Locals volunteer for Habitat program

By Wayne Ruple
CLEBURNE NEWS Editor
Printed: June 19, 2003; Cleburne News, online edition

Some 30-40 Cleburne County residents along with several local businesses played important roles last week in Habitat for Humanity’s building project in Calhoun County.

From overall construction supervisor to handing out food, Cleburne residents showed their commitment to helping make the 36-home project a success by week’s end.

“I saw an ad in the paper for a construction supervisor so I applied,” said Heflin resident Lynn Parris who was chosen, among three applicants, to supervise the project on the western edge of Anniston.

Parris’s real job is a framer with Welch Brothers Framing but he saw a challenge and accepted the offer from Habitat.

“It’s been a wild ride. I was familiar with working on one house at a time and having the owner assist but this here is totally different. Here you have to deal with 35 homes all at one time, getting the materials, the staging - it’s a whole different way to build. I can frame up a house but this is something else,’ he explained.

Parris said he had about 2,000 workers on-site and had to coordinate block leaders and crew leaders and learn how to work with computers and e-mail.

“Order tracking is a nightmare. We started in February so everything is coming together,” he said Thursday the day before the project was supposed to be completed. Parris has enjoyed the experience so much he hopes to go to Mexico next year and work on a Habitat project there.

He also is very pleased with the participation from Cleburne County and Heflin. “I am very pleased. Webb Concrete (in Heflin) and his crews have been outstanding,” he said. Cleburne County volunteer Pete Morrison is another local who is pleased with the efforts of local residents.

His company did the heating and air conditioning work in the homes and provided a crew of three who have been busy over the past three weeks.

Morrison was joined by crews from P & S in Heflin and Doug Gaddy’s Heating and Cooling - all making an overall contribution of about 35 volunteers.

Heflin builder Tony Waddell served as a house leader on the home sponsored by SouthTrust Bank and Alagasco.

Waddell said he has been putting in some early morning hours to get the house completed on time and noted the help provided from other home units as well.

Billie Small stood under the food tent volunteering as a support service person who helped in preparing food and refreshments for the hot, tired and hungry workers.

Princie Couch, a five-year employee of the Casey Head Start in Heflin is one of the lucky recipients of the program.

Couch, taking a break from her “sweat equity”, was all smiles as she stood in front of her new home.

“I am real proud. I always wanted my own home and the Lord finally saw fit for me to get it,” Couch said but it will be September before her old lease is up and she can move in.

“I’m going to be fixing things up and getting things in so that the only thing I will have to do is just walk right it when that day comes,” she added.

Cleburne County Agent Coordinator with the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, Deborah Mathews said she is proud of Couch and others whom she knows and has worked with.

For her involvement with radon abatement, Mathews was called upon by Habitat to help and assist them in making the homes radon safe.

She explained that all homeowners must put in a certain amount of “sweat equity” and the better their children do in school the more “points” they are given similar to the “sweat equity” of their parents.

“It encourages the whole family,” she said.

Mathews also noted the homeowners must meet certain income guidelines, have a job and the ability to make interest-free payments. “That,” she said, “is what makes the program work.”

In addition the homes are inspected on a regular basis to make sure they are kept up and clean.

Among those volunteering their efforts from Cleburne County were Phil Webb, Deb and Ronald Parris, Zac and Amanda Steen, Brandon Freeman, Martha Wilkinson, Wilma Brown, Dan Small, B. R. Small, Waddell Construction and Cleburne County Chamber of Commerce President Teri Daulton., Lori Chambless, Susan and Robert Johnson, Michael and Cindy Evans.

Casey Head Start employee Princie Couch in front of her new home.

About Wayne Ruple
Cleburne News editor Wayne Ruple is a native of Ashville. Before coming to Heflin, he worked for three years as a computer systems manager in Birmingham. Ruple has worked for The Sand Mountain Reporter in Albertville, and was the editor of The Independent in Robertsdale. He has also worked for the Shades Valley Sun, the St. Clair News-Aegis and The Daily Home in Talladega.

Contact Wayne Ruple
Phone: (256) 463-2872
Fax: (256) 463-7127
E-mail: news@cleburnenews.com