Habitat Hillsborough Women Build Changes During the Coronavirus Public Restrictions

In only a few short days, the whirl of life in our society has been dramatically halted out of civic duty to protect our citizens from the spread of COVID-19. With so many businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues closing and most events canceling, Habitat Hillsborough has made the decision to do its part to help slow down the pandemic and protect the health of our supporters by temporarily closing its build sites to volunteer activities. 

What Does This Mean for Women Build?

Despite the temporary shut down of volunteers on our construction sites, our Women Build will continue, but with some adjustments to our usual game plan.  

For Women Build participants, this means volunteering on the home build sites will be suspended until our elected officials and health experts ease public safety restrictions. We will reschedule our Women Build teams for opportunities to volunteer on our Habitat home build sites once the public health restrictions have lessened. 

What Will Happen to the Funds Raised by Women Build?

We realize this is tremendously disappointing after working so hard to raise funds for construction of the Fowler and Patrick homes. We want to assure you that the Fowler and Patrick families will not be disappointed because we plan to continue construction of their homes using subcontractors while the sites are closed to volunteer assistance. As planned originally, the funds raised by our Women Build teams and corporate supporters will still go to the construction of our Women Build family homes. And because Women Build is still underwriting the construction, we encourage you to continue your fundraising efforts to help us reach our goal.

The Upside to All This

It is in Habitat’s DNA to think positively in the face of adversity and to find solutions to difficult problems. So, yes, there is indeed an upside to these necessary changes! 

First, Women Build will continue!  Second, the funds you raised to help build the Fowler and Patrick homes will still be used to build their homes.  Third, while it is disappointing to not participate on the construction site of the Fowler and Patrick homes, you will still have an awesome home building volunteer experience on Habitat build sites for other families as soon as restrictions are lifted to allow volunteers onsite again. Which means our Women Build teams will be helping to stabilize additional struggling families in need of affordable housing beyond the two Women Build families!

Communication During our Volunteer Hiatus

We will be sending our Women Build teams continuous emails on the status of the Fowler and Patrick home builds and updates on when volunteering can be rescheduled. For those who have not yet joined our Women Build Facebook Group, we encourage you to do so since we will be posting regular photos and videos of the progress on the Fowler and Patrick homes as well as the families.  Find us at:  www.facebook.com/groups/habitathillsboroughwomenbuild/

Thank you for your understanding and continued support of Women Build and our Habitat for Humanity mission during this difficult and uncharted time in our nation. Our Women Build ladies are among our most enthusiastic and treasured supporters and we want you to know how much we value each and every one of you! 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Melissa Crowther at mcrowther@habitathillsborough.org or 813-239-2242,  ext. 109.