Friday, August 20, 2010
Birthdays are often a time to reflect on the milestones in our lives. Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas County is turning 25 this year! Our celebration will include new milestones to add to future birthdays!
We kicked off the year by blitz-building two homes in January for the Anderson and Barnhart families. It was a great party, with Publix birthday cake every single day! (Check out photos below to see what it looks like to build two homes in one week.)
The biggest bang comes this summer, when we will dedicate our 200th Pinellas County home in the city of Clearwater. It took us 18 years to build our first set of 100 homes; it has only taken us 7 years to build the second set!! In fact, we are one of the largest builders in Pinellas County right now, having built and/or renovated 29 homes in the last 12 months. Our volunteers and construction folks are tired, but totally jazzed about serving the most families in one year EVER.
In looking at our first home’s timeline, the early pioneers and volunteers of Habitat Pinellas had the first groundbreaking ceremony on a property in St. Petersburg on March 29 of 1985. That first home was dedicated on July 29 of 1986. Some of the churches/organizations involved with us 25 years ago are still involved with us today, helping us to make dreams a reality for the 30 families in our pipeline to have their own homes constructed – or rehabbed.
Those organizations are still involved include (please reply to the blog and add to the list!): First Congregational Church of St Petersburg, First Presbyterian Church of St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, Seminole, Oakhurst and Anona United Methodist Churches, and countless volunteers who have stayed the course to work with us all these 25 years. The City of St. Petersburg is probably our longest-running partnership, with more than 65 parcels donated to HfHPC – add to their donations properties we have bought or that have been donated by others, and more than 105 of those 200 homes are in St. Pete.
Today, we have 5 homes under construction in St. Petersburg along with single-family homes in Largo and Clearwater. And – ta-da! Another two 25th anniversary milestones: Our first townhome subdivision in Dunedin of 19 homes is under construction, and a 51-home subdivision in Clearwater will be under construction soon.
What are we going to do for our 50th anniversary!!!??? I hope I’m still around – as a volunteer – to see it! I think it will be amazing! What will our house count be? What will the birthday celebration be like? Blitz Build of 20 homes???
Thanks for 25 years of building!
"It took us 18 years to build our first set of 100 homes; it has only taken us 7 years to build the second set!" - Barbara Inman
By: Barbara Inman, President/CEO
