Today marks the start of something new.
Almost every month for 10 years I wrote a column for “The Buzz Around Wayne County,” called “Our Habitat.”
The point of that column was to reflect how our habitat is more than just the home we live in – that it includes our entire community and all the people in it. I felt it was a good way to help expand the mission of Habitat for Humanity beyond building homes for individual families to also building communities.
But now that column has ended, so today we’re starting a new monthly-ish blog titled, “Opening Doors.”
Last week, thanks to some great volunteer groups, Habitat Goldsboro-Wayne was able to kick off our 25th anniversary with a wall-raising ceremony marking the beginning of vertical construction at our McNair Heights Neighborhood.
And as we did that, one word kept coming up: transformation – transformation for our homeowners and transformation for the community.
But how does that transformation process begin? For our families, it began with the opening of a door.
I used to say Habitat does not give homes away; we give opportunities.
Now, I think it’s more accurate to say that we open the door to opportunity.
Of course, it’s up to the families to walk through that door and to partner with Habitat to do the work, but first, that door has to open.
As we start our McNair Heights Neighborhood, we have 15 families who have walked through that door. But Habitat for Humanity of Goldsboro-Wayne still needs your help. We want to open this door even wider so that even more families can take advantage of the opportunity to walk through and build better and brighter futures.
Your support, whether through volunteering, donating, praying, or even just spreading the word about Habitat can help us open that door wider. If you want to learn more about how, just look around on website, or contact me directly. Together, let’s open the door.
Matthew Whittle is the Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity of Goldsboro-Wayne. He can be reached at mwhittle@habitatgoldsboro.org og 919-736-9592 x2.
