Habitat For Humanity’s Women Build Taking Place This Week In Claypool
June 19, 2023 at 11:54 p.m.
Habitat For Humanity’s Women Build Taking Place This Week In Claypool
By David [email protected]
The volunteer women are helping build two homes on South Graceland Avenue in Claypool for two single mothers - Courtney Dickson and Tracy Campbell. The land for the homes was donated by the town of Claypool to Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat Construction Manager Dennis Judy said construction started out four to five weeks behind schedule, but as of Monday they were just a week behind schedule.
“So we’ve made up some good time, but we’ve had some great groups. Obviously, an awesome job getting us caught up,” he said.
For Women Build week, he said they have women from several different organizations, clubs, businesses and even individuals throughout the Kosciusko County area on site. About 117 women signed up to participate, with a couple of walk-ons joining Monday, which he said was fine.
“They come in, they work from 8 to noon doing anything and everything - building a shed, we’re building walls, we’re getting ready to start siding. Just anything that needs to be done, that’s what they’re doing,” Judy said.
Habitat has been offering Women Build weeks for quite a while, he said, but this is the second recent year for it in Kosciusko County. Prior to this year and last, he said the last Women Build was around 2012 or 2013.
“We decided it was a good time to bring it back, and, obviously, it’s been very successful,” Judy stated.
As of Monday, he estimated they were about 45-50% completed with both of the Claypool homes. There’s still all the mechanicals to go in, as well as the drywall, siding and the interior work.
“We’re catching up pretty quick,” he said.
Construction of two homes simultaneously has been good for Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County.
“It’s allowed us the opportunity to increase the size of our groups. We actually doubled the size of our Women Build this year because we can separate the groups. Other groups have gotten bigger. We’ve had building trades from Warsaw High School, NIPSCO on site, we’ve had a group from Kerlin Bus in Silver Lake on site,” Judy said. “If you get too many on one house, you’re just on top of each other and can’t do anything. This way allows us to separate and keep things moving on both.”
Going forward, Judy said Habitat can always use financial donations because it’s not cheap to build a house, even with volunteer labor. They can also use individual or group help.
Dickson was helping Monday with the construction of her home at 411 S. Graceland Ave. As part of the Habitat for Humanity, homeowners are expected to put some “sweat equity” into the construction.
“We’re definitely excited. My daughter and I come out and see it at least once a week. It’s very exciting to see how quickly things are going,” she said.
Having other women help with the construction of her home was very exciting to Dickson.
“These ladies are taking their time away from work to come here and help put our house together. It’s a magical feeling,” she said.
She was helping with the construction of the shed Monday. She’s also put up some of the formboard on the outside and did some of the wrapping. She helped move the shingles, “which was a job.”
The tentative plan is for Dickson and Campbell to be in their homes by Thanksgiving.
Amanda Webb, one of 10 women with Tri Kappa working on the homes Monday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., explained that Tri Kappa is a local organization whose mission is charity, culture and education.
“We just really wanted to be an actual part of the build site. It’s always great to see things really happening, and we all contribute monetarily sometimes, but we wanted to be an actual part of building and making a difference,” she said.
Webb said they were learning about construction on the job.
“That’s what this week is about. It’s intimidating for women who aren’t familiar with the construction industry to be out here, but they’re making it great for us and teaching us and they’re super patient so we can learn as we go,” she stated.
She “absolutely” encouraged other women and women’s groups to participate in Habitat for Humanity.
“It’s a great way to come out and make a difference, and we get to meet the homeowner here on site that’s going to be living in the home and learn more about them, so it’s been really an awesome opportunity for us,” Webb concluded.
Vicky Decker, Teresa Bakehorn and Amy Evans from Our House Real Estate were working on site Monday. Our House, which has a staff of six, is one of the sponsors of the Women Build week.
“Obviously, we are all about housing and finding affordable housing for people that need it, and especially there are going to be two moms living in these houses, and we thought, ‘We’ve got the skills, we can help with this,’ and it just meets a whole lot of the criteria that we love to be a part of,” Decker said.
On site until 1:30 p.m., she said they were doing framing, prep work for siding and taking down scaffolding to get things ready to go.
“Not very glamourous, but it’s all stuff that needs to get done,” Decker said.
Bakehorn said the experience was awesome, it was her first time doing it, she was meeting some wonderful people from Zimmer Biomet, learning some things she didn’t know how to do before and enjoyed watching the house go up.
“I know what I’ve learned today, is that I’ll stick with selling the houses and I’ll let those who can build, build them” she said with a laugh.
That being said, Bakehorn, who owns Our House Real Estate, said she can absolutely see them participate in the event in the future.
“We’ll be very supportive of Habitat for Humanity and I’m excited to see them be able to build more than two houses a year because I think this is the first year they’re doing two and hopefully they can build three next year and we want to be a part of that as well,” she stated.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing for our community to have some options for beautiful, newer housing, easy to maintain. And it’s amazing the people who take over these houses how much they learn about proper care and maintenance of a home. I think that we could all benefit from having this in our community and having some nicer homes building on lots that are sitting otherwise vacant and gathering weeds. So, yeah, I think everybody should come and support it, or at least send some money - it doesn’t need to be much! Every little bit helps.”
If anyone wants to get involved, visit kosciuskohabitat.org/give to donate or kosciuskohabitat.org/volunteer to volunteer. The phone number is 574-269-4104.
“I love Habitat,” said Judy. “I love working here, I love what we do. I love what the ministry does. We’re helping people the way that Jesus would help people. That’s what we need to do.”
The volunteer women are helping build two homes on South Graceland Avenue in Claypool for two single mothers - Courtney Dickson and Tracy Campbell. The land for the homes was donated by the town of Claypool to Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat Construction Manager Dennis Judy said construction started out four to five weeks behind schedule, but as of Monday they were just a week behind schedule.
“So we’ve made up some good time, but we’ve had some great groups. Obviously, an awesome job getting us caught up,” he said.
For Women Build week, he said they have women from several different organizations, clubs, businesses and even individuals throughout the Kosciusko County area on site. About 117 women signed up to participate, with a couple of walk-ons joining Monday, which he said was fine.
“They come in, they work from 8 to noon doing anything and everything - building a shed, we’re building walls, we’re getting ready to start siding. Just anything that needs to be done, that’s what they’re doing,” Judy said.
Habitat has been offering Women Build weeks for quite a while, he said, but this is the second recent year for it in Kosciusko County. Prior to this year and last, he said the last Women Build was around 2012 or 2013.
“We decided it was a good time to bring it back, and, obviously, it’s been very successful,” Judy stated.
As of Monday, he estimated they were about 45-50% completed with both of the Claypool homes. There’s still all the mechanicals to go in, as well as the drywall, siding and the interior work.
“We’re catching up pretty quick,” he said.
Construction of two homes simultaneously has been good for Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County.
“It’s allowed us the opportunity to increase the size of our groups. We actually doubled the size of our Women Build this year because we can separate the groups. Other groups have gotten bigger. We’ve had building trades from Warsaw High School, NIPSCO on site, we’ve had a group from Kerlin Bus in Silver Lake on site,” Judy said. “If you get too many on one house, you’re just on top of each other and can’t do anything. This way allows us to separate and keep things moving on both.”
Going forward, Judy said Habitat can always use financial donations because it’s not cheap to build a house, even with volunteer labor. They can also use individual or group help.
Dickson was helping Monday with the construction of her home at 411 S. Graceland Ave. As part of the Habitat for Humanity, homeowners are expected to put some “sweat equity” into the construction.
“We’re definitely excited. My daughter and I come out and see it at least once a week. It’s very exciting to see how quickly things are going,” she said.
Having other women help with the construction of her home was very exciting to Dickson.
“These ladies are taking their time away from work to come here and help put our house together. It’s a magical feeling,” she said.
She was helping with the construction of the shed Monday. She’s also put up some of the formboard on the outside and did some of the wrapping. She helped move the shingles, “which was a job.”
The tentative plan is for Dickson and Campbell to be in their homes by Thanksgiving.
Amanda Webb, one of 10 women with Tri Kappa working on the homes Monday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., explained that Tri Kappa is a local organization whose mission is charity, culture and education.
“We just really wanted to be an actual part of the build site. It’s always great to see things really happening, and we all contribute monetarily sometimes, but we wanted to be an actual part of building and making a difference,” she said.
Webb said they were learning about construction on the job.
“That’s what this week is about. It’s intimidating for women who aren’t familiar with the construction industry to be out here, but they’re making it great for us and teaching us and they’re super patient so we can learn as we go,” she stated.
She “absolutely” encouraged other women and women’s groups to participate in Habitat for Humanity.
“It’s a great way to come out and make a difference, and we get to meet the homeowner here on site that’s going to be living in the home and learn more about them, so it’s been really an awesome opportunity for us,” Webb concluded.
Vicky Decker, Teresa Bakehorn and Amy Evans from Our House Real Estate were working on site Monday. Our House, which has a staff of six, is one of the sponsors of the Women Build week.
“Obviously, we are all about housing and finding affordable housing for people that need it, and especially there are going to be two moms living in these houses, and we thought, ‘We’ve got the skills, we can help with this,’ and it just meets a whole lot of the criteria that we love to be a part of,” Decker said.
On site until 1:30 p.m., she said they were doing framing, prep work for siding and taking down scaffolding to get things ready to go.
“Not very glamourous, but it’s all stuff that needs to get done,” Decker said.
Bakehorn said the experience was awesome, it was her first time doing it, she was meeting some wonderful people from Zimmer Biomet, learning some things she didn’t know how to do before and enjoyed watching the house go up.
“I know what I’ve learned today, is that I’ll stick with selling the houses and I’ll let those who can build, build them” she said with a laugh.
That being said, Bakehorn, who owns Our House Real Estate, said she can absolutely see them participate in the event in the future.
“We’ll be very supportive of Habitat for Humanity and I’m excited to see them be able to build more than two houses a year because I think this is the first year they’re doing two and hopefully they can build three next year and we want to be a part of that as well,” she stated.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing for our community to have some options for beautiful, newer housing, easy to maintain. And it’s amazing the people who take over these houses how much they learn about proper care and maintenance of a home. I think that we could all benefit from having this in our community and having some nicer homes building on lots that are sitting otherwise vacant and gathering weeds. So, yeah, I think everybody should come and support it, or at least send some money - it doesn’t need to be much! Every little bit helps.”
If anyone wants to get involved, visit kosciuskohabitat.org/give to donate or kosciuskohabitat.org/volunteer to volunteer. The phone number is 574-269-4104.
“I love Habitat,” said Judy. “I love working here, I love what we do. I love what the ministry does. We’re helping people the way that Jesus would help people. That’s what we need to do.”
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