Home Dedication

Saturday was a beautiful day, and a joyous one. Twelve partner families received the keys to their new homes, along with a hammer and a Bible. Grocery Outlet gave a goody bag, and the South Alameda County Thrivent chapter gave Sonnie Dae and her family a small quilt they made to mark the occasion. Thanks to all who have volunteered to make these new homes a reality!

Thrivent Builds

Greetings to visitors reaching the blog from the Thrivent Builds newsletter! The newsletter has progress reports from all over the country on Thrivent Builds homes, including the 500th Thrivent Builds home in Pontiac, Michigan. Read more about the family partnering with Habitat in Oakland County.

Progress and Dedication

The East Bay Habitat Thrivent Builds house is getting close to being done. Fundraising for the congregation-raised portion is on target, but we need more volunteers. Contact Eliza at the Habitat office and sign up today! Come out by yourself, with some friends, or organize a group from your congregation.

The dedication is planned for Saturday, December 8th. Plan to come help celebrate the completion of the Thrivent Builds house. If you've never been to a home dedication before, it's not to be missed.

Lutheran Work Day

Saturday was a lot of fun. We had dozens of volunteers from Prince of Peace (Fremont), Christ the King (Fremont), Resurrection Lutheran (Dublin), University Lutheran (Berkeley) and Epiphany Lutheran (San Leandro). We worked on a variety of tasks including electrical, trim and finish work, caulking and painting, flooring and even some hearty souls that dug trenches for water service.

The Thrivent Builds house is coming along nicely. The exterior is painted, the sheetrock hung, mudded and textured, and some people worked with homeowner Sonnie Dae and two of her daughters painting the upstairs bedrooms.

Thanks to all who came out and worked. If you've got pictures from the day, let me know and I'll post them on the blog.

Fundraising Gala

Saturday, September 22nd

Building A Dream Gala

Blackhawk Auto Museum in Danville

Thrivent Financial is a gala honoree!

A night of entertainment, dancing and live auction to support Habitat for Humanity East Bay. The menu for the evening will begin with wine and hors d'oeuvres, followed by a delectable dinner served in the main dining room. The night will also include fabulous items for auction in our silent and live auctions.

Ways to Help:

1. Attend the gala! Proceeds will be used to help low-income families in Alameda and Contra Costa counties realize their dream of homeownership.
2. Volunteers are needed to help with support staff. Shifts are: 9am-1pm, 2-5pm, 3-8pm, 11pm-12am.

For more information, check the Habitat East Bay website.

RLC Work Day

Resurrection Lutheran Church of Dublin sent out 2 volunteers on Friday and 15 volunteers on Saturday. Mostly they worked on installing siding the Thrivent Builds house, but a few worked on furnace ducts and other tasks.

Thanks!

A big thank you to Epiphany Lutheran in San Leandro, which sent out nine different volunteers this month. And a huge thank you to Abiding Hope Lutheran. Their youth group came all the way from Littleton, Colorado and volunteered at the work site (as well as at the San Francisco Food Bank).

Progress

Progress on all the Habitat houses is slower than during the build-a-thon, but it continues apace. The Thrivent Builds house is coming along nicely. It has fascia, roof sheathing, some rough plumbing, a front porch, and has scaffolding set up to prepare for installing windows and siding.

Go in Peace, and Serve the Lord

Habitat East Bay surpassed their fund-raising goal for the build-a-thon, with over $105,000 raised for the 4 day event. Lutheran participation was great, both for volunteer hours and donating.

But we need to keep at it. It takes a lot of work to build a house (over 500 volunteer days), and the requirement for Thrivent Builds is that at least half the work has to be from Lutherans. So go volunteer with a couple of friends, or organize a work day for your church. Go in peace, and serve the Lord!

Build-A-Thon Pictures 3

The build-a-thon was a big success. Over $95,000 was raised (still counting) and 420 volunteer days amassed in just 4 days. Over 300 hours were volunteered by Lutherans -- more than 7% of the volunteered hours of the whole build-a-thon!

Habitat East Bay has more pictures of the build-a-thon on their website and photo gallery. I've included some of the pictures on the Thrivent Builds house here.