Habitat for Humanity changing lives brick by brick

PICKENS COUNTY — The Pickens County’s Habitat for Humanity’s annual Have a Heart for Habitat Dinner was held last week. They had a fancy 5-star like dinner at the Historic Hampton House in downtown Pickens and some top-notch featured speakers.

Alley Linder, president of the local Habitat for Humanity, grew up volunteering for the organization and could not have said it any better: “I think everybody needs to give back to their community in some way,” said Linder, “and everybody needs to try and make it better. Ever since I was a kid, I was working on job sites and I see how much these people deserve to have safe and secure housing.”

Continued Linder, “We don’t just take families. We take single individuals too. I see famlies and kids who are having to move around. We had one lady — a single mother with two kids — living in a trailer with holes in the sides you could see. The plumbing didn’t work and she was keeping it from her kids. Then, she was running around and flushing the sinks (when it worked).”

There are some creative ways, too, that local residents can help volunteer for the Pickens County Habitat for Humanity.

“Just reach out to us and get involved,” continued Linder. “People don’t realize there are a lot of volunteer opportunities outside of just hammering nails. You don’t have to know how to build a house to volunteer with us. Help us spread the word. We have a lot of committees — a faith committee, a hometown support committee and that is just literally working with the homeowner to try to get them to where they need to be to own a home. There area lot of people who volunteer and never set foot on a job site.”

Tamara Dourney is the Executive Director for the Pickens County Habitat for Humanity. She says there is “nothing better” than the job she has and she truly loves it.

However, Dourney does mention the many speed bumps she faces on the front lines of this non-profit organization.

“The cost of housing is going up and building is getting more expensive,” Dourney said. “We just spent — this one gives me heart palpitations — we spent about $190,000 to construct our last house because of the land-clearing, the septic and all that. That type of work has gone up so much. So, part of what we are trying to do is get the community back engaged and revamp our partnerships.”

Dourney said there are not as many currently in trades like there used to be. The competition for the local dollar, Dourney said, has become tougher with local organizations that they have relied on for so long.

Beyond that, Dourney said they have begun partnering with the Pickens County Career and Technology Center to help give students a “real world” chance to gain valuable experience with Habitat for Humanity.

“Everyone is not suited for college,” Dourney said. “But we do make those opportunities available so the whole community can thrive. The students are doing on-the-job training for Habitat for Humanity houses. This helps us cut costs, but it also gives them real-world experience. They get to interact with the inspectors and learn what it feels to be in the mud (with the building of the houses) … it’s a lot different than being in the classroom. I believe these relationships are the cornerstone of building a stronger community.”

(If interested in volunteering, you can reach Dourney at tamaradourney@pickenshabitat.org)