Habitat to build a home

On Friday morning, when many students are still sleeping off their Thursday nights, volunteers for UNC Habitat for Humanity will begin the intensive endeavor of building most of a house in just three days.

Known as a “Blitz Build,” it’s a project Chapel Hill hasn’t seen since 1998. When completed, it will provide a UNC employee and her family with a home.

The house’s structure might go up in three days, but raising the money to build it has taken a lot longer.

For about a year, Habitat has been raising funds to meet a target of $30,000 — one-half the cost of the house.

Will Harrison, fund-raising chairman for Habitat, said the group has brought in between $17,000 and $18,000.

Editor's note: These are the first in a series of stories documenting theculminations of the yearlong efforts of Dance Marathon and UNC Habitat for Humanity.Both groups will beholding their banner events this weekend — activities that will be covered in a 2-page spread inside The Daily Tar Heel on Monday.

Several other organizations, including the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Department of City and Regional Planning and Orange County Habitat for Humanity, are contributing to the building costs.

Together, Harrison said, the groups have generated about $56,000, only a bit shy of the full $60,000 price tag for building a Habitat house in Orange County.

And Habitat will continue fund-raising efforts even after the house has been built.

“The ultimate goal would be to be able to do a Blitz Build a year,” Harrison said.

Any money raised this year above the $60,000 goal could potentially go toward a Blitz Build for next year, he said.

Avni Patel, last year’s fund-raising manager for UNC Habitat, said her group’s efforts kicked off last spring with a benefit concert in February and a 5k race in March. Habitat plans similar events for this semester.

“This was the first time we planned these fund-raisers, so this spring semester we hope our second annual fund-raisers … will bring not only more money but more awareness for our cause,” Patel said.

She estimates that the group raised $300 from the concert and $2,500 from the race.

But a large consideration in planning fund-raisers is making the events learning experiences, not simply money makers.

At the benefit concert, Habitat set up an informational table where people could go to learn about the group, Patel said.

“A lot of people have misconstrued ideas,” she said.

“They just think that we give out houses.”

Patel also said there’s a definite effort to include the whole community in fund raising.

“The events that we are trying to plan are ones that will reach out to the campus community and the off-campus community,” she said.

One of these events was an organ concert Feb. 15 at Chapel of the Cross, one of Habitat’s main partners, on Franklin Street.

Susan Moeser, University organist and wife of Chancellor James Moeser, held an hourlong concert of mainly classical, but also some contemporary, music.

Susan Moeser said that she helped build a Habitat house a couple of years ago but that the concert was the first thing she’d done to contribute musically.

“I haven’t really played a full-length concert here (in Chapel Hill), so I thought that would be kind of fun to do,” she said.

“I’ve donated to other causes of theirs, so I thought this would be a great way to donate my time.”

Other events throughout UNC Habitat’s year-plus of fund raising have included holding bar nights at local hot spots, making gingerbread houses in campus residence halls, conducting car washes and collecting donations from drink sales at Top of the Hill restaurant on Franklin Street.

Grants and private donations also figure into the group’s grand total, Patel said.

And other campus organizations have joined the effort.

“(We) kind of get a lot of other organizations who raise a lot of money and are not sure who to give it to so they give it to Habitat,” Patel said.

“We try to fund raise from all sources, basically anything we can get.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.