Athens Area Habitat

Covid-19 numbers continue to soar in our area, and many ask, "What can I do to help?" Obviously wear masks, wash hands, and practice socially distancing. Another way individuals can help flatten the curve is to get tested; we continue to offer FREE Covid-19 testing every Friday at our ReStore located at 4125 Atlanta Highway. Come get tested; another way to help is to share this post on your personal FB page. Do what you can to help!

THANKS TO UGA HABITAT CHAPTER MEMBERS for coming out to prep the lots for the Kinda Tiny Homes ReStart! Y'all were a bright spot in a chilly, cloudy day. You are awesome!

WE CELEBRATED THE RESTART OF THE KINDA TINY HOMES project this past Saturday with our future homeowners and family members, Habitat staff and board members, and representatives from sponsor organizations. Although construction was interrupted by the pandemic, we're now moving into completion phase with contractors and Habitat crew. These innovative homes are spearheading the high efficiency market in our area with small footprints and planned LEED energy-efficiency certification. They're made possible by Athens Area Habitat donors, Athens-Clarke County, GA Unified Government, Huber Engineered Woods, Imery Ratings, the Ladies Charity Skeet Classic, Lowe's Home Improvement, Mitsubishi Electric, SK Collaborative, State Farm, TimberBilt, Inc., and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) of GA.

TODAY!!! Help us share the word.

OUR THANKS ONCE AGAIN GO OUT to Give Back Real Estate, and to Georgui Kassaev for supporting Habitat's mission to provide strength, stability, and self-reliance through shelter. Your generous donations are crucial during this time of increasing need. We are profoundly grateful.

WHAT IF YOU COULD BUILD A HOUSE BY PRESSING A BUTTON? Well, this year, you can! That’s because voting for Referendum A on your Georgia ballot will allow Habitat for Humanity to keep more of our funding dedicated to our mission of providing strength, stability, and self-reliance through shelter. Voting YES means single-family homes get into the hands of homeowners more quickly. And that’s good for families, neighborhoods, and municipalities! So when you vote, don’t stop short vote YES on A and help Habitat build our community!

THESE BOARDS ARE FILLED WITH BLESSINGS. The sentiments on these boards were written down by supporters attending our January gala, and now they are literally part of Lydia's Homeplace, which will house young adults earning their college degrees who otherwise would have no homes to go to. As long as the Homeplace is in use, those whom it houses will live with many blessings over them. We want to thank, once again, everyone who helped make this possible Lydia's Place, the Ladies Charity Skeet Classic, Publix Super Market Charities, the Committee of 1000, and all the individual donors and volunteers and businesses who contributed to make this home a reality. We are profoundly and eternally grateful.

PLEASE FORGIVE THE MUD Lydia's Homeplace, an off-campus housing unit for homeless students in Athens, is nearing completion! Today we received a visit from Ina Hopkins (second from left) of the Rose & Dahlia Garden Club who are helping to convert this construction site into a real home! Also pictured are Charles Smith of Athens Area Habitat, and Paul Clark and Robin Woodall of Lydia's Place. The dedicatory plaque, created by Gary Mierzwak, honors the primary donors for this... project: Lydia's Place, the Committee of 1000, Ladies Charity Skeet Classic, and Publix Super Markets Charities. Our thanks go out to everyone who has worked to make this dream a reality. Your contributions of time, energy, funding, and other resources will provide a safe haven for hard working students determined to beat the odds and build a future for themselves, not just this year, but for many many years to come. Together, we CAN and DO make a difference! See more

WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE DONATION brought to us by Alex Pannell of Give Back Real Estate. Local realtors here in Clarke/Oconee/Oglethorpe are among the strongest supporters of our mission to provide decent, affordable housing to all. This is America at its best, all of us working together!

ATHENS HABITAT HAS UGA INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE in social media, business metrics, videography, and graphic design. If you know any students who may be interested, please pass the word! Thanks.

HUGE SHOUT OUT TO THE NURSES of Innovative Healthcare Institute, LLC for administering tests to our staff. Everyone tested negative and we all will get second tests Tuesday morning. (Two tests a day apart are recommended to avoid any potential false negatives.) Our buildings have all been sanitized and we expect to be up and running again tomorrow!

HEY, Y'ALL, WE'RE CLOSED FOR A DAY. One of our store staff has been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for covid. Although we have been following protocols to prevent any potential transmission, out of an abundance of caution we are closing the stores and office so we can disinfect and sanitize the premises. We are also testing all staff, just in case. We hope to be able to have the test administered tomorrow morning and reopen for our regular office hours after everyone is in the clear. Our apologies for the inconvenience, but our #1 priority right now is everyone's health and safety.

THANKS FOR THE LOVE AND SUPPORT! Yesterday Jared Marsden - Give BacK Real Estate stopped by our office to present a check for Athens Habitat to director Spencer Frye. We are so grateful to everyone in our community who thinks of our mission to provide decent, affordable local housing when choosing where to donate. We could not do what we do without you!

TEARING UP THE MORTGAGE is our favorite ritual at Athens Hab! Congratulations to Joanne Callahan who has made her final payment and is now the sole owner of her home. This, friends, is what it's all about! This moment is what makes everything we do our homeowners, our staff, our partners, and our supporters worth all the effort. Thanks to everyone who made this moment possible, most especially Ms. Callahan herself.

THIS IS WHY WE REQUIRE MASKS ON HABITAT PREMISES, FOLKS. We require shoes as a matter of public health and safety. During this pandemic, we require masks for the same reason, except it is much more important. The image below shows the difference in the amount of infectious material that is spread while sneezing, singing, talking, and coughing while wearing a mask or not. It's about safety. And remember, people are most contagious with COVID-19 *before* they show symptoms! We ...have opened an online store at Athens Area Habitat ReStore so that folks can still get great deals and support affordable housing while staying safe. We've also put up a "sunny day" tent store in the parking lot of our Atlanta Highway location. Our affiliate office is open to the public by appointment only. We are working on reopening the east side store. But this is "turning a dial, not flipping a switch". Georgia right now is seeing its highest COVID-19 rates since the pandemic began, and our highest priority is that NO ONE get sick on any Habitat property. We are aware that some businesses have reopened and gone back to pre-COVID ways. We are also aware that states and cities that have reopened early are all seeing spikes in illness and death. That is not a coincidence. Those suffering and dying are doing so off-camera because of isolation rules. So it may seem like there is no problem. But away from the cameras, this disease is taking a greater toll now than ever before in the US. COVID-19 does not care what party you belong to, how old you are, how you feel, or how much money you have. Among the hardest hit right now are young folks, because so many of them came to believe they weren't vulnerable and didn't take precautions. When we say "No mask, no service" please understand we do so for everyone's health and safety. We know there are some who refuse to do business where masks are required. To y'all, we simply say, "We cannot serve you". To everyone else, we say, "Thank you for your cooperation and support." Stay safe, everyone.

MORE ANTIBODY TESTS HAVE ARRIVED from DLS Labs in Conyers. Athens Hab's development director, Charles Smith, was able to deliver them to Annabella Uhde, clinical administrator of Athens Nurses Clinic, and Michele Johnson, executive director of Mercy Health Center, just yesterday. We are proud to be able to partner with our local health care workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay safe, y'all!

YOU KNOW ZAXBY'S MAKES GREAT FOOD. What you might not know is that they are also dedicated to philanthropy. This year, Zaxby's sponsored the renovation of one of our homes on Magnolia Terrace now affectionately known as the chicken house and provided volunteers to help with the work! (This was before the pandemic, which is why you don’t see masks in the photo.) But this was more than just volunteering. Zaxby’s participated in our teambuilding program, in which groups vo...lunteer on a build and then share their experience in teambuilding sessions in which they reflect on their experience and discuss what they’ve learned and how to apply it to the workplace. It was a real pleasure to work with the Zaxby’s crew, who were always cheerful and enthusiastic despite the cold weather. And we learned as much about them as they did about construction!