prove that this generation is one to be proud of. Despite all the bad impressions in the papers and on TV, these kids show us that there are many, many wonderful young people in our country. It's a joy to welcome them.
I hope all of our regular volunteers will be there to show them the ropes and share some West Virginia hospitality with the Montini students. I extend a special invitation to all of the partner families to make an appearance at the job site and give these kids a pat on the back.

At our First Friday lunches, lots of questions and ideas are discussed. One that I think has real possibilities is business cards for our regular volunteers. I know you folks talk to all sorts of people about Habitat's work. Do these people ever ask "How can I get involved?". If they do, it means that you are a good ambassador for Habitat for Humanity. It also means that you need information in a convenient form to pass along to the prospective volunteer. Would a business card with our name, address, phone, website and your name do the trick? For someone truly interested, this would help them easily contact the Habitat office. If you think you'd like a few of these cards, post a reply on this site or e-mail me at tim@habitatwv.org . We need to recruit new volunteers year round and this might just help. I'm always looking for new volunteers to join our 3 great crews and I hope this will help each of you to recruit a few as well.

New Construction Calendar

The new construction calendar is now posted. Click Here to download it.

You'll notice that we have changed it quite extensively to reflect the reality of our situation and now includes the South Park house as one of the ten we will build this year.

The next house to start will now be on May 2. That house will be put under roof by Bayer - a joint effort between two of its divisions: Crop Science and MaterialScience. They have sponsored the entire house but will have its employees onsite primarily the first week.

Of course we have plenty to keep us busy until then don't we?

Sorry for being tardy with this blog update. I am trying to make this one of my main priorities.
Habitat's second First Friday Dutch Treat lunch was held on Monday, March 6 at the Golden Corral in Cross Lanes. I have to admit, the food is a whole lot better than I first expected. The variety on the lunch buffet runs the gamut from terrific pot roast to hamburgers to beans and cornbread. Many, many more choices are available including salads and desserts. It's also "all you can eat". Again, I encourage all of you to attend. One reason is that if we don't get more people for our meetings, they'll stop letting us use their meeting room for free. Another reason is that a whole bunch of good and useful information is shared at these meetings.
This past meeting's highlight was a talk from our Volunteer Coordinator, Tina Rhodes. She had some good information about what makes a person or family a good candidate for a Habitat home. She spoke of the qualifications to enter the program and the requirements once they are accepted. I've heard that many volunteers wonder about the family selection process. I am sure everyone there came away with a much better understanding of the process. One reason I'm sure of this is because of the large number of excellent questions asked of Tina. The volunteer audience was obviously interested in this topic. So come on down to our next meeting on April 7. It's cheap, it's filling, it's interesting, it's informative and it's fun. See ya there! - Tim

The Apostle's Build has begun! Today, March 1 marked the beginning of construction activity for Star Hogan's new home. Over the next seven weeks, we'll see volunteers from 12 local churches make her dream a reality. As you can see, Star is already working on building the floor. This is always an exciting time for a homeowner-to-be. Star has worked on the homes of many other Habitat families and now, it's her turn. If all goes well and the weather cooperates, we hope to finish Star's home by Easter. That's a fitting way to celebrate this wonderful time of year.