Join us April 25th to Celebrate Ground Breaking for the 2009 Habitat House:

Save the date - Habitat Hobble will be June 13:

How Can You Help?

Please let us know if you can volunteer your time and expertise and/or donate building materials or tools. If your group would be interested in scheduling a special work day, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

Since the town of Hot Sulphur Springs cannot waive the tap fees for water and sewer connections for the lots, we have a critical need for cash donations to defray the cost of the tap fees as well as other infrastructure costs such as installing electrical and gas lines.

While we are busy building the next Hot Sulphur Springs house, we will be looking for additional land to continue our mission of providing decent, affordable housing in Grand County. If you have land to donate or to sell at reduced cost, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

Builders and Contractors – We Need YOUR Help

Please help us by volunteering your expertise at one of our workdays. Our volunteers are all willing and ready to work and some are quite experienced but we need YOUR expertise to answer questions, solve problems that come up in the field and generally organize the work for that day. Can you give us one weekday or Saturday a month? If not every month, can you give us a couple of days during the 2009 building season? Can you supervise a specific phase of construction - e.g., framing, trim carpentry, siding, soffits and facia?

If you would be willing to bring your crew for a team build day or to join our volunteers, that would be wonderful.

If you can help, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

Habitat Completes Corder and Hardman Homes in Hot Sulphur Springs:

Meredith Corder’s Habitat home in Hot Sulphur Springs.	On Saturday, May 5, 2007, Habitat broke ground for two houses located on lots "kitty corner" from one another in Hot Sulphur Springs. Seventeen months later, on September 19, 2008, Meredith Corder became the proud recipient of the first of these homes. The closing, normally a pretty staid event, was both joyful and tearful as Meredith signed papers and shed tears of joy with each document.
After living in a small, dilapidated trailer for the last 10 years, Meredith and her 12-year old son, Jesse, are overjoyed to have a real home of their own. Meredith is looking forward to winter in an energy efficient home rather than the "Swiss cheese" trailer that allowed in more winter winds than it kept out.
	Meredith's parents, our volunteers and board members joined Meredith and Jesse in dedicating and celebrating her new home the day after closing. After prayers and appreciation to the many donors and volunteers who transformed Meredith’s house from a dream to a reality, Meredith cut a red ribbon and everyone poured into the house for a tour and a wonderful lunch, including corn on the cob cooked on Meredith's new kitchen stove. As the celebration wound down, Meredith’s parents arrived with the first truckload of furniture to begin moving Meredith into the house.
Just in time for Christmas, the Hardman house was completed with a December 12th closing. Winter snows couldn't stop a joyful celebration at the dedication on December 13. The Hardman family of six - parents Craig and Kristen and children Conor, Korianne, Matthew and Noah were ecstatic to be in their new home after living in a small apartment for so long. Kristen rejoiced to finally have space to host their extended family's holiday dinner. The next weekend they cut Christmas trees for their new house at our director's property - one for the living room and small ones for the children's bedrooms.
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What is the History of Habitat in Grand County?

Habitat for Humanity of Grand County was formed in 1999 as a non-profit, ecumenical organization with the stated goal of eliminating poverty housing in Grand County, Colorado. Habitat for Humanity is a Christian based organization which welcomes people of all faiths. We are a 501(c)(3) organization with tax exempt status.

Our mission is to provide simple, decent home ownership for lower income families of Grand County. The populations we serve have incomes between 25 - 50% of our area's median income. These families do not qualify for conventional home loans and would have very little hope of owning a home without help. Our partner families actively participate in building their homes and provide hundreds of hours of "sweat equity."

We rely heavily on volunteers and on community support that comes from local governments, businesses, churches, foundations and countless individuals. It is only through the labor of volunteers and donated or reduced cost materials provided by local businesses and trades people that we are able to build affordable housing.

To date we have completed seven houses and will soon begin construction of our eighth house. Four of our houses are in Granby, Colorado; another is located in Kremmling; two are in Hot Sulphur Springs as will be our eighth house. All of our houses are the result of the generosity of our volunteers and donors who give so abundantly of their time, talents and resources.

If you would like to help build our next house or participate on any of Habitat's volunteer committees, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

How Do We Select a Habitat Partner Family?

Habitat follows specific selection criteria when we select our partner families. For example, the family must have:

• Lived in Grand County for at least a year;
• An income sufficient to make a monthly mortgage payment but no more than 50% of the area's median family income ($39,000 for a family of three or more);
• Current housing conditions that are not adequate for the family's needs;
• The ability and willingness to partner with Habitat and contribute "sweat equity" toward the construction of the house.

"Sweat equity" simply means the family members contribute their time and efforts to building the home and to assisting Habitat in fund raising activities such as our annual Habitat Hobble. The current requirement is that each family member over age 18 must contribute a minimum of 200 hours of work.

Habitat for Humanity of Grand County expects to accept applications for a partner family for our 9th home late in 2009.

If you would like to learn more about the partner family application process or nominate a potential partner family, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

Please help us make dreams of a home of their own a reality for needy and deserving families in Grand County. Join us as we build our eighth house in Hot Sulphur Springs. To volunteer your time, donate materials or help us with land acquisition, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

We need volunteers as:

• Board members - Board members meet monthly (currently on the second Thursday of the month). Our Executive Director manages the day-to-day operations of Habitat while the board serves in a governance capacity. Board members support Habitat in the community and are a key part of our fund raising activities.
• House captains - Supervise our construction volunteers on our workdays (weekday or Saturday) and provide construction expertise and organizational skills to our volunteers. Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 if you can help us.
• Construction volunteers - We generally work on our houses on Thursday and Saturday. If you would like to know that your efforts have made a real difference in the life of a family, this one's for you. Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 if you would like to join us at the construction site. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old.
• Habitat Hobble 2009 - We need volunteers to help us plan our 2009 Habitat Hobble scheduled for Saturday, June 13. Areas where we need help include marketing, registration, publicity, sponsorship, silent auction, and race day events.
• Land acquisition - We need land for building our future homes. Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 if you would like to have land to donate or sell at reduced cost or if you can help us track down land for acquisition.
• Data entry volunteers - We need some volunteers to help us transfer data to a new database for tracking volunteers and donors. No special knowledge is required other than general familiarity with typing information into a computer. We provide the computer and the instruction in how to use the software.

To volunteer your time, donate materials or help us with land acquisition, please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

We face some rather extraordinary expenses for infrastructure costs (tap fees, utilities, etc.) as we began to build our next house in Hot Sulphur Springs. Your generosity through cash donations will help us make these houses happen. Please click here to donate on-line. Be sure to click on "Designate your gift" in the left hand frame and indicate that your gift should go to Habitat in Grand County. Or mail a check to our office:

Habitat for Humanity of Grand County
P.O. Box 969
Granby, CO 80446

If you have land to donate or to sell at reduced cost for building Habitat houses, we would love to speak with you about your site and how Habitat families may benefit from your donation. Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138.

If it can be used to build a house, we need it. We welcome your donation of new building materials. If you cannot donate the materials, can you provide them to us at reduced cost? Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 if you have new building materials to donate or provide at reduced cost.

To maximize our use of our very generous and energetic volunteers, we need lots of tools. We would love to speak with you about your contributing tools to our building efforts. Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 if you have tools to donate or provide at reduced cost.

We would love to have your work group, church group, community organization or group of friends or neighbors join us in helping to make the dream of affordable housing a reality. We welcome your group's skills and enthusiasm but ask that volunteers on the work site be age 16 or older. Volunteers under age 16 can help us with landscaping once spring comes and the snows melt.

Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 if you and your group would like to plan a special work day or join us on one of our regular work days.

We will have regular work days on Thursday and Saturday during the 2009 building season. Our goal is to complete our 8th house (located in Hot Sulphur Springs) during the 2009 building season. If your business, church or organization would like to schedule a special team work day, we will be happy to arrange a time to fit your schedule.

Since many of our volunteers are available only during the summer months, we are in great need of volunteers who can work during the fall and winter months. Please send us an email or call our office at 970-887-9138 to join us.