Since all of you are planning to attend the August First Friday Lunch, I decided that I'd better get specific with the times. I decided this right after someone told me I had no times listed at all.

We don't want to keep you any longer than necessary but we do want to make sure we have the time to cover all of our topics and answer all questions.We have reserved the room at the Southern Kitchen starting at 11:30AM. Go ahead and order lunch and dig in. We like to begin the discussions at 12:00. We will be done by 1:00, but any remaining questions or comments can be addressed after we turn the room back to the restaurant.

I encourage all of you to stop by the Southern Kitchen between now and Friday, August 4th to try it out. If you find something especially good, list it here as a comment to this post. Likewise if you try something not so good that we should avoid.

I think I'll go there today for lunch.

For a long time, I've been trying to get someone to take an aerial photo of Jubilee Heights for us. Sooner or later someone will. In the meantime, I've been looking at a satellite photo of Jubilee Heights on the "Google Earth" website. It is a free site and I encourage all of you to check into it if you haven't already. Google Earth is a photographic portrait of the world as seen from a satellite. You can zoom in for a close inspection or pull back to understand the bigger picture. I typed "South Charleston, WV" into the search box and Google Earth flew to a point near the mound in SC. I was able to scroll a little west and south and there was Jubilee Heights! The photo displayed was from early 2005. The foundations for House #99 (Casto) and House #100 (Peoples/Barker) are in place but no construction has started. It looks like the last house completed was Virginia Butler's. Hopefully Google will update their satellite shots soon.
For viewing Jubilee Heights, Google Earth is great. It is a fantastic tool for viewing any part of the world.

Even though we've missed a couple of monthly sessions, we are still convinced that the First Friday Lunch is a good idea. Trying to find a spot where our small attendence is welcome has been a bit of a problem. The places we've met before did all they could, but saving their meeting room for our little group has to hurt their lunch service. We've met at the Golden Corral and at Shoney's (both buffets) but didn't fill half of the room they provided. Rather than test their courtesy any more, we searched for a place that may be able to accomodate our group without hurting their lunch crowd.

So....Friday, August 4th, we'll have our First Friday Lunch at the Southern Kitchen in Kanawha City. This Charleston landmark has a meeting room on the second floor with it's own entrance from the front of the building. You don't have to wander through the restaurant , just take the steps from the parking lot. This time, it's not a buffet. You can order from the regular menu. If any of you have eaten there before, you know that this is superior home cooked food (be sure and check out the pie selection) and very reasonably priced. Those of you who haven't had the pleasure of a Southern Kitchen visit should run down there right now and check it out! Remember, it's locally owned and operated...a rarity in these days of franchised and formula eateries. This place has a real personal touch and they make you feel like family.

Considering the accellerated pace of building so far in 2006, there is a lot to plan, figure out, learn about, explain and comment on. Get there when you want but be ready for a noon start to the meeting. As usual the staff will have some short discussion to present but we want to know what you want to know. Do you have questions about streets in Jubilee Heights? Curious when we'll be building in North Hills? Wondering how the Mountaineers will do this year? We'll even give equal time to Herd fans.

Come to lunch. Learn stuff. Leave smarter.

New Online Volunteer Scheduling Coming Soon

Pretty soon everyone will be able to sign up online for volunteer spots. This won't effect the regular Tuesday - Thursday crews much, but it will help us better coordinate volunteers for special projects, Friday and Saturday construction volunteers and also ReStore volunteers.

We expect to have this system up and running by June 15th.

Shawn

First Friday Lunch Postponed

For various reasons we had to postpone this week's luncheon. Hopefully you heard this from Tiny and LaVern this week. At this writing we're not sure if we will re-schedule later this month or just wait until July. We'll let everyone know as soon as we decide.

Sorry for the late notice, but Tim has been on vacation and he usually takes care of this.

Shawn

Our First Friday Dutch Treat Construction Volunteer Luncheon will be held at the Dunbar Shoney's at 1:00. I'll be giving a presentation on the dollars and cents of the lofty ten-house goal we set for ourselves this year. If you have been wondering where we came up with the goal, you shall wonder no more if you attend tomorrow!

I hope to see your face in the crowd.

Shawn

Here's the video of today's Bayer wall raising.

Today was the kick-off day for house #106 which will be purchased by Tim and Angel Young. This house is being sponsored by Bayer Crop Science and Bayer Material Science. They are bringing out a team of volunteers each day this week to put the house under roof. After that, volunteers from Bayer will be coming out on Saturdays. Today, the floor has been installed and the walls are in the process of going up. We're thankful that the weather has held out and it has been a perfect day for this start date. We're also grateful for cooperate partners like Bayer who are making a difference in our community!

Our next First Friday Volunteer lunch will be held once more at Shoney's in Dunbar. BUT, we will be meeting at 1:00 instead of 12:00 noon. The date for this lunch is May 5, 2006 and, as always, is the first Friday of the month. We encourage you to attend! Hey, it's lunch and a little bit of construction talk, news and a few updates...we don't even have a quiz at the end.

Remember-Friday, May 5, Shoney's in Dunbar, 1:00!

Here's Amber and Milton with their daughters Mallerie and Caley at their dedication on Sunday, April 9th. They are already moved in but still working on the landscaping--volunteers may help them out some with this. The girls are thrilled to have their own bedrooms and so much more space than they had in their crowded rental where they had been living for the last 4 1/2 years. They want to thank everyone--especially the crews, for your hard work throughout the winter!

Star's dedication was a huge success as well--with a large attendance of over 70 and even a brass band. She should be moving in within the next 1-2 weeks. We'll get a picture of her up soon on the blog.

Here's a reminder that the dedication for Star Hogan's house will be this Saturday, April 15 at 12:00 noon. So many people have contributed to this house and we invite you all to attend. It's usually about a half hour event. Just think of how important a moment this will be for Star and her family. I believe Star has shown us all that she's a hard working and dedicated person. Come and celebrate this new chapter of her!

We are working hard to get Star's home in great shape for the dedication. One thing that is in our favor is that we have some old friends, Russ and Lori van Nest, here to help us. They are leading a group of great young people from Faith Community Chapel of New Castle, PA. We're really happy they are here to help us with the finishing stages of Star's house! Thanks to all of them.

Today we had our third "First Friday Dutch Treat Volunteer Lunch" at Shoney's in Dunbar. About a dozen regular crew members showed up along with Tiny, Tina Rhodes and Tim Bollinger. Tina led us through the topic of mortgage finance. I think everyone got a clear understanding of how it is structured and how it affects both the homeowner and Habitat. A lot of good, solid information was laid out. Several well-reasoned questions were asked and answered.
As promised, Tee shirts were distributed after the meeting. (Yes Rusty, I remembered.) If you are interested in Habitat business cards with your name, let me know. I'd also like to get accurate, up to date e-mail addresses for everyone. If yours has changed, again let me know.
It was a great lunch meeting. Mike McCready had some very important and late breaking news. Tina had some hard statistics on money. Tiny had a new challenge for the crews.
I had the fish.
Remember...the dedication for Amber Knuckles and Milton Haskins (house 103) is this Sunday, April 9. The dedication for Star Hogan (104) is Saturday, April 15. You're invited!
Can't wait to hear about the next meeting? It's Friday, May5 at Shoney's in Dunbar. In order to accomodate Shoney's regular noon lunch rush, what do you think about having our meeting at 1:00 instead of 12:00? Shoney's has been great to give us this space but at noon the place was jammed full. It would really help them out if we could meet an hour later. Let me know what you think. See ya there!

Two new families have recently been approved into the Habitat program. The first is Latasshia Davenport who is a single mom with 3 boys and a girl ranging in age from 10 to 15. She works full time as a home health aid and can't wait to get started working on her hours out on the jobsite. Despite her extremely busy schedule, this lady has such contagious enthusiasm! Lisa McClure and her 13 year old daught Emily have also been approved. Lisa is in school full time for nursing and takes care of her daughter who has severe disabilities. Her extremely positive attitude stands out to all who meet her.

With these two new families, we now have total of 10 families approved into the program and working on their sweat equity hours and classes. These families include: Star Hogan (House #105-the Apostles Build); Jason and Tamera Morgan (House #104); Tim and Angel Young (House #106 which will be starting the first week of May); Wendy Tipton (House #107 which should start around the end of May to early June); Jerry Burns; Sherman Bennett; Shirley Cole; Jen Spencer; Latasshia Davenport; and Lisa McClure. As you come out regularly to the job site, you will have a chance to work alongside some of these families and get to know them a little better. There are a few families who are primarily putting in hours at the ReStore because of various disabilities. We in the office have a chance to see all that each of them have gone through to get to this place of becoming homeowners--these folks are truly a remarkable group who have overcome many obstacles and are determined to achieve this lifelong dream. They are so thankful to Habitat and to the many volunteers like you who are making it possible!

Well, it seems like our work group from Chicago just left and here we have another one set to arrive. A group of 14 high schoolers and their 3 adult leaders will arrive late on
Tuesday, April 11 and work from Wednesday morning through the morning of Saturday, April 15. They are from Faith Community Chapel in New Castle, PA. Some of you may have worked with their leader, Russ van Nest back in 2003. He was here with another church from New Castle and worked on Dallas Call's house waaaaay out there on Derrick's Creek in Sissonville. He has changed churches but he hasn't changed his committment to Habitat for Humanity. It will be good to welcome Russ back and meet all of the new faces that have come to help. I get great feedback from work camps about working alongside our regular crews. They always mention how they have learned from you folks and how much they admire your year round committment. Of course, they have a few choice words about Tiny and Lavern as well. I swear, I think many of them return just to get another dose of those two characters.

Bob Peirson, our just returned Care-a-Vanner brought some photos back with him. It looks like things were well organized in spite of the extra hardships that Hurricane Katrina imposed.
I think it is inspiring to see
CON-struction instead of the all too familiar DE-struction. Notice the slab foundations. The rebuilding task is just plain immense and it looks like it will be years before the job is done. Thanks to Bob, the Care-a-Vanners and all who have stepped up to help win back the Gulf Coast. I hope today's enthusiasm will be carried forth until the displaced residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama can go home. The same thoughts hold true for those victims in Flodida who also

suffered heavy losses in last year's record shattering hurricane season. I am very, very glad that we don't have to worry about hurricanes in West Virginia.

Some of you may know that a regular Tuesday crew member, Bob Peirson, has been working for a Habitat affiliate in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Today we got an Email from Bob with some of his thoughts on working in the devastated Gulf region. Bob writes:

"This is Bob Peirson of the Tuesday crew. I participated in a two week Care-a-Van build with Bayou Area HfH in Thibodaux, La. They have a development of 56 houses, of which the first 12 are under construction.
These houses are Operation Home Delivery homes. Unfortunately, the OHD houses only amounted to 'frame panels'. That was it. So in the end, these only saved the local affiliate about $1200 a house.
All the homes are 1000 sq ft three bedroom, one bath homes. There are 4 basic designs.
We camped on site, which was nice. It was so handy to walk to 'work'. They have full hookups for about 12 RV's. The RV people number about 20. There are also three houses used as dorms for various groups, including about 12 AmeriCorps volunteers. The rest of the volunteers are from other groups, such as college or high school kids.
A pavilion at one corner of the development is the focal point for the morning devotionals and meeting, breaks and lunch.
Managementis a bit 'stretched'. One manager guides the 50+ people on site each day. In the end, the actual management gravitates to a few volunteers knowledgeable in construction.
Since there so many houses under construction at one time, one can find any aspect of house building somewhere on this site.
Construction here is 'on a slab'. Contractors do the plumbing and concrete work, then the electrical. Volunteers do the rest, except the dry wall finishing.
The land here is flat, cut by bayous. They measure distance above sea level in inches.
We made a lot of progress these two weeks and the affiliate took good care of us."

Thanks for the update and hard work, Bob. It's good to have you home!

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?