Hello again to all of our volunteers. Beginning this Wednesday, March 1, you will see increased activity on Star Hogan's house (House # 105). Twelve local churches have banded together to financially sponsor and build this house in an effort of community cooperation. Members of these churches will blend together into a workforce rather than work only with their own church group. A real spirit of cooperation is driving this effort. They all share in the determination to raise this house as a safe and decent place for Star to raise her family.
As much determination as they have, they may need a little help from time to time. We might have some of our regular volunteers help out on this build. Many of these new volunteers may need some advice on the right way to get things done. I can't think of better, more knowledgeable or dedicated teachers than Tiny, Lavern and our Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday crew members.

Our next First Friday Dutch Treat Lunch will be this Friday, March 3 at Golden Corral in Cross Lanes. Shawn has a few topics to cover and Tiny will again talk about construction issues. Have you ever wondered how families are chosen to the program? Tina will talk about what Habitat looks for in a partner family. The first meeting was considered interesting and informative by those who attended. We hope to get many more volunteers for our meeting this Friday so consider this a personal invitation to each of you!

Our affiliate has 3 visiting workcamps signed up for 2006. Here is a list of their names and the dates of their visit:

Montini Catholic High School (Chicago, IL) March 27 - 31
Faith Community Chapel (Western PA) April 11 - 15
St. Michael's Youth Group (Chicago, IL) June 12 - 16

The Faith Community Chapel group is led by Russ van Nest. Russ has visited us several times in the past. This will be his first trip here in 3 years
I'm sure many of you recognize St. Michael's as a faithful partner of HFH. I believe this is their 7th or 8th trip to Charleston in a row.
This will be the first visit for Montini Catholic High School. They learned of us from St. Michael's and Rose Koch.
I hope they realize how much we appreciate them. Gathering a bunch of teenagers and taking them on an 8 hour drive to help us build is not an easy task. Let's make sure they feel welcome when they visit!

Lavern Update

Just a note to let everyone know that Lavern is doing fine. We are expecting him to back at work on Tuesday, February 21. He is supposed to be on light duty, so help us watch out for him and make sure he doesn't overdo it.

I hope everyone managed to survive the snow this past weekend. There were 4+ inches in my front yard but none on the street. It sounds like NYC got buried. Another reason to be glad we live here in good old West Virginia!
I know that all of the regular crews worked extra hard last week to help our visitor, Seth, to get a roof on House 104. Thanks again for stepping up to the challenge. Seth, as you know by now, is an inspired and motivated character. If you'd like to learn more about what he's doing and why he's doing it, go to www.leapoffaithroofing on the internet.
I got to help out a little on the roof work this past Friday. I learned alot from Tiny, Bob Scholl, Ron Claar and Bob Pierson. Bob Pierson will be vising Thibadeaux, LA soon with a group of Care-a-Vanners to help that devastated area.
Ruel Elliott put in an extra day's volunteer work on Saturday past at House 103. He and some other members of Forrest Burdette United Methodist did some painting. Forrest Burdette has been a great partner with Habitat in so many ways. They have a group out to work on the second Saturday of every month. We are extremely fortunate to be the beneficiaries of their dedication and support.
We always appreciate the amazing committment of our Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday crews...putting up with Tiny and Lavern ain't easy!

New Calendar is Now Online

The updated Construction Calendar (version 2-9-2006) is now available. Click here to download it.

Our first "First Friday Dutch Treat Volunteer Lunch" was held today at Golden Corral in Cross Lanes. Twelve volunteers attended and had a great time of fellowship and information. As requested by some of those in attendance, here is the Power Point presentation from today.

We hope more folks can make it to next month's meeting. It will be on March 3 at Golden Corral.

Please note that our new construction calendar is online now. It can be found at http://habitatwv.org/kanawha/calendar.pdf. The current version is 2.1.06. It will be updated as changes make it necessary.

The calendar is a pdf file and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view or print. If you do not have it you can download it for free from Adobe.com.