Area congregations partnered with our affiliate to complete a ‘Disciple Build’ down in Sedgwick. Completed in time to get the family in for Christmas, this was the first home Habitat had built on the Blue Hill Peninsula since 1999-2000!
Here are a few pictures from the Spring dedication of our 18th project, the program and speeches are below for those who were not able to attend.
Below are some photos of some of the site volunteers who helped us see the project through to the end — individual volunteers, members of the Bucksport Garden Club, members of the UU Congregation in Castine, two Bates Aesop groups, Camp Walt Whitman’s CIT group, the Ellsworth Lioness Club and their daughters, a local Girl Scout troop from Castine, and Stan Leach, builder! Check out more photos on Facebook!
Their Story:
Missy came to Hancock County Habitat for Humanity in mid-2011 seeking a partnership with her family. Missy and her two children lived in her mother’s home with five other relatives. After several cycles of Habitat’s Family Selection process, Missy’s tenacity paid off when her family was finally approved by the Habitat Board of Directors in February 2013.
The family on hand on May 28th at the mock wall raising by MDI High who completed the 7th set of interior & exterior walls for a Hancock Co. HFH home.
Habitat for Humanity is one of the largest home-builders in the US and has been very successful in building with low income population due in large part to being able to motivate churches, the faith community, to support our partner families. The Disciple Build concept is one where 12 churches come together to raise money and provide labor to build a Habitat house. We believe this is a dynamic and project-driven way to engage churches to join our mission, forming a coalition with 12 area churches which will open doors to new church partners on the Blue Hill peninsula. Our partners included:
Blue Hill Congregational Church First Baptist Church of Blue Hill First Baptist Church, Brooklin North Sedgwick Baptist Church Our Lady of Holy Hope Catholic Church Penobscot United Methodist Church St. Francis by the Sea Episcopal Church Trinitarian Congregational Parish of Castine Trinity Episcopal Church Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Castine West Brooksville Congregational
Hancock County Habitat for Humanity was awarded a $9,500 Hancock County Fund grant through the Maine Community Foundation which provided matching funds to those raised by the 12 churches involved in the Disciple Build. Each church was responsible for raising $700. [Habitat has seen yard sales, church bazaars, bake sales and breakfasts raise well over this amount.] Each congregations’ members got involved in home construction, providing meals on weekend workdays, etc. It is our hope that this type of involvement by many community members will create momentum for future builds and create a core volunteer base.
For the past six years, the MDI High Habitat Class, taught by Bruce Munger, spent their winter semester learning construction methods (and about Habitat’s mission to provide homeownership to lower income families) by building wall panels for Habitat’s next partner family. They have built panels for homes completed in Otis, Franklin, Ellsworth, Hancock and Lamoine and this year the panels went to the Sedgwick build.
Habitat’s 18th partner family was also on hand as the class erected all their completed panels in the school parking lot. The class does this mock-up every spring to ensure their connections are accurate, eliminating any delay in field installation. An added benefit was that Missy and her 2 children could select their bedrooms well in advance of actual construction and the class enjoyed having the family visit to see the fruits of their labor.