By Anna Tuell, Development Director
We had a great 2019, and it’s thanks to your constant support – as donors, volunteers, shoppers, and cheerleaders in the community. We wouldn’t be here without you.
Read on to see our Top Ten Moments of 2019:
10. Wrapping Up a Fantastic Decade
As we close the books on this year (and this decade!), we’re so grateful for our homeowners, or staff, our volunteers, our donors, and the Chatham County community for 30 years of support. We’re hopeful that 2020 will be one of our best years yet!
As always, we need your help. We hope that you’ll consider making a donation to help us build more houses and change more lives in 2020.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us finish a great decade!
Your gift can be made online (click here). You can also send a check to PO Box 883 Pittsboro, NC 27312. Your gift is tax-deductible, and if you’d like to talk more about ways to take full advantage of any possible tax benefits, we’d love to talk more with you. We’re looking forward to your donation!
9. Moving Forward at Robert’s Run
Our #9 moment isn’t much to look at, but it’s important for us to share that we are hard at work on Robert’s Run. We purchased the 28 acre Robert’s Run property in 2015, and since then, we have seen land costs and home values go up significantly. We have built six houses around the edges of Robert’s Run, and have been developing a site plan to tackle the needed infrastructure and to build the next phase. That plan has challenged us and made us think outside the box. It has been a long process, and we are continuing to take our time to make sure that we build a community that will be diverse, vibrant, inclusive, and most importantly – affordable.
We hope to have more to Robert’s Run news to share in 2020, but we felt that the hard work our staff and volunteers have been doing on Robert’s Run deserved a spot on this list.
If you’re interested in learning more about what we have been doing at Robert’s Run, and how the planning process is going – and why it’s changed over the last couple of years – please reach out, we would love to talk with you about it.
8. Record Breaking ReStore Holiday Open House
Every year, we host a Holiday Open House in the ReStores – customers come in on a Sunday to get first run at all the holiday items we have had donated throughout the year. It’s always a really fun and popular event, but this year, we nearly doubled our typical sales!
We really do have the best customers, and a staff that will bend over backward to help make sure that events like this go off without a hitch. This year’s Holiday Open House was one for the books!
7. Final Installment of Five Year Pledge from Galloway Ridge
In November, we met with our friends at Galloway Ridge, and they gave us the final installment of a five year, $100,000 pledge to support our work at Robert’s Run in Pittsboro. In the last five years with the support of Galloway Ridge, we have been planning how to have the biggest impact possible at Robert’s Run. We’re so grateful to have Galloway Ridge in our corner, and look forward to many more years of work with them.
6. Rock the Block with Mountaire Farms
This year, we hosted a Rock the Block event with employees at Mountaire Farms who helped us re-establish an overgrown walking trail in Siler City’s Westmont neighborhood. The Mountaire crew worked all day to cut back branches and level out a path. They hosted a great cookout for the neighborhood after they finished their work. We’re so glad to have the support of Mountaire in Siler City, and their commitment to this project was one of our favorite parts of the year.
5. Began YouthBuild Program with CCCC
James Thomas (left) is Assistant Director and Lindsay Tipton (right) is Director of the YouthBuild program at Central Carolina Community College.
This year, we began a partnership with Central Carolina Community College’s Youth Build Program, which is designed to help young people between the ages of 16 and 24 to get their GEDs while also receiving training in high-demand fields (like construction). We have two students who are working with us on the job site through this program, and we’re so excited to be a part of their education.
4. Women Build 2019
Women Build is an event that we put together every Spring – it’s time that we specifically set aside to invite women to work on the job site for a special women-only build day. Every year when we look back, this day is always one of our absolute favorites. Stay tuned to learn how you can get involved in 2020!
3. Continued Our Solar Program
Since 2017, we have been putting photovoltaic solar panels on all our houses – it’s been an exciting and challenging project that we are really proud of. This year, we were able to work with Sun Dollar Energy, who donated the solar system for House #133 in honor of Austin Webster.
We’re proud to be taking this program into 2020. If you’d like to learn more about our green building initiatives, click here.
2. Celebrated 30 Years of Chatham Habitat
In October of 2019, we celebrated our 30th anniversary by getting our donors, volunteers, homeowners, and supporters together to spend an evening looking back on the work we’ve done together in the last 30 years. Celebrating this big milestone was a huge highlight of the year for us.
1. Built 8 Houses in Partnership with Chatham County Families
In 2019, we closed on six houses – three in Pittsboro and three in Siler City. We’re currently building five more, all of which are in Siler City.
That’s six families who just spent the holidays in safe, healthy, affordable homes. That’s because of your investment. We wouldn’t be doing this right if this wasn’t our #1 top moment of 2019!