By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has awarded a $50,667 grant to the Rowan County Habitat for Humanity for a new house in its Forest Creek subdivision.
This will be the fifth house built in Rowan in four years through the Thrivent Builds Houses program, according to Eric Brady of the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans office on Jake Alexander Boulevard. This year’s grant is among nine awarded throughout the state for Habitat houses.
Brady said one reason Rowan was selected in a year when the number of projects were reduced statewide and nationally is because of the overwhelming support from the community on previous home-building projects.
“We’ve always had a lot of folks to show up and participate in the projects,” he said, “and we’ve always come up with more money than we needed for the houses.
“These folks just respond very well to the need. They’re very passionate about helping other people and doing everything they can to better the community.”
The Thrivent grant will cover 65 percent of the cost of the house at 842 Carpenter’s Circle, according to Coleman Emerson, executive director of the Rowan Habitat for Humanity. Habitat will pick up 25 percent of the cost, Emerson said, with the other 10 percent to be raised by the two Thrivent chapters (the East Rowan Thrivent Chapter and Southwest Rowan Thrivent Chapter) and the local Lutheran congregations.
Since 1991, Thrivent Financial and its members have worked with Habitat for Humanity to build more than 500 homes throughout the country, raise more than $25 million for the projects and contribute more than 1.4 million volunteer hours in homebuilding time.
The groundbreaking on the four-bedroom house in Forest Creek was held Saturday morning on the first of two weekly workdays scheduled for the next 10 weeks. Caroline and Harry Rankin, the family selected by Habitat’s all-volunteer Family Selection Committee to live in the house, were on hand to help with the construction.
Habitat homes are not built for people, Emerson said. “They’re built with people.”
The Rankins have three children.
Volunteers, including a large delegation from Salem Lutheran Church on Sherrills Ford Road, got the flooring system in and the exterior walls up Saturday.
The county’s Lutheran churches take turns signing up for workdays. The Rev. Carl Haynes, pastor of Christiana Lutheran on U.S. 52, said members of his congregation are scheduled to do the landscaping for the house on the first Saturday in May.
“We have a number of folks that are good at landscaping,” he said, “and we have some that are professionals. That’s why our church picked that to do, and then we get a lot of our youth involved.”
Haynes said this will be the fourth Thrivent Habitat house that Christiana Lutheran members have helped with. “The Lutheran churches have helped with a number of other Habitat houses,” he said.
Because so many volunteers showed up to work on the Rankin house Saturday, Emerson said some were reassigned to help with another Habitat house also started next door. The second house will have three bedrooms, he said, and is being built for Karen Dorty, who has two children.
Families chosen for Habitat homes submitted applications to the Family Selection Committee for review. The houses are sold to those chosen at the cost of construction and financed for 20 years in Rowan County with 0 percent interest, “so the payments are quite modest,” Emerson said. “It’s a way for persons to achieve the goal of home ownership that probably would not ever be able to otherwise.”
A total of 74 Habitat homes have been built in Rowan County. After this year’s two houses are completed, he said there will only be one remaining lot in the Forest Creek subdivision for a Habitat house.
After that, Emerson said Habitat will expand to other locations in the county. “We have some other property around and we’re always looking for land,” he said.
“We are very, very thankful to people who work with Habitat in this area,” he said, “and a number of them are the good folks of Thrivent. Habitat is a local grassroots ministry that helps people.”
Emerson attributed the success of the Rowan Habitat for Humanity to the goodness of the people here. “They want to put their Christian faith into action,” he said, “and this is a way for a congregation to be in mission to the community at large.
“It oftentimes provides the same positive experience that people get going on mission trips far away, but it’s local. It’s uplifting to people’s faith, and it helps somebody.”
For more information on Rowan County Habitat for Humanity, call the office at 704-642-6292. The Rowan Habitat for Humanity Restore, which sells donated items to raise money, is located at 125 E. Innes St. The phone number for the store is 704-642-1222.
For more information on Thrivent Builds Homes, log onto its Web site at Thriventbuilds.com.
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.