As the Habitat 53° ReStore closes the door on its second year, store manager Kathy McCormick is looking back on a successful season.
“It was wonderful,” said McCormick. In total, the venture raised more than $13,000, with proceeds going toward building a home for a Flin Flon family.
“We’ve made some good progress this year,” McCormick said.
The home now has a shingled roof and all the windows are in. The front door must still be installed. Siding has been completed on the north side, but the south side is unfinished and there is more to be done to prepare for the cold weather ahead.
“We have to have it ready for winter or all our effort we put into it will be lost,” McCormick said.
Habitat 53° is the local branch of Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat for Humanity brings together volunteers and community partners to work together with families to build or rehabilitate safe, decent and affordable houses. Its mission is to build affordable housing and promote homeownership as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty.
The Flin Flon organization’s first house is on Steventon Boulevard. McCormick said the future homeowner’s family has come down from Snow Lake to help with the building.
She adds that members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints have also been a boon to the project.
“We have been truly blessed in the Latter-Day Saints, the Elders,” McCormick said. Members of the church joined in work parties several times over the season, doing some of the heavy work such as lifting and shovelling gravel.
McCormick said that she herself has picked up a shovel or two. “My goodness, how fast things go,” she said, when people work together. “It only takes a little time out of your evening to do that.”
Work parties have been held throughout the building season, but it has not been easy to bring out a full crew.
“When it comes to heavy work it’s hard to get people out,” McCormick said.
And as winter approaches, with more work to be done, volunteers are still needed.
Work parties are held most Saturdays. Anyone 16 or older can come out to help, although Habitat 53° requires a safety test before people can work on the site.
The test involves watching a 13-minute video on the website at habitat.mb.ca, then answering approximately 25 questions based on information in the video.
Habitat’s volunteer coordinator, Katie Anderson, has more information about work party eligibility and scheduling. She can be reached at 204-687-3935.
Fundraising will also continue through the winter. McCormick has requested a $20,000 grant from the Thomas Sill Foundation in Winnipeg, which is being presented to the foundation’s board on Sept. 29.
Upcoming local fundraisers include a coffee house from 7 to 9 pm on Saturday, Oct. 4 at the Creighton Community Hall. A celebrity auction will be held on November 22 at the Flin Flon Community Hall.
“We still need $60,000 to finish,” said McCormick.
The ReStore operated on the old armory site next to Twin Motors, accepting donations and reselling building supplies, furniture, appliances and other gently used, unwanted or discontinued items.
All proceeds go toward building homes for local families.
The ReStore will open again in April 2015. And while the store isn’t open during the winter, donations can still be made by contacting McCormick at 204-687-6582.
There is still one weekend of selling left, with the doors open Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26 and 27.
“We’ve made more than $30,000 in that little brown building,” said McCormick, “and that’s pretty awesome.”
