I Helped Build It! Did You?

Limited edition "I Helped Build It!" photos available to anyone who volunteered at Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara's San Pascual site. Display it with pride!

Contact here if you'd like to receive your very own.

Santa Barbara's Volunteer All-Stars

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Santa Barbara Habitat for Humanity Volunteer Open House last Saturday! It was a wonderful day to show off the new homes to all of our faithful volunteers.

A highlight of the day was watching volunteers point out the particular sections they helped with. "Oh I remember installing that vent" or "glad to see that piece of siding I helped with is still there!" We are proud to show off the completed homes and love seeing how proud and invested volunteers are as well. 

Speaking of invested, we have tallied up the volunteer hours from the San Pascual construction site! Here's a snapshot of the poster with our "Volunteer All-Stars." Look at how many volunteers put in over 100 hours at the site! We are blessed to have such a supportive community here in Santa Barbara.

Why "countless" you may ask? If you volunteered at the site than you undoubtedly met Bill McCullough. He volunteered every day - 6 days a week - and put in more than 8 hours a day. There really is no number that could accurately quantify the hours Bill worked so we use "countless" and are enormously grateful for his help and sunny disposition.

Did You Know?

The stats are in! In 2010 Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County had:

• 219 ReStore Volunteers
• 609 construction volunteers at the San Pascual site.
• 7 corporate groups participate in Corporate Work Days
• 14 local churches sent groups from their congregations
• 102 event volunteers 
• 4 organizations volunteered time 

Now do the math. That's a lot of volunteers! Thank you again to everyone who helped make 2010 such a successful year. We've put together a slideshow of some of the volunteers from the year. Be sure to check it out: here.

If you didn't get a chance to volunteers in 2010, make it a resolution for 2011 (it's not too late!) and sign-up here.

2010: A Year to Celebrate for Habitat

2010 was a tremendous year for Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County and our new homeowners. We began the year with a plot of land on the lower west side of Santa Barbara, in June began the above ground construction, and in December we handed our partner families keys to their new homes! It was a whirlwind of a year and on top of that we closed escrow on a piece of land which will be the future site of 12 new homes. None of this would have been possible without the dedication of our volunteers, sponsors, donors, partner families, and board members.  

Below is a year in photos - this is by no means all of the Habitat happenings of 2010.

January: We began the year with an empty lot and a huge slope!

February: the Partner Families and mentors met for their first work day at the site.

March: We invited the community to celebrate the start of construction.

April: The massive retaining wall was built.

May: we celebrated spring with a sale at our ReStore!

June: Above ground construction began on the four homes!

July: Thrivent Builds volunteers helped with the framing.

August: SB Community Church, one of our Apostle Build churches, sent a group of volunteers.

September: We welcomed people of all faiths during an Interfaith Build Day.

October: Representative Lois Capps met the partner families during the Tour of Green Homes fundraiser.

November: All Saints-By-The-Sea Church sent a work crew.

December: The homes were complete and the ribbon was cut!

Mark your calendars for Habitat's Open House

Please join Habitat for Humanity for a Thank-You Open House to celebrate completion of the homes at 618 San Pascual Street Saturday, January 15th 11:00 a.m - 3:00 p.m These homes were built thanks to your support. Please join us in celebrating the completion of these homes and the hope and security they will provide. No need to RSVP. Map to the location can be found here.

With your help the Habitat homes are built!

Dedication Ceremony

On Tuesday, December 14th, Habitat for Humanity dedicated the four new homes at 618 San Pascaul Street and handed over keys to the new homeowners. These four homes were built in partnership with Habitat's volunteers, donors, corporate partners, churches, and organizations. Please join us in welcoming the Do Carmo Family, Escamilla Family, Trujillo Family, and Ortiz Family to their new homes.

Hugh Davis introducing the Partner Families and Mentors to the crowd

Ribbon Cutting with Major Helene Schenieder

L: new homeowner Mauricio Trujillo, R: new homeowner Gabriel Escamilla with Site Supervisor Phil Archenbronn

ReStore Assistant Manger with volunteers Charlie, Betty and Bob celebrating after the ceremony.

Photo courtesy of Robby Guevara

ReStore manager Ruairi Bateson with Site Supervisor Phil Archenbronn

These homes were built in partnership with Habitat for Humanity's volunteers, donors, and partners. Thank you for making dream of homeownership and reality for four deserving and hardworking families in Santa Barbara.

New photos of Habitat's San Pascual site

We at Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County are so close to being finished with all construction at the San Pascual affordable housing site and we have the pictures to prove it:

Front view

Aerial view from TV Hill - thanks KEYT!

And just for fun, here's a before picture of what the San Pascual site looked like just 9 months ago. It has come a long way thanks to hundreds of volunteers and soon it will be home to four well-deserving families.

Meet a Habitat Partner Family: The Ortiz Family

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County believes that all our neighbors deserve a simple, decent place to live. Homeownership changes everything and for that (and many other reasons) we are proud to partner with the Ortiz Family! 

Igor Ortiz is a single father with full custody of his two children: Aline, 13, and Igor Jr., age 10. Igor works as a janitor for a local school district and coaches Igor Jr.'s soccer team. Currently this family of three shares one bedroom in a 2-bedroom apartment. They rent the apartment with another family as rental prices in Santa Barbara are incredibly high. Making things harder, the apartment has a continuing mold problem and Aline suffers from severe allergies which are only further triggered by the mold. 

Igor and his family were selected as a Habitat Partner Family in 2008 and will soon move into one of the four units that we are currently building. As part of the requirements to be a Partner Family, adults must put in 250 "sweat equity" hours at the build site or in the ReStore. Igor's commitment to providing a healthy and safe home for his children is very apparent and he has completed all of his required hours, plus more! Igor's dedication to his children, Habitat, and his job are very apparent and we at Habitat are proud to partner with his family.

Igor putting in his "sweat equity" hours at the build site.

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.

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!

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!

Women @ Work Day, November 13th

Corporate Work Day Spotlight: Bank of America

Habitat regularly welcomes corporate groups down at the San Pascual affordable housing build site. Corporate Work Days are a wonderful opportunity for companies to build camaraderie among their employees and provides Habitat will a full day of construction volunteers. It truly is a win-win situation!

On October 2nd we welcomed a hardworking and dedicated group from Bank of America. We loved their team spirit and enthusiasm for the the work that Habitat is doing to provide affordable housing in Santa Barbara. 

Thanks Bank of America, you're welcome back any time!