Cruise in to give blood and you could win!  The Mantee County Habiatat for Humanity ReStore will be host the blood mobile on Saturday July 10^th from 9am-12pm. We will offer a $25 gift certificate to the ReStore for all donors on that day.

Participants who donate this summer will receive a pair of flip flops, a wellness check up and the chance to save 3 lives.  Plus the opportunity to be entered to win a Carnival Cruise. 

The Habitat ReStore is located at 1227 Hardin Avenue, Tallevast, Florida, 34242.   For information or help with directions call 355-7082.

Please note that the Manatee Habitat offices and ReStore resale location will be closed on Friday, April 2 in observance of Good Friday.  ReStore will re-open for shopping on Saturday 4/3 and the offices will re-open on Monday 4/5 for business.

How do you create even more furniture donations?  Enter the wonderful folks at The Furniture Warehouse.  Read more about what this partnership has helped Manatee Habitat achieve in a short while.  Bradenton Herald’s “Habitat ReStore raises funds through sales” from Monday’s paper.

• 100 Habitat homes and 15 years in Manatee County …
• 600 volunteers contributing nearly 11,000 hours of service …
• a 12-home neighborhood completed …
• a new construction method mastered in preparation for the next neighborhood of Hope Landing …
• ReStore’s first full year in business …
• hundreds of hours contributed to vital administrative functions in Habitat’s office …

Clearly there was much to celebrate and be thankful for!  For a more complete story of the celebration, read Sunday’s Herald-Tribune article about the volunteers who received awards for their service in 2009 “Habitat for Humanity Recognizes Its Volunteers.”

And for fans of Facebook, we suggest that you become of fan of Manatee Habitat!

from Parade.com

Last week, Parade Magazine had a great article about volunteering.  What made it special for everyone at manatee Habitat is that it confirmed what we alreayd knew – that although we are in especially difficult economic times, we are also in especially generous giving times. We have experienced, and the poll results summarized in the article show that unlike in previous recessions, people are actually volunteering more.

If you did not get a chance to read: “Compassion Counts More Than Ever” by Michael Berland last week, please do.  If you have volunteered for Manatee Habitat of the many other organizations that make a difference in our community, we think you’ll see a familiar face in this article – your own!  Thank you for your service to the community.

Where do the mortgage repayments go?
Payments go back to the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate and are used to build more homes.

Who gets a Habitat home?
Manatee County Habitat for Humanity serves families who make between 35% and 65% of the area media income.  That means that a family of four would have to make between $21,000 and $40,000 to qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home in Manatee County.  In addition to income levels, families are selected based on need for housing, ability to repay the loan and willingness to partner.

• Need for housing includes all forms of substandard housing – safety of the neighborhood, physical condition of the home, overcrowding and cost-burden of current rent payments are all considered.
• Ability to repay the loan looks at the potential homeowner’s ability to carry both the cost of the 30-year, no interest mortgage and other expenses related to owning a home.
• Displaying willingness to partner means that families work at least 300 to 500 hours of “sweat equity” side-by-side with volunteers to their home and the homes of their neighbors.  In addition, they attend at least 14 hours of classes on home maintenance, budgeting and financial literacy.

Do you have to be a Christian to qualify for a Habitat for Humanity house?
While Habitat for Humanity is a faith-based organization, every affiliate follows a nondiscriminatory policy of family selection.  Factors like religion, race, gender or nationality are not considered in selecting families to become Habitat for Humanity homeowners.

What do the homes look like?
Habitat for Humanity builds many different types of homes all over the world.  Here in Manatee County, we build three- and four-bedroom homes ranging between 1,000 sq ft and 1,100 sq. ft. in size.  Each home has a kitchen, living/dining room, bedrooms, one or two bathrooms, laundry room and a shed.  View a virtual home tour here.

Where has Manatee County Habitat for Humanity built homes?  Where are you building now?
The 100 homes built through Manatee Habitat are located in Bradenton, Palmetto and the unincorporated county.  Volunteers just finished building homes at Washington Park  – a 12-home subdivision north of the City of Palmetto – and will soon start “Hope Landing”  in Ellenton.  Read more about these neighborhoods in: “Communities – Where We Build.”