Raisin' The Roof November 2011

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Raisin' The Roof November 2011

Habitat For Humanity Wellington County

Habitat For Humanity Wellington County

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3rd Annual Buidling a Dream Dinner Auction Celebration

The 3rd annual Building a Dream Dinner Auction Celebration is rapidly approaching and tickets are still on sale. This Habitat for Humanity Wellington County fundraiser is held at the lovely Delta Guelph Hotel & Conference Centre and includes a delicious three-course dinner, entertainment courtesy of the musical stylings of Adrian Raso and silent, raffle and live auctions. This year's live auction is highlighted by the opportunities to bid on the 'Maple Leafs Gold' and 'Livin' Large Outdoors' packages.


For its first two years, the event was hosted by HGTV's Income Property Host and Executive Producer, Scott McGillivray & Michael Sarracini. They are hard hosts to replace but the planning committee has found an amazing replacement in Tool Girl Mag Ruffman. Mag Ruffman has paired with Habitat Wellington County in the past in supporting our Women Build initiative. All those in attendance will be treated to a wonderful evening hosted by the TOOL GIRL.

The beautiful Building a Dream back drop

This is one of the largest fundraisers for Habitat Wellington County with all proceeds going directly to help build affordable homes for deserving families in our communities of Guelph and Wellington County.

Adrian Raso and band tune up for performance

In 2012, Habitat for Humanity Wellington County plans on building six to seven homes in these communities and fundraising will be a large component of making the dreams' of these yearning families turn into realities. With that said, we encourage you attend the Building a Dream Dinner Auction Celebration to enjoy the entertainment of Mag Ruffman and Adrian Raso, the wonderful meal and dining hall of the Delta Guelph Hotel, the exceptional auction packages to bid on and most importantly, the opportunity to be a solution to the affordable housing issues in Guelph and Wellington County.

A special thank you to some of our treasured sponsors:

• Delta Guelph Hotel & Conference Centre
• Whirlpool Canada           
• Van-Del Contracting
• The Guelph Mercury
• Magic FM & CJOY AM (Corus Entertainment)
• Davan Landscaping
• The Co-Operators
• Weinstein Group
• Grinham L. Alan Architect Inc.



Building a Dream Volunteers from University Chapter

We'd also like to take the time to thank our extremely hard working planning committee that includes staff at the Delta Guelph Hotel & Conference Centre.

World Habitat Day

The 2011 World Habitat Day came and went on Monday, October 3rd. This UN-designated day was celebrated globally with the, "Cities & Climate Change" theme. Locally, events were designed around the, "Housing Going Green for the Greater Good" theme.

World Habitat Day was created in 1986 in order for the world to reflect on the affordable housing issues that plagues our communities. Affordable housing issues coupled with the environmental strain household energy and water consumption is the reason why Guelph Hydro, the City of Guelph Water Conservation Department, County of Wellington Housing Services and Guelph Solar Mechanical Inc. joined Habitat for Humanity Wellington County at a Community Information Fair at the Old Quebec St. Mall.


The purpose of the Community Information Fair was to educate the public on household programs of water conservation, solar energy and Energy Star certification you can adopt in your own household.






The Habitat Guelph ReStore held a 25% off sale in celebration of World Habitat Day. Staff and volunteers of the ReStore donned green World Habitat Day shirts and handed out green World Habitat Day bracelets in support of the day.

Finally, at City Hall, there was a Habitat for Humanity flag raising in support of World Habitat Day. Habitat for Humanity Wellington County Executive Director spoke of the history of World Habitat Day and the affordable housing crisis around the world and was joined by Mayor Karen Farbridge and MPP Liz Sandals.

Please join Habitat for Humanity Wellington County on Monday, October 1st, 2012 as we once again celebrate World Habitat Day and bring awareness to the world housing crisis.

Thank you Guelph for all your support.

What Meaning of Home Contest has meant to HFHWC

It has been nearly one year since an inspired, opportunistic and creative grade-six student wrote an short story that captured a community and an organization. At the time she put pen to paper, Karson Simpson could never have imagined the impact she would have on the life of a mother of two daughters.

It has been well-documented that this intelligent young woman won the Genworth Financial Canada - Meaning of Home Writing Contest back in January of this year, but what may not be as well known is that her grand prize donation of $60,000 would help the Women Build of Habitat for Humanity Wellington County build a home for Kiran and her two daughters.

The Meaning of Home Writing Contest is back in 2011. One student will effect one Habitat for Humanity affiliate which will effect one community which will ultimately effect the lives of a deserving family. With that said, Some fantastically interesting news has been implemented by Genworth Financial with small changes to their contest. All Habitat for Humanity affiliates and communities will feel a percentage of the overwhelming effect this contest has had on our community and our affiliate as ALL eligible entries will equal in a $5.00 donation to the Habitat for Humanity in their community! If the 6,000 eligible entries are reached it will equal in a $30,000 donation to Habitat for Humanity!
Here are some other need to knows:

What you need to remember:

·         The contest runs October 3 to November 14

·         The essays must be 50 to 300 words long (Shorter essays – easier for the kids)

·         Every entry makes a difference: $5 goes to the local Habitat Affiliate for each eligible entry

·         Entries can be mailed in or submitted electronically

·         You can download a poster from the site here

What else is new and exciting:

There will be a book!  The Meaning of Home will be published in February 2012, featuring the winning essays of the first 5 years of the contest.  Proceeds will be donated to Habitat for Humanity.

Women Build Words to YOU



August 31, 2011

Dear You

     As the summer winds down, so does my time building ‘the house’. It has been a most rewarding experience and one I would repeat again if given the opportunity. Most of the women I worked with, signed up wondering if they had what it takes to build a house. In fact, one lady I worked with scoped out the hardware stores on her way to the site in case she broke something and had to quickly dash out on her lunch hour to replace it! I met so many wonderful people, developed some new skills  and learned a lot about Habitat for Humanity                 

     During my time ‘on site’, I saw many postitive qualities emerge from the people I worked with. Humour was a big one and got us through many frustrating situations. I saw great patience from the site supervisor who each day saw a brand new crew of women and had to break down each task into manageable chunks and then explain it all over again in a different way when she saw that we really didn’t know what she was talking about. It reminded me of getting a brand new Grade 1 class each and every day. Yikes!!  I saw perseverence from women who were bound and determined to ‘get it done’ no matter what. I saw courage from women who conquered their fear of heights (well, maybe not conquered) and climbed ladders they probably didn’t want to climb but did because they were so focussed on the task at hand. But mostly, I saw love. The community came together to support Kiran and her two daughters and give them a house to make into a home. Each day lunch was provided by businesses in our community and they were fantastic!  It wasn’t all work either. We had massages, yoga and tai chi lessons from people who volunteered their time for us, the workers.                                   

                           

Your support helped make all this possible. Your gift helped  buy (just for an example):

$25.00 = a bundle of roof shingles

$50.00 = 50lb box of nails (and we use a LOT!)

$100.00 = 2 interior doors

So, I want to THANK  YOU once again for supporting me in this project. I never in a million years thought I would need to know how to build and ‘un-build’ scaffolding or a bulkhead. Right now, the drywall is being installed and it is beginning to look more and more like a house. I asked Sharon our supervisor the other day if Kiran was getting excited and she said she didn’t think her smile could get any bigger. So on behalf of Kiran, her daughters and myself, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Day 55 (Goal to be finished by end of October) 

Why Adopt-A-Week or Day

The Habitat for Humanity Wellington County Adopt-A-Day and Adopt-A-Week programs have garnered recent buzz in the community. Organization from across Guelph & Wellington County have expressed interest in adopting our build site for a day or week in order to capitalize on the ultimate team-building experience.

In fact we'd like to congratulate Tim Horton's Distribution in Guelph for becoming the FIRST Adopt-A-Week participants! They worked extremely hard to fundraise the $5,000 and even though their organization is going through a difficult transition period, they are enjoying the fruits of their labour on-site for the week of September 26th. The best thing about it, in a few months, our Partner Family will be enjoying a brand new home because of the dedication of ALL our Adopt-A-Day/Week teams!

That said, there are still plenty of opportunities to adopt the 28 Huron St. site before completion in January. If fundraising the $1,500 or $5,000 is a significant road block, don't worry, the staff of Habitat Wellington County has plenty of ideas! So gather the troops and join us on site this year or next year and also join the following fabulous Adopt-A-Day/Week teams:

• RNAO/ONA
• Terra View
• Maxxam
• Cascade Canada
• Tim Horton's Distribution TDL
• RBC
• RLB
• Smith Valeriote
• RWDI
• OSSTF - Educational Assistants
• Accu-Link Call Centres

In fact, here are some inspirational words from an RWDI team member...

Saturday, September 17, 2011

It was a rainy day... no sorry, that's a different story!

The setting:  The temperature is 4 degrees, and we're dressed in layers.  It's 8:00 am and we're on our first cup of morning coffee/tea.  We arrive at the partially built duplex on Huron Street, and meet our build leader John for the first time.  He is an experienced framer, and we learn by the end of the day - a very patient man :o)

The foundation is poured, and the outside walls are already up.  We've been told we will be framing interior walls - whatever that means!

We gear up - donning our Habitat for Humanity T-shirts, tool belts, work boots and hard hats - we're stylin' now!  Oh gee Mr. Soligo, there's only a Pink Women's large t-shirt left over, you'll have to wear that - the early male birds got the white ones!  You get to be in our girl's club!

And so the learning begins:  John (Build Leader) explained the safety basics to us; then we dove right in to learning how to frame a house - exciting!  Who knew Xiangdong Du was a master at all things tool related!  Picture this:  Tim the Tool Man Taylor saying More Power!  Then insert Xiangdong Du's face instead of Tim's - he was the tool master for the day!

We framed the long interior wall between the two homes, with ease.  We were learning quickly, and understood the why's and how's of this fine trade.  Now with that being said - add 6 to 8 engineers to the mix - and you've got straight lines, down to the millimeter! 

The sun decided to join us around 11:00 am and the layers of clothing began to be shed, we were getting down to just our t-shirts now; working hard, and having fun.  Lunch was provided by the HFH group:  Topper's Pizza, fruit, cookies and drinks.  Melissa did a Tim Horton's run so we could get ready for the second half of our 8 hour shift.

Next we added the walls for the garages on each of the houses - we were motoring (or framing?)!  There was no stopping us now!  Not only did the coffee and lunch fuel us, but just knowing we were helping to build not just one, but two homes for 2 families in Guelph, our city, our community!  And there's not much that can top that feeling.

The pictures (which can be seen under the pictures library) tell their own stories - of concentration, learning, and fun!  Enjoy and please do come out for the next RWDI Build Day with Habitat for Humanity!  It's an awesome , fun, team building experience, and you get to help someone else in the process!

Habitat Team, Fall 2011

Melissa Annett
Xiangdong Du
Claire Finoro
Tammy Gazzola
Mike Kennedy
Kat Klaassen (daughter of Peter Klaassen)
Johnny Lepage (son of Mike Lepage)
Mike Lepage
Mike & Rose Soligo
Rob Tonin
Ujjwal Verma