Habitat for Humanity helps build new homes for those in need. Most of us know that. But building homes is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Habitat’s overarching mission. The following story takes a broad look at Habitat for Humanity in Forsyth County, uncovering a few new programs and initiatives that are building—and rebuilding—the local community.
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Constructing and Reconstructing
Anyone who’s ever swung a hammer or lent a helping hand on a Habitat house build knows the experience is not easily forgotten. To work beside a future Habitat homeowner and volunteers from across the country lifts and renews the spirit and builds hope in us all.
Future homeowners are required to put in 300 to 400 hours of sweat equity as part of the extensive application process. This means they have an active hand in building the house they’ll eventually call a home.
The program isn’t just good for the homeowner, though. It’s a boon for the whole community. Since arriving on the scene more than 25 years ago, Habitat Forsyth has built nearly 350 homes, effectively adding more than $20 million to the property tax base.
A few years back, Habitat Forsyth decided to refocus its core mission on renovation and home repair instead of building new. The organization launched the Neighborhood Revitalization program, working closely with leaders from Winston-Salem’s Boston (Thurmond) Neighborhood Association. The program engages community residents in a variety of neighborhood projects ranging from neighborhood watch programs to community gardens. The shift from building new houses to neighborhood improvements earned the praise and support of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and the Wells Fargo Foundation, which recently contributed a total of $500,000 in grant funds.
Over the next year, Habitat’s Collegiate Challenge program will host students from a number of universities across the country including Villanova and Purdue. They will spend both fall and spring breaks building Habitat houses here in Winston-Salem. Wake Forest has co-sponsored four houses in the past 10 years and continues its support through the student-driven Habitat Club, which recently raised $5,000 for a Neighborhood Revitalization project.
Habitat’s Youth United—a program geared to middle-school and high-school students—recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and dedicated its 10th house. The youth program engages its members and teaches them the value of giving back, advocacy, and housing needs. Also, the local Youth United chapter was nationally recognized as one of two winners of Habitat’s “Build Louder” award.
If you can’t donate time, you can always donate funds to Habitat. Sylvia Oberle, executive director of Habitat Forsyth, emphasizes that no amount is too small. “People can contribute at all levels to Habitat; $20 buys a box of nails, $25 buys eight 2-by-4s, and $50 can finance a kitchen sink.”
Reuse RESTORE Renew
Habitat’s ReStore isn’t just a cool, friendly place to shop for new and gently used material goods. It’s a place with purpose.
Currently located on Witt Street near the intersection of Knollwood Avenue and Stratford Road (near the big Arby’s hat), the store offers a treasure trove of household items including appliances, cabinets, furniture, light fixtures, windows, doors, building materials, and renovation supplies. And that’s just the short list.
Last year, the ReStore generated over $700,000 in revenue that went directly to build Habitat homes. It also recycles and repurposes used goods, finds buyers for unneeded or surplus new items, and keeps an estimated 400 tons of materials out of the city/county landfill.
But despite all the good it does—and despite the fact it’s been open since 1999—the ReStore is still considered by many to be the best-kept secret in town. That would explain why it’s been a favorite haunt of local auctioneers, furniture consignors, and the area’s savviest shoppers for years. And why wouldn’t it be? At pennies on the dollar, ReStore customers either save a lot of money or make a pretty penny. The store also attracts creative do-it-yourselfers (DIY) who practice the art of “up-cycling”—taking something of little or no value and transforming it into something useful, beautiful, and new.
Habitat is currently building a new ReStore at the intersection of Coliseum Drive and University Parkway across from the Goodwill Store. Art Gibel, president of Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, is excited about the move.
“You might think Goodwill and Habitat are natural enemies, when in fact we are natural collaborators,” he says.
Sharing a philosophy of a “hand-up and not a handout,” Gibel believes a partnership between the two agencies is a natural fit. Since Habitat, Goodwill, and the Red Cross will soon be neighbors, the area may soon become known as “Donation Station.”
With the new location comes higher visibility and increased traffic flow, something the ReStore lacks now at its current location.
“There are many potential donors and customers who have no idea where [the ReStore] is—or that it even exists,” Oberle says. “We explored many options for making the store more visible and convenient, but we finally concluded we needed to relocate to a more open, retail-friendly location.”
Local businessman and Habitat supporter Don Flow agrees, adding that the new store will help further Habitat’s mission. “The new ReStore is a tangible investment with an immediate return, and it deserves our community’s full support.”
The new $2.5 million ReStore is expected to open by the end of December. The current ReStore is open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. You can donate items during business hours by dropping them off at the donation drop-off next to the store, or you can schedule a time for ReStore staff to pick up your donation for free.
While all the items found at the ReStore are donated by the community, the method in which the ReStore secures these items has shifted recently. No longer is Habitat sitting back and waiting for donations; there is now a Habitat team scouring the county and finding items. Call it the power of procurement … (keep reading for more details).
The Procurement Specialists
This year, Habitat added a procurement specialist to its resource development team. Part “American Picker” and part treasure hunter, Vince Cannino spends his days calling on companies and tracking down leads on new merchandise for the ReStore. It’s a proactive approach to corporate giving that complements individual gifts at the loading dock.
Brad Zabel, director of resource development, says the procurement specialist’s primary job is to cultivate relationships with the big-box stores, building suppliers, and manufacturers to secure new donation streams for the ReStore. “It can be challenging in this economy,” he says. “So persistence, collaboration, and creativity are keys to success.”
Businesses that relocate or remodel often have unneeded office furniture or equipment they’re not interested in keeping. Or they might have discontinued items in stock that are taking up valuable warehouse floor space. That’s where Cannino and others step in. Searching in local stockrooms, storage bins, barns, and basements, the specialists have uncovered some pretty interesting stuff. They’ve rummaged through discontinued merchandise in warehouses, sifted through storage units sealed shut for decades, dug through basements fit for an episode of “Hoarders,” and salvaged all sorts of items from properties scheduled for demolition. Every now and then, they strike gold (or brass).
This summer, Cannino and his team deconstructed a small granite garden shed, the stones of which were purported to have been salvaged from a building that once housed Robert E. Lee’s family. The stones were delivered to a historic farm where the procurement team garnered several bags of old hardware the owner was about to scrap for metal. Inside one of the bags was a pair of brass doorknobs adorned with the Masonic symbol and emblazoned with the words “Level Club.” The knobs turned out to be the only extant hardware of a 1920s Masonic men’s club in Manhattan.
Another of notable find for the procurement team occurred earlier this year when it secured a donation of more than 500,000 linear feet of high-quality picture frame molding from a local manufacturer. Habitat is currently picking up approximately 10,000 linear feet of the molding each week. In recent months, sales for the frame molding have quadrupled.
“They’re selling like hotcakes,” says ReStore manager John Thompson. “People are finding out we’ve got it here and telling their friends.”
It seems to be a secret that’s too good to keep—a statement that applies to all of Habitat’s new initiatives.
Whether it’s performing good deeds, offering good deals, or uncovering a few hidden gems, Habitat for Humanity continues to help build a better Winston-Salem—one home, one donation, and one treasure at a time.
Article originally published in the Winston-Salem Journal.
