New Orleans Habitat - Operation Home Delivery Blog

NOAHH Board on Site!

Today, the second day of our 5th Anniversary Build-a-Thon, the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors visited the site for the August 2010 board meeting. Afterward, several members stayed to show our volunteers and staff how to swing a hammer!

The day was eventful. By day's end, the homes were wrapped, and window installation had begun. Documentary crews from around the world visited the site, and our homeowner Ashley Muse found herself on national television!

A homeowner nails up some OSB as members of the board work on the porch of 1742 Frenchmen.
 

The 5th Anniversary Build-a-Thon Has Begun!

Today marks the first day of NOAHH's 5th Anniversary Build-a-Thon, an event in which NOAHH will bring together nearly a thousand volunteers over the course of five days in order to dry-in five homes for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. 

Things got started this morning with a wall raising ceremony for each of the five homes--all located in New Orleans' 7th Ward. The homes, on Frenchmen and Touro Streets, are sponsored by Marriott, the Karen B. Yoh Foundation, the National Association of Realtors, and the Fund for Humanity. Marriott has sponsored 1710 and 1711 Frenchmen, the Karen B. Yoh Foundation has sponsored 1734 Frenchmen, the National Association of Realtors sponsored 1742 Frenchmen, and the home at 1728 Touro is sponsored by the Fund for Humanity.

Volunteers, sponsor representatives, staff, and partner families worked side by side on the homes. Homeowners spoke with volunteers about their experiences with the Habitat program, and at lunch, Chip Wilson and Jesse Moore, two homeowners from NOAHH's Musicians' Village, performed for the volunteers.

NOAHH has been building homes in the New Orleans area since 1983, but ever since Hurricane Katrina, with the outpouring of support from around the world, NOAHH has increased its output exponentially. The affiliate has built or started over 300 homes since the storm, as compared to 101 before. This Build-a-Thon commemorates the tragedy of the storm and the levee failures, celebrates the progress we've made since the storm, and acts as the start of the next five years of fighting poverty housing in the New Orleans area.

NOAHH's Fund for Humanity Sponsors New Home

 Saturday, July 1-, 2010, NOAHH dedicated the home at 4805 Flake in New Orleans East for Terry Patterson and her family. She comes from a large family—she is one of eight children—and she has a large extended family as well.  She also has two daughters, Domique (age 15) and Destony (age 14).

She is a member of the Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, whose pastor is Rev. Aldon Cotton, but she works at the St. Charles Ave. Presbyterian Church. Her hobbies include computers, television, and time with her family.  

Her home was sponsored by NOAHH’s Fund for Humanity. The Fund for Humanity is the fund supported by the homeowners themselves—the money they use to buy their homes goes into this fund so that NOAHH can build more homes. None of the funds paid by homeowners ever goes to another part of the organization’s costs—no salaries are paid by this fund, only new homes. 

Check Out DevExpress's Blog Entry on Their Sponsorship With NOAHH

DevExpress has posted a blog about their experiences working with NOAHH so far as a sponsor for the home at 4633 America in New Orleans East. Check out the videos they posted!

DevExpress and NOAHH Raise Walls on a Home for New Orleans Native

Award-winning software development tools vendor Developer Express partnered with NOAHH to raise the first wall of a new home built for New Orleans native Datoya Lockett. DevExpress signed on to sponsor the building of the house in conjunction with their attendance at the 2010 Microsoft TechEd Convention, of which it was a platinum sponsor last year.

 Datoya Lockett is pursuing the dream of homeownership with New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.  Lockett is a graduate of McDonough 35 and is currently pursuing a nursing degree.  She works at a local New Orleans hospital while she achieves her dream of owning a home.

 “It’s great to see a sponsor partnered with a family and the success that comes from the construction of a new home,” stated Jim Pate, executive director, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. 

 

NOAHH Dedicates New Home in New Orleans East

 On Thursday, June 3, NOAHH dedicated the home of Ticara Hawkins at 4728 Dodt in New Orleans East. Hawkins grew up in New Orleans East and lost everything to Hurricane Katrina. After returning from her relocation in Georgia, she returned to New Orleans and to a Hilton hotel for a year and a half. Now she will be moving into her new Habitat home.

The home is sponsored by the Fund for Humanity, which is generated by the homeowners who are paying back their mortgages on the Habitat homes already built in the New Orleans area.

Hawkins says she wants to own a reception hall for wedding planning, birthday parties, baby showers, and other events, and now that she owns a home, she will start on realizing her other dreams.

Project Full House Presents a Check to NOAHH

Monday, May 17, the World Series of Poker, via Project Full House, presented NOAHH with a check for $10,000 at Harrah’s Casino Hotel in New Orleans. The final Circuit of the 2009-2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has come to an end at Harrah’s Hotel Casino in New Orleans, and to cap off the excitement and celebrate the WSOP grand finale, Harrah’s Entertainment and WSOP Circuit sponsor Cabot Creamery Cooperative presented NOAHH $10,000 from proceeds raised through Cabot’s WSOP Project Full House initiative.

Throughout the course of the eight-month, 10-city WSOP Circuit, players from each Circuit event were encouraged to donate one to three percent of their winnings to Project Full House.  One hundred percent of the proceeds benefit NOAHH’s restoration efforts throughout greater New Orleans.

"The farm family owners of Cabot Creamery Cooperative are proud to be a sponsor of the WSOP Circuit through our Project Full House initiative,” said Cabot Creamery Cooperative Senior Vice President of Marketing, Roberta MacDonald.  “In partnership with Harrah’s Entertainment, we’re honored to present NOAHH with a check for $10,000 to help them continue the good work they do to build houses for those in need throughout the greater New Orleans region.”

The 2009-2010 WSOP Circuit began in October 2009 at Horseshoe Hammond and included stops at Harrah’s properties in Southern Indiana, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City, Tunica, Council Bluffs (Iowa), Rincon (Southern California), St. Louis, Las Vegas and ends in May in New Orleans. 

Shoes Build Homes in New Orleans

 On Monday, April 26^th, Volatile Shoewear presented NOAHH with a check for $23,000 from the sale of the Fleur de Lis collection. This donation brings the total donated from sales of the Fleur de Lis collection to just over $40,000. 

In 2007, Volatile Footwear, a division of Palos Verdes Footwear, announced that a portion of the proceeds from their Fleur de Lis collection would be donated to NOAHH.  For every pair of the Fleur de Lis collection sold, one dollar was donated to help build houses in the areas devastated by the hurricanes.  Many retailers had also signed on to match the donation from the pairs sold in their stores to NOAHH. 

“We are overwhelmed at the generosity of Volatile and their consumers,” stated Jim Pate, Executive Director of NOAHH.  “These funds will go towards the building of a home for one of our partner families – truly a home that sandals built.”

The shoes are available throughout Louisiana at local shoe stores such as Joe’s Family Shoe Store, Mandeville; Bella Bella, Baton Rouge; Shoe Fits, Houma; Trashy Diva, New Orleans; Little Miss Muffin, Metairie; Bella Lucca, Slidell; Feet First, New Orleans; Crazy Charlie's, Lafayette; The Glass Slipper, Denham Springs; Shoe Shi, Thibodeaux; Hoity Toity, Alexandria; Frock Candy, Baton Rouge; Shoe Nami, New Orleans; Avenue Shoes, Monroe; Shoeffle, Covington; All About Shoes, Metairie; All About Me, Chalmette; and La Feet, Marrero.

"The people of Louisiana and Mississippi have embraced the Volatile shoe collection, especially our sandals.  We wanted to do something to give back to the community," states Brian Lovely, Vice President of Product Development at Palos Verdes Footwear.  "The Fleur de Lis is one of the most recognized symbols in the world. This hails back from French King Louis XIV and symbolizes the French influence of New Orleans.  The symbol represents life, light, and perfection.  To me, the symbol now represents the re-birth of the Gulf Coast affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  We especially want to dedicate this to all our customers who are big fans of our brand.”

The initial collection began selling in September 2007 and consisted of Volatile sandals featuring the Fleur de Lis symbol.  "Existing shoe stores and boutiques that carry the Volatile brand jumped on the collection before we even announced that we were teaming up with NOAHH.  We sold out our first two deliveries in less then a week", Michael Lovely, Vice President of Volatile Sales, stated. 

"We believe that the proceeds of our shoe sales will help breathe some new life into New Orleans.  We plan now to let the rest of the world know about it as well,” said Brian Lovely. "We hope that funds raised through the sale of the Volatile Fleur de Lis collection will help New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity."

TO@NOLA Returns to New Orleans

 Thursday, April 22, NOAHH is very pleased to announce for the fourth year in a row that the group known as TO@NOLA has come to New Orleans to start a new home in the Upper Ninth Ward.

The group is made up of 60 enthusiastic volunteers from Toronto, Canada, who are still very much touched by the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. This group not only comes down to build homes but they also collect cash donations from friends, families and businesses. This year, they donated $78,000 U.S. to NOAHH.

Their group leader, Ian Clarke – EVP & CFO, Business Development of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. – stated, “The coverage of Hurricane Katrina moved me, my friends and their companies to take action and do something to show our support and respect for the people of New Orleans, who are fighters and survivors. We are honoured to help in any small way.”

Their past history with NOAHH includes a $35,000 donation in 2007, along with 31 volunteers; a $66,472 donation in 2008, along with 53 volunteers; and a $53,000 donation in 2009, along with 49 volunteers. 

NOAHH And Home Depot Team Up in New Orleans East

 Wednesday, April 14, 2010, Home Depot, the Home Depot Foundation, and NOAHH joined forces to raise the walls on a new home in New Orleans East. More than 165 volunteers from The Home Depot Foundation, The Home Depot Marketing and Online Departments and their vendor partners, and organizers from NOAHH worked on five houses in the New Orleans East neighborhood.

The home, at 4901 Flake, will one day be bought by partner family member Keith Johnson. He was on hand for the wall raising ceremony that kicked off the day of service, joining in raising his own walls.

In 2009, The Home Depot Foundation in partnership with Habitat for Humanity International expanded its Partners in Sustainable Building Program and is providing $30 Million in funds over a five year period to build 5,000 homes that meet nationally recognized green building standards.

Through The Home Depot Foundation Framing Hope Program, in 2009, 89 Habitat for Humanity affiliates received $4.55 million in donated product to build and preserve affordable, healthy homes for low-income families throughout the U.S.

Created in 2002, The Home Depot Foundation supports nonprofit organizations dedicated to creating and preserving healthy, affordable homes as the cornerstone of sustainable communities.  The Foundation’s goal is for all families to have the opportunity to live in healthy, efficient homes they can afford over the long-term; to have access to safe, vibrant parks and greenspaces; and to receive the economic, social and environmental benefits of living in a sustainable community.

Since its formation, The Home Depot Foundation has granted $190 million to nonprofit organizations and supported the development of more than 95,000 homes, planted more than 1.2 million trees, and built or refurbished more than 1875 playgrounds, parks and greenspaces.