ROANOKE, Va. – WSLS 10 is excited to partner with Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley, generous community sponsors and The Journey FM to once again help a deserving family in the area experience the joys of home ownership.
This year's Home for Good-The Apostles Build project also adds more than 20 area churches as partners. They will provide monetary donations, volunteers and food for volunteer crews throughout the more than four-month project.
"People can kind of get up off the pew and go out in the community to be the church and represent what church stands for, for many of us," said Jenny Lee, development director for Habitat.
Lee said The Apostles Build has been a biennial project for Habitat, and in the past, 12 churches committed to donating $5,000 each to support the project. However, Lee said the organization recognized that the financial commitment was difficult for many congregations to maintain, so they adjusted the giving requirements to allow more churches to participate.
"Let's just open it up," Lee said. "Any amount is joyfully accepted. If it's $20, if it's $7,000, let's just get the churches engaged because we really want to build partnerships with them."
Lee said there are currently 22 churches participating in this year's Home for Good-The Apostles Build project.
"It's just been really nice to open it up and be grateful for whatever they can share," Lee said.
This year's build will be uncharted territory for Habitat, because it will be the Roanoke chapter's biggest new construction project ever.
"Our family is larger than average and we have a seven-bedroom house for this family and it's 2,200 square feet approximately," said Brian Clark, construction director. A family of 13 will move into the home once it is complete.
"I think it's easy to forget that with a house this size, how much more work is involved," Clark said. "If you think about some of our single-story, like a three-bedroom house or something, this is almost double that. So in that sense, you're basically taking two houses and stacking them on top of each other and so it's easy to forget there's that much more work."
Clark said the goal is to finish the home on Loudon Avenue in Roanoke by mid-to-late August, so the family can finally know the feeling of having a Home for Good.
"To watch them be able to open the door and welcome everyone into their home, it's a pride for everyone involved," Clark said.