"I feel happy"

Last Saturday night, our affiliate held it's second annual Hearts & Hammers Dinner and Auction.  The evening was nice, good friends, warm atmosphere and a wonderful meal.  Bob Carey, resident photographer, did an awesome job again capturing the spirit of the event.  We celebrated the fact that we have begun to build again, after a 2 year hiatus.  We celebrated the exciting direction where we are headed and most of all we just celebrated all things "Habitat".

The evening was truly enjoyable, I'm not kidding, it really was.  It fun to compete with other attendees for live and silent auction items and it was exciting to hear from our Executive Director as to where the affiliate is headed, now that our current development is underway.

I thought the best part of the event was hearing from Rosa, one of our 56 Habitat homeowners, regarding the life-changing event she and her family went through almost 4 years ago.  They went through a dramatic change as they moved from a small, cramped garage to a brand new, beautiful single family home.

But no one in the room captured the audience's attention like Mariana did.  Mariana is Rosa's young daughter and she put into words how she felt about the whole experience.

Obviously, Mariana's written words cannot compare to her spoken ones, but her message is one and the same - gratitude, so thank you Mariana, for sharing your thoughts with all of us.

Huge Turnout and Huge Thanks at Our Latest Family Selection Orientations

After a nearly two-year-long wait, we at HfHVC are excited to announce that new construction on Cemetery Road in Santa Paula is underway! The lot will be the site for 8 future homes, and with our first two families already selected, we've begun the selection process for the following homeowners. Two Family Selection Orientations were held at the Santa Paula Community Center this past week to guide families through the processes necessary to become HfH homeowners.

The Orientations were massive successes with a total of nearly 200 families in attendance! Due to the efforts of our extremely capable volunteers and Family Selection Committee, both events went off without a hitch. A huge thank you to them and all those who attended the meetings!

Another thank you is in order to the Boys Team Charity of Conejo Valley for their help in posting flyers advertising the event in Santa Paula. You can check out the Ventura County Star article detailing their work here.