Habitat for Humanity honors volunteers, begins 62nd home in Bluffton

Hilton Head Regional Habitat for Humanity honored the work of volunteers and raised the first wall on its 62nd home in Brendan Woods in Bluffton on Tuesday.

Volunteers gathered at the Brendan Woods Community Center where 59 of them received the (plastic) “Golden Hammer” in recognition of performing more than 100 hours of labor on Habitat homes or in the Habitat ReStore.

The nonprofit builds simple, decent houses and sells them to approved buyers, who then make low monthly mortgage payments on their homes. Those payments are then put into a revolving fund used to build more houses. Homeowners also pay property taxes on their homes, creating new tax revenue for Beaufort and Jasper Counties.

"The support of the entire Hilton Head/Bluffton community is invaluable to the success of Habitat as it offers a hand up, not a hand out to deserving, hardworking people in southern Beaufort County and Jasper County," the organization said in an issued statement.

Hilton Head Regional Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1990 as an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, seeking to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness.

Locally, the Hilton Head affiliate has completed 91 houses and has plans for nineteen more at The Glen, off Marshland Road, on the island. Houses are built through volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations of money and materials.

For more information about Hilton Head Regional Habitat for Humanity, call 757-5864 or go to www.habitathhi.org.

Photo courtesy of Hilton Head Regional Habitat for Humanity.