Celebrate the Season by Shopping at the ReStore

For the entire month of December the Habitat for Humanity ReStore will take 10% off your entire purchase during our 31 Days of Christmas Extravaganza. This is great news for you bargain hunters as ReStore prices are already 50-80% below retail prices. Celebrate the season by getting your loved ones something they really want AND support Habitat for Humanity at the same time!

And if you're not sure which appliance, light fixture, door, shutter, bathtub, or cabinet to get your husband/wife/brother/cousin, than we have the perfect gift for you! A gift certificate for the Habitat ReStore truly is a gift that keeps on giving. Come in the store to purchase $10, $25 or $50 certificates for your favorite do-it-yourselfer or purchase over the phone and we will send them to you.

Where & when to shop:
Habitat ReStore
6725 Hollister Avenue (between Los Carneros & Storke)
Goleta, CA 93117

Open: Wed - Friday from 12-5 pm and Saturdays from 9am-5pm.
692.2226

Enjoy this great deal and please share it with your friend. See you in December! 

View images of our inventory: Here

Giving Thanks

This truly is a special Thanksgiving for Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County. We have so much to be thankful for this year.  We are just a few weeks away from finishing construction on our second major home building project - the four family homes on San Pascual Street. We're thankful for a project that will be completed on-time, and under-budget. That's no easy feat! And we're thankful for our generous donors, volunteers and corporate partners who help make it possible! Without their help we would not be able to complete our mission of eliminating substandard housing in Santa Barbara. 

And just because photos are fun, here's a visual of some other things we're thankful for this season:

The members of all faith communities who have joined together to support Habitat!

Our ReStore volunteers who keep the shelves stocked and the store tidy!

Our construction volunteers who have put in thousands of hours at the build site!

And lastly, we are thankful for our Partner Families and their children! We believe that homeownership is a vital step to help families break the cycle of poverty and contributes to pride in families and communities. It is our joy to build simple, low-cost homes in partnership with these families.

What are you thankful for?

Meet the Trujillo Family

Partner Family profile: The Trujillo Family

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County is proud to partner with the Trujillo family. The Trujillos have lived and worked in Santa Barbara for the past 31 years. Mauricio and Rosa have one son, Mauricio Jr. who is 20, and a daughter, Cynthia, who is 16. Currently this family of four rents a 700 square foot rundown apartment. 

Mauricio has been involved with Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County for many years and volunteered numerous hours at the first Habitat homes on Via Lucero. Since becoming a partner family, Mauricio and Rosa have been hard-working contributors at the build site and in the ReStore in order to complete their mandatory 250 sweat equity hours per adult family member. Rosa is known to be one of the best site-cleaners and loves to sweep out all of construction dust and debris from each unit. Along with her parents, Cynthia attends the Habitat training workshops and provides childcare to the young children of the other partner families.

Rosa sweeping her future home

The Trujillos are looking forward to the stability that owning their own home provides. Their opportunity for home-ownership would not be possible without Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County.

To Dump or Donate? The age-old question

Ever wonder what to do with the perfectly good appliance you're getting rid of? Well if you live in Santa Barbara we hope you'll donate appliances to the Habitat ReStore rather than your local landfill.

The choice you make can literally change the world we live in. Collectively we dump 251 million tons of material into landfills each year. Sadly, much of this material is reusable or recyclable. By donating your gently used furniture, appliances, fixtures, and building materials to the Habitat ReStore you can become part of the solution to reducing the amount of material dumped into our backyard landfills. (Unfortunately we are unable to take all material, be sure to read here on what items we accept.)

And If you're a shopper, you too can make a difference as all proceeds from the ReStore go directly back to Habitat and help us build affordable homes for low-income families in our community. Visit our featured items page on Photobucket to see what's new. Be sure to check in often as we literally get new donated items daily. Case in point - just yesterday a gorgeous antique dining room cabinet was donated to the ReStore. All of the staff and volunteers marveled at it, and today within an hour it sold! 

So, we hope we've made our point that you can help save the planet, improve your home, and support Habitat for Humanity, all at the same time! And you can go home feeling good knowing that the proceeds  from each sale help fund the construction of new Habitat homes.

6725 Hollister Ave, Goleta 692-2226

Women Build Day a complete success!

Last Saturday Habitat for Humanity invited over 40 women from the Santa Barbara community to the construction site for a Women Build Day. We had a great crew made up of ladies from Women In Development, the Habitat Family Partnership committee, a few family mentors and of course the future homeowners. It was such a fun and festive day as women from all professions joined together to paint, putty, caulk and sand. Fittingly pink hard hats, balloons and bandannas were on display!

A huge thanks to the Women In Development ladies who provided lunch, donuts, and tons of enthusiasm. Their support made the day a total success! And because we like to include everyone, we did have a few men at the site throughout the day, evidence below.

The WID group taking a much needed rest

Phil supervising the painters

And of course we put the staff to work!

Corporate Work Day Spotlight: Starbucks!

Here at Habitat for Humanity we love our coffee and we love our volunteers. So when Starbucks asked if they could send a full crew of baristas down to the San Pascual build site for a day of team-building and volunteering, we eagerly signed them up. And boy did they prove to be an enthusiastic and productive (shall we say caffeinated?) crew.  

The dedicated crew from Starbucks

And we'd be remiss to not also thank our local Santa Barbara Starbucks for the traveling containers of coffee that they have donated for Habitat events in recent weeks. Thanks to Starbucks we have been able to provide coffee at our Tour of Green Homes and our Women @ Work events.

We could not complete our mission of building decent, affordable, and stable homes for low-income families in Santa Barbara without the help and support of volunteers and organizations. Thanks to all who help make Habitat for Humanity a success in our community!

Catalyst For Thought event benefiting Habitat

We love it when organizations select Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County as the beneficiary of their event ticket sales. Especially when the event promises to be an interesting and engaging talk that we're looking forward to attending ourselves. Well, if you're in Santa Barbara next Tuesday, head on over to the University Club of Santa Barbara to hear a talk from Dr. Larry Cox, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Pepperdine University. Sponsored by Catalyst for Thought, Dr. Cox has selected all proceeds from the event go directly to Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County!

SPEAKER:
Dr. Larry William Cox, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management.  He is an award winning-educator, enjoys helping young entrepreneurs, and is an inspiring speaker and seminar leader. Dr. Larry Cox explains how serial entrepreneurs systematically generate game-changing business ideas.  He introduces an approach that will help you succeed as an entrepreneur even in turbulent times...with limited resources...when the market is unknown...when a “formula for success” does not exist.  In sum, you will discover the entrepreneur’s secret of creating, rather than predicting, the future.

BENEFITING NON-PROFIT:The net proceeds from this event’s ticket sales benefit Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County, whose mission is “to build simple, low-cost homes in partnership with low-income families in need of decent and affordable housing."

TUESDAY, November 16:
5:30pm VIP Reception (must RSVP online to attend reception)
6:45pm Seating for Speaker, no late admittance
University Club of Santa Barbara, 1332 Santa Barbara Street
$10 with RSVP online, $15 at the door 

ReStore Donation Pick-ups

Ever wonder how new inventory arrives in the Habitat ReStore? Well besides donated drop-offs, a good portion of new ReStore inventory is picked up by our handy ReStore assistant manager, Joel. Perhaps you have seen Joel and the ReStore truck driving around town. He is out there Tuesday through Friday mornings picking up truckloads of donated gems.  

The ReStore truck

Joel with a full load of donated goods. Yes that is a staircase in the truck!

We accept donations dropped off at ReStore Wednesday-Friday from 12pm-5pm and Saturdays from 9am-5pm. We ask that you drop off goods during open hours so that we can provide a donation receipt. And if you need a donation pick-up for a larger piece, give us a call at 692-2226.

 

Volunteer Spotlight on Gabriella Frederick

Gabriella Frederick is one of our most dependable ReStore volunteers AND she just celebrated a big milestone: Gabby has volunteered 200 hours with Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County! That is a tremendous amount of hours that Gabby has volunteered in the Habitat ReStore, making sure customers are helped, inventory is priced and donations are processed. Without a doubt we depend on Gabby and all of our dedicated volunteers who help make the ReStore a success.

We love to thank our volunteers and recognize their importance in helping Habitat accomplish our mission of providing affordable housing in Santa Barbara. We provide volunteers with a custom name badge and celebrate their volunteer milestones. After 100 hours of volunteering Gabby received a Hammer pin to add on her badge, this week she received a Saw pin!

We're always looking for friendly, hard-working people to volunteer with with us. The Habitat ReStore is open Wednesday - Saturday, so there are plenty of volunteer opportunities throughout the week!

The Habitat staff celebrating Gabby's 200 volunteer hours

Board Build Day

We love welcoming groups of volunteers to the Habitat build site. It's a wonderful time of camaraderie for the group, and we get a full day of dedicated volunteers helping us build the four affordable homes on San Pascual Street. Last Saturday we were lucky to welcome the board of Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County for a full day of construction work. What a dedicated group!

Brand new Whirlpool appliances in our ReStore!

Whirlpool generously donated 20 brand-new, still-in-the-box appliances to our Santa Barbara ReStore last week! We're still unloading the new items and continue to be amazed by the generosity. 

Just in time for the busing holiday cooking season, these Whirlpool items include: Stainless Steel Pro-Style Ranges, Electric Ranges in both black and white, as well as multiple Vent Hoods. These appliances are going to make some lucky ReStore buyers very happy. Come see the items for yourself and imagine a delicious Thanksgiving turkey cooking away in your brand-new Stainless Steel Pro-Style oven.

Jenn Air Stainless Steel Vent Hood

30" Electric range, 5 Elements

Stainless Steel Pro-Style Dual Fuel Range

Women @ Work Day, November 13th