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Habitat for HumanityWow! What a great heart Third Presbyterian Church has! And what great timing: to be able to provide the Valentineís Day focus on mission about a Third Pres project that, in a very real way, asks Rochesterís JOSANA neighborhood, located in the ìCrescent of Povertyî west of the Rhinosí soccer stadium to be our valentine. As a result of Thirdís Capital Campaign, session allocated $300,000 to partner with Flower City Habitat for Humanity on Habitatís 10-year plan to build 100 houses in the JOSANA neighborhood. Since 1984, Habitat has been making the dream of home ownership come true for low-income, inner-city families. For most of these folks, Habitat provides the only chance they will ever have to own a home. At Habitat building costs of $65,000 per house, Thirdís commitment would totally fund the building of 5 houses. Wow! But we at Third like to make good ideas even better. Working with FCHH, TPC decided that instead of building 5 houses by ourselves, we would build 18-20 COALITIONS to build that many houses in JOSANA, with Third providing 25% of the funding and coordinating the remainder with ìpartnersî we would seek out. The TPC Habitat Steering Committee has been working on this coalition building big time since last fall. Dave Norton, Vince Tollers, Juliana Lin, Carl Wheeler, Paul Wdorczyk, Steve Thompson, Andy Potter, Ken Schlect, Don Pryor, Rod Frohman and others have been meeting with GR Community of Churches members, other churches in the Presbytery, other community groupsójust about any likely prospects for coalition membership. Iím delighted to report that even in these difficult economic times, we are finding success and have two coalitions in advanced stages of coming together. One of the early outward signs of our Habitat effort is the white trailer in the far corner of the Meigs Street parking lot. The trailer is for clothing donations which are collected regularly and distributed to persons in need in the US and abroad. For hosting the location of the trailer, Thirdís Habitat effort receives a per-pound payment from the group which manages the collection and distribution. If you have clothing items you are willing to donateóincluding shoes, coats, etc.óplease consider placing them in a bag and dropping them in the trailer when you are here at Third. Donations are tax deductible and receipts are available in a box on the side of the trailer. Actually, there are bags for your items right inside the trailer also. Through your generosity, you are already helping to build houses, to build coalitions and, best of all, to build hope. In the future, the Third Habitat Steering Committee will be back to invite you to literally build houses by participating in the hammer-and-saw work as volunteers. But if youíd rather not wait, we have other options weíd be delighted to tell you about: as coalitions come on line, we need Third members to represent us on each one. What a loving congregation you are to invite an entire neighborhood to ìbe your valentineî! Wow!
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