Pensacola, FL (July 24, 2019) -On Saturday July 20th, despite the rain, Pensacola Habitat had 35 volunteers’ band together from the community to help landscape and present the Clemson Road home to Kristin Allen. 

The volunteers put their blood, sweat, and tears into this home and weren’t going to let the rain stop them. Aaron Rogers, AmeriCorps member at Pensacola Habitat, said “It was great to see the community come together despite the bad weather, seeing the joy of Kristin and her kids made it entirely worth it.” 

 The Group from St. Ann’s Catholic Church was there with their Pastor, Msgr. Luke Hunt to bless the home, as well as a team of volunteers to help with the landscaping. They are among the first faith communities to join Habitats mission to build homes, communities and hope helping fulfill this goal for decades financially as well as with the support of volunteers. 

Member of St. Ann’s Church Bev Ishol has coordinated Pensacola Habitat’s builds for the past 20 years; “Working alongside Pensacola Habitat to help families has been truly inspiring, my favorite part is at the home dedication seeing the family’s hard work and dedication pay off”, said Ishol. 

The church has helped our community in many ways: they have given support where they can and are dedicated to finishing the job. They helped build the home on Clemson Road and returned to show their support for the homebuyer by providing more assistance. 

The homebuyer Kristin Allen was presented with three gifts to christen her home; A hammer, quilt and a bible. 

The homebuyers attend homeowner readiness courses that empower and help them learn the skills necessary for successful homeownership such as home maintenance, budgeting, and repair.  The homeowners go further by investing their “sweat equity” into physically building their own homes—and contributing toward the construction of others’. Pensacola Habitat believes better prepared homeowners create better citizens, and more engaged neighbors. This is how we’re building up communities, one homeowner at a time.