Habitat for Humanity of Shawnee, OK

After nearly a year of hard work, the time has come to celebrate! This Saturday, 26 July 2008, we will dedicate the home we have built in partnership with Heather and her daughters. Dedication will take place at 10 AM at 519 S. Pottenger. Mark your calendars and plan to join us as we present Heather with the keys to her new home!

Stay "tuned" for information on beginning construction on our next home!

Contact Rilda Smith, Volunteer Coordinator, if you have any questions about volunteering or would like to be put on her list of volunteers (Home: 275-6866;
work: 659-7973, rildaj@juno.com ).

Habitat for Humanity of Shawnee, Inc. is an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit housing ministry based on Christian principles.

We welcome those of any faith-or no faith-to join in tlie work of building simple, decent, safe and affordable houses in partnership with God's people in need.

Part of our intent when we build affordable housing is to make sure the house looks good in its neighborhood. For example, we adjusted
the roof pitch of House #10 to the dominant roof pitch in the immediate neighborhood.

House #11 will be built on Shamrock Circle, where other houses are brick or a combination of brick and vinyl siding. So that the Habitat
house will not seem out of piace, we will for the first time add brick to the front of the house and will also add a gable over the porch.
These will increase the cost of the house to the homeowner by about $2100.

We are also going to use Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) in place of stick construction for the walls. We expect these to increase the
cost of the house to the owner by $27 per month, but to save them $40+ per month on heating and cooling bills. We have talked these
changes over with the Partner Family for House #11 and they agree that these are beneficial changes, saving them money over the long
run.

Another advantage of SIPS panels is that the exterior walls should go up more quickly than usual, enabling us to dry-in the house in less
than two work days, insuring that we do not lose work days to weather.

We plan to pour the slab for this house soon, with workdays beginning in June. Watch for announcements of the first workday
when we plan to put up the SIPS panels and the roof trusses on the same day. We will need a good crew in order to accomplish this
good work.

For the past four years, Patty McWilliams has organized a group of women from University Baptist Church (with help from others,
including some men) to make beanies for OBU. They have raised over $4500 for HfH of Shawnee through this project.

Making 500 beanies is not simple. Several pieces have to be cut precisely to pattern, the bison must be printed on one piece, a band
must be cut, the pieces must be sewn together, and all beanies must be pressed.

Patty has "retired" as "beanie construction overseer." Since we need all the money we can raise to continue to build houses for deserving
families, the Board has voted to continue the project but is calling for volunteers to keep turning out the beanies.

We will sponsor several sewing sessions in June and July and need help cutting, trimming, sewing, folding and pressing the beanies.
Only basic sewing skills or interest is required. To volunteer contact Jamie Barrick at 273-2062 (tjbarrick@aol.com) or Robyn Stewart
(robynstewart@allegiance.tv) or Michael Cappo at 273-0110 (mcappo@farmersagent.com). Thanks in advance for your loyal support
in keeping this tradition going!

Volunteers from Texas Mandy Winkler is taking the Senior Nursing Seminar at OBU this semester. One option in that course is to work several hours in a
community service project. The nursing staff have chosen Habitat for Humanity as one option. Mandy chose to dedicate her service hours to construction work for Habitat. She has spent several days at the house on Pottenger
Street, becoming especially proficient at improving the interior walls with joint compound. When her parents, Dean and Beth Winkler, and her sister Stacie came for a visit during the Easter weekend, Mandy proposed that
they spend several hours Saturday working together on the Habitat house. The Winklers own a construction company in Temple, Texas,
enabling them to bring helpful skills with them.
They arrived just at the right time to help bed and tape almost all the house on one work day, with the Winklers doing the bulk of the
work. This was their first experience working at a Habitat house, and it was a good one for them and for us. The Burris family will move into their house a bit sooner because of Mandy's thinking that a good family outing would be to help the
Burrises build their house.

2008 Bison Bike Classic & Cavalier Road Race
to Benefit Shawnee Habitat for Humanity

Each year/ University Baptist Church replaces the regular Wednesday evening prepared meal with a chili dinner for Habitat. This event raises $350-$450, which will buy kitchen counter tops and closet shelves for a Habitat house.

Instead of paying for the prepared meal, UBC folks sign up to bring crock pots of chili and all the fixin's. Then everyone pays as they do at a regular meal (though most pay more than the usual cost).

We encourage readers who attend churches which have regular dinners to try a meal for Habitat. For further information/ call Marguerite at the Habitat number, 214-0434, or e-mail office@shawneehabitat.org.

The Bill and Edith Mullins family sold a house at a good profit. They decided that their good fortune in selling a house should help families unable to buy a house using conventional means.

As a result, they tithed the profit they made from selling the house. This resulted in a substantial donation to Shawnee Habitat. This money will be used to help a deserving family build a new home.

In the action, the Mullins family is an example of "putting shelter on the hearts and minds of people in such a powerful way that poverty housing and homelessness become socially, politically, and religiously unacceptable in our nations and the world" (HfHI).

As an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, Shawnee Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductable. Habitat is not a United Way agency.

Ten percent of all undesignated contributions made to Habitat for Humanity of Shawnee are tithed to Habitat for Humanity International to help build homes in partnership with families in developing countries.

To contact HfH International, write to 121 Habitat Street, Americus, GA 31709-3496, or go to their web site at http://www.habitat.org