Millcreek Valley Habitat for Humanity

Contributed By Susan Bennett

Note: Craig has been our Thrivent partner the last year. ed.
Craig Holocher, MBA, FIC, of Colerain Township is traveling to Guatemala this week to build homes with families in need thanks to an alliance between Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity International. Holocher, a financial consultant serving Lutherans and their family members in the Cincinnati/Northern KY metro area, was selected to represent his colleagues from the organization’s Indiana Region of Thrivent Financial. In order to qualify for this honor, Holocher demonstrated outstanding sales performance and an interest in volunteering with Thrivent Financial members. “We are proud to have Craig representing us on this trip to Central America,” said Tom Dobberstein, managing partner of the Indiana region of Thrivent Financial. “He is dedicated to service to others and I know this experience will energize him to share the plight of substandard housing and the impact made by the Thrivent Builds Worldwide program with colleagues, members and others in the Lutheran community.”

This special team of more than 30 Thrivent Financial representatives is spending eight days, Sept. 8-16, working with Habitat for Humanity Guatemala in the city of Panajachal, building homes with the local community. This is the only Thrivent Builds Worldwide trip specifically honoring Thrivent Financial representatives, but it is just one of more than 100 Thrivent Builds Worldwide trips taking place in 2007. All Thrivent Builds Worldwide trips give participants a unique opportunity to become active partners with people of other cultures. Team members work alongside members of a Habitat for Humanity host community, raising awareness of the burden of poverty housing and building decent, affordable homes worldwide.

While each Thrivent Builds Worldwide trip is different, all include work, rest and free time. Teams spend a few days touring local historic sites and attractions or participating in outdoor recreational activities. Typical trips last one to three weeks and cost an average of $100 per day. Cost includes room and board, in-country transportation, traveler’s medical insurance and a donation to the host community’s building program. Airfare is an additional cost.

To encourage its members to participate, Thrivent Financial and some of its subsidiaries offer $800 toward trip costs for benefit members and owners of Thrivent mutual fund and Thrivent Life Insurance Company products. The organization also donates $6,500 to the host Habitat affiliate to spark future homebuilding projects if at least 50% of trip participants are Thrivent Financial members.

Thrivent Builds Worldwide is part of the broader alliance between Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, its members and Habitat for Humanity International called “Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity.” To learn more, visit www.thriventbuilds.com/worldwide.

A group of Millcreek Valley volunteers will be heading to Frakes, Kentucky on the weekend of September 7, 8 and 9 to take part in a “Raise the Roof” weekend.   They will be taking part the “Sharing Our Witness – Enriching Relationships (SOWER)” program, and United Methodist Church project.  The project serves families of Southern Kentucky by repairing and replacing deteriorated housing.  The cost for taking part in the project is $100 per person which includes meals and housing.  Millcreek Valley will also be sending a group back to the area October 11-16 to replace roofs on area homes.  That group will be using shingles donated to Millcreek Valley by Owens Corning.  Call Dan at 761-4687 for details about how to become involved in this worthwhile project. 

The nice folks at the Kenwood Towne Centre and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy have partnered with us to help us raise money for a future house. The elementary school built the floor for the shed and the middle school built the frame. It has been at the mall for the last three days. For less than the cost a cup of coffee you can help someone move out of substandard housing and into their first home.

For those of you who are interested in the financial of this affiliate, I have posted the last year’s annual report, 2005 Form 990 , on the Treasurer’s Page. This is the report we send annually to the IRS.

For those of you who missed the nice article in the Cincinnati Enquirer here is the link to the mail article and the related stories. My only complaint is that the Enquirer has the wrong number of foreclosures and mortgages that were paid off. Since 1989 we have had to foreclose on three houses and we have two home owners who chose to pay off their mortgages early so that they could buy another home. In my research I found that the death of the principal wage earner forced two houses out of the program. One house was paid off with insurance proceeds and the other house was returned to the affiliate to be rehabbed and sold again.

Related Stories

• Turning volunteers, donations into a house
• How mortgages are determined
• Habitat for Humanity, by the numbers

Source: The Enquirer – Habitat offers sweet equity

Take a look at the photos taken by Susan McCamey at the Garfield kick-off on March 24. Several folks from Thrivent along with folks from local Lutheran churches were there to start the building a new house Tina Phillips. Tina has already been hard at work on the fanciest shed I have ever seen. Click on the link below and it will take you to the Picasa Web Albums over at Google. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/millardblumer/KickOffGarfieldAve

In an effort to do a better job scheduling volunteers we have opted to use VolunteerHub. Registration is free! VolunteerHub is the ultimate volunteer coordinator’s assistant. Simply publish your events and watch volunteers sign up with our user-friendly registration process. Save time by dramatically reducing extraneous telephone traffic while organizing, tracking, emailing, and reporting on your organization’s volunteer activity. VolunteerHub is creative information technology for connecting people and purposes. To sign up click on the VolunteerHub logo or on link below.

Sign up to volunteer at a construction site

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Habitat for Humanity are joining
together in an unprecedented alliance that will put the faith of Lutherans
and their communities into action to help families in need move into
the economic mainstream and put an end to poverty housing. In the
Cincinnati area Thrivent and Millcreek Valley HFH have joined together
to build a house on 2131 Garfield in West College Hill. The kickoff will be
at 1:00 PM on March 24^th.

For more information about Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity, click on any of the following links.

• Thrivent Builds Homes
• Build Locations
• Get Involved
  • Youth Involvement
  • Congregation Involvement
• How to Apply
• Who’s Building Homes
• Thrivent Builds Neighborhoods
  • Milwaukee, WI Neighborhood
• The Issue
  • Understanding Sub-standard Housing
• FAQ

Volunteer Dan Dallmer will be taking a group of UC students to Lanatt, Alabama over spring break to build a house there. Their home will be the first of the Chattahoochee Initiative sponor by The Fuller Center and the City Council of Lanatt. The Fuller Center is headed by Habitat for Humanity founder, Millard Fuller. Dan explains that Lanat was once a thriving area with over 15,000 mill jobs. Lately this region has fallen on hard times, and has been further stressed by families that have relocated from Hurricane Katrina. In order to prepare for the trip, Dan and volunteers pre-cut wood in the Millcreek Valley warehouse, and assembled walls in space donated by Green Realty. This will serve as training for the 11 UC students who will make the trip with Dan. They will be in Lanatt during UC’s Spring Break, March 19-23. The trip is being paid for by the personal donations of UC trustees.

Read about the trip in the Cincinnati Enquirer http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070322/NEWS01/703220417/-1/all

The Development Committee of the Millcreek Valley Board will hold a Church Relations Kick-0ff meeting at it offices on Saturday, February 16 from 9 AM to 11AM. The meeting is open to all who are interested in furthering the partnership between Millcreek Valley and area churches. “Churches have always been our major partner in helping us fullfill our mission of eliminating poverty housing,” says Millcreek Valley President Jeff Dauner. “Their support includes prayer, skilled labor, jobsite lunches and funds to build homes just to name a few major areas.” If you are interested in serving on this committee, but are unable to attend the meeting, please call our offices at 761-4187 and we will send you information about how you can help.