Roanoke College Habitat home constructed piece-by-piece

‘R House’ is built in four units, craned into place

SALEM, Va. – Completion of this year’s “Home for Good” is two weeks away, as WSLS 10 News works in partnership with Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley and generous community sponsors to build a home for a Roanoke native.

As that project wraps up, others are underway across the Roanoke Valley. WSLS 10 News shared the work happening on Roanoke College’s campus to build a Habitat home for a local mother of three.

On Friday the pieces of that home moved from campus to the actual home site in Roanoke, which was quite the sight to see.

Neighbors and bystanders watched as each of the four sections of the home was craned into place at the construction site on Fairfax Avenue in Roanoke.

This was the culmination of the work done on Roanoke College’s campus as students, staff and Habitat collaborated to jump-start work on their 16th ‘R House.’

“We wanted to find a way to show our first-year students, our incoming students, how important service and community engagement is to us as an institution,” said Jesse Griffin, Director of The Center for Civic Engagement at Roanoke College.

Earlier this summer, WSLS 10 News also shared how a mission group from New Jersey helped with the construction of the house, building the roof before any of the other construction was underway.

Now all of the pieces are coming together so that by December a Roanoke family will have a home of their own.

“Just seeing them be a part of our community and us being able to be a part of their community as they prepare to move into their new home is the biggest and most important part of it all,” Griffin said.

Roanoke College students will have opportunities every Saturday to volunteer at the home construction site until its completion in December.