Mon Valley Habitat for Humanity is addressing new frontiers in geography and architecture these days.
Since 1990, the organization that builds houses for people who might not realize the dream of home ownership otherwise has put up 67 houses just with that motivation, mainly in Morgantown.
Build No. 68 will have its address on Sisler Street in Kingwood, when it becomes ready for move-in this April, said Elaine McVay, habitat’s director.
“That’s our first foray into Preston County,” she said.
“And that’s pretty exciting for us and our families.”
The latest dwelling will also be the first of its kind, architecturally, for the organization, she said.
Volunteers and future occupants are driving nails, measuring door frames and pouring concrete for a tri-plex model that will already be the new home for two families in the area.
The organization is putting out a call for a third family, McVay said.
“It’s just such an opportunity,” the director said.
“We just want to get that third family under the roof,” she said. “Owning your own home changes everything for the better.”
Which has been the motivation and literal foundation of Habitat International since its very beginnings back in Americus, Ga., in 1976.
Habitat’s humanist, how-to manual – that the families moving in volunteer for every aspect of the construction that they safely can – caught the fancy of then-Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter who was elected U.S. president in that Bicentennial year.
Carter was leaving his house for the White House, but, in and out of politics, he still managed to work on Habitat builds.
He still does, even as he nears his 99th birthday.
Today, there are more than 800,000 Habitat houses in the world, from Tucker County to Tanzania, with the most important one, in McVay’s world, being listed on Sister Street in Kingwood.
Families must be able to assume a zero-interest home mortgage while also being able to take on 250 “sweat equity” hours during the build.
Visit www.monvalleyhfh.org for other particulars of the application process, McVay said.
In the meantime, Mon Valley Habitat is also readying for its annual “Raise the Roof” fundraiser March 4 at WVU’s Erickson Alumni Center, with details to follow.
That’s an event dear to McVay. It’s what got her into all this, she said.
She was volunteering at last year’s fundraiser when she met a Habitat family who unintentionally opened the door for her.
“They were so grateful and appreciative,” said McVay, who at the time was a marketing director at WVU.
“They got to achieve their American dream – and it was because of Habitat.”
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