Habitat for Humanity volunteers install three roofs in March

Student volunteers for Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County help install a roof in Lake City. (Submitted photos)

Two families and the Holiday Bureau have new roofs this month, thanks to volunteers from two different colleges and local men that routinely volunteer for Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County, a press release said.

The first week of March, a group of students from the Milwaukee School of Engineering came to Oak Ridge as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge program. The students were housed at First Baptist Church of Oak Ridge. First Baptist shared their facilities for four weeks in a row with four different groups.

The Holiday Bureau has a bicycle storage shed, measuring 16 feet x 78 feet, that had a very old and leaky roof. Now, the shed has a new roof, and it only took the students four days, the press release said. Tim Marcum, HFHAC’s chief operating officer, coordinated this project in an effort to help another nonprofit.

Habitat workers and volunteers work on the Bullock roof in Briceville.

In the second week of March, a group of students from Siena College in New York put a new roof on a house in Lake City. Bobby, the homeowner, stated that his roof “was leaking and leaking bad.” Because this family is on a fixed income, they felt it was impossible to save the money to buy a new roof. Through the A Brush With Kindness (ABWK) program administered by Habitat for Humanity, families make affordable monthly payments on the materials only. The labor is volunteered.

The third week in March, a group of college students from the University of Wisconsin, Superior, helped another Habitat affiliate in Loudon. They built a shed and did some demo work on the inside of a house donated to that affiliate.

Meanwhile, Jim Hardy and Bill Jennings, HFHAC’s assistant construction manager, of Oak Ridge, and David Crockett, of Knoxville, assisted Lester Watts and his crew putting a new roof on the Bullock home in Briceville. Watts is a roofing contractor from Seymour who drove all the way to Briceville to volunteer his time and expertise. The Bullock family said that they could not have afforded a new roof without the help of Habitat for Humanity. Valerie Bullock grew up in this house, built in 1910, and raised her family there, she told Donna Mosby, family services coordinator for HFHAC.

Students nap on the completed Holiday Bureau roof, exhausted after completing it in four days.

The money for this particular roof came from another program of Habitat’s called Cars for Homes. A man in Oak Ridge, who asked to remain anonymous, donated his car to Habitat for Humanity International’s program. The local Anderson County affiliate was awarded the money from the sale of this vehicle because the donor lives here. Charlotte Bowers, interim executive director for HFHAC, talked with this donor. He told her he was pleased that because of his donation a family was going to get a new roof over their heads.

“Habitat for Humanity of Anderson County would like to thank not only First Baptist Church for its hospitality, but all the other restaurants, churches and individuals that fed all these students,” the press release said. “Debbie Shepherd, volunteer coordinator for HFHAC, said that all the students felt they were well taken care of and enjoyed their stay while they worked. It will be a Spring Break they will never forget.”