Home, Sweet Home

Church, Volunteers Working To Fund, Build Habitat Homes In Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Home, sweet home.
Those three sweet words become reality today for Raymond and Beverly Miller when they move into their new home on Hill Street in Bristol, Tenn. Life as they know it is about to change.
“It’s a dream come true,” Raymond Miller said.
The Millers’ home was built by volunteers from Holston Habitat for Humanity in Kingsport. Misty Lawson worked to help make the Millers’ dream happen. Come October, she too will experience the elation of first-time home ownership.
Lawson’s Lilly Street home in Bristol, Tenn., is scheduled for completion in late October also under the auspices of Holston Habitat, but actually built by volunteers largely from Bristol, Va.’s Central Presbyterian Church. She’s excited. Folks from the church are excited too.
And just you wait until Oct. 26, dedication day for when Lawson receives the keys to her new home.
“I’m just thankful,” Lawson said. “I don’t know if I’ll cry or faint or just be really happy.”

BENEFIT
Central Presbyterian has undertaken efforts to raise funds to help with the construction of Lawson’s house. On Aug. 12, the church will host a benefit in its fellowship hall starring The VW Boys and David Browning, the Mayberry Deputy, in hopes of drawing close to their goal.
“We have raised about $11,000,” said Tyler Franklin, chairperson of the church’s fundraising committee. “We are hoping to raise $30,000.”
Franklin added that Lawson’s house makes the fourth house completed by Central Presbyterian for Habitat for Humanity.
“Our new, long-run plan is now to build a Habitat home each year,” Franklin said. “We are firm believers in what Christ told us to do. If a person is without a roof over their head, then we need to help fix that.”
Central Presbyterian’s church membership includes Browning. He also serves as a member of the fundraising committee.
“We were brainstorming about how to raise some funds,” Browning said. “I thought, well, my buddies in the VW Boys and I could put on a show and raise some money.’”
The VW Boys will entertain with their varied mix of bluegrass, comedy and magic. Browning chimes in as the Mayberry Deputy and his dead-on impersonations of Don Knotts’ character, Deputy Barney Fife, from the classic 1960s television show “The Andy Griffith Show.”
“My modus operandi is that I will get there about an hour before the show and mingle,” Browning said. “I’ve got some pictures that I’ll sign, and I can also evaluate the audience. By the time I’m on stage, I’m pretty familiar with the audience. I’ll pick people out of the crowd and call them Goober or Opie or Aunt Bee.”
But just as the VW Boys nails showmanship within and beyond music, Browning does not solely perform in the character of the Mayberry Deputy. He draws in other characters via his multitudes of impersonations.
“I’m not trying to be Don Knotts. I’m bringing Mayberry into the show,” Browning said. “I start in character then slide into a bit of Andy, then I’ll do Goober or a little bit of Floyd the Barber.”
In other words, good clean fun that might take folks back in time a bit.
“It’s like a visit to Mayberry,” Browning said.
And in fictitious Mayberry, neighbors helped neighbors. When folks were in need, others stepped up and offered a hand.
“I’ll step out of character and speak from my heart about this good cause,” Browning said. “I can share with them what a joy this is to me. It is not a questionable difference. It’s a clear difference you are making in someone’s life.”

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Just ask Raymond Miller.
Miller and his wife are disabled and currently living in housing ill-suited to address their respective disabilities. Narrow hallways make his movement by wheelchair through the house difficult, while a tiny window air conditioner offers little cooling to counter the heat projected by apparatus required to transmit oxygen to his wife.
“I was born with club feet and polio,” Raymond Miller said. “My wife is on oxygen 24-seven. My wheelchair has poked holes in the walls because the hallway is so narrow.”
When the Millers and their two grandchildren move into their newly built home on Hill Street today, it will mark the 169th house built by Holston Habitat for Humanity. The 2 p.m. ceremony is open to the public. And it will mean a new life for the Millers.
“I won’t have to worry about moving anymore,” Raymond Miller said. “My wife and I have been married for 32 years. This will be our first home. We’ll get to say we have a home, and it’s ours.”
That’s the goal behind Habitat for Humanity International. Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller as a Christian-based housing ministry, more than 250,000 homes have since been built around the world. Based in Americus, Ga., Habitat serves more than 90 countries and all 50 states.
Famous folks have long supported Habitat for Humanity. Most notably, each year since 1984, former president and first lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have donated a week of their time to work on a house.
Built entirely by volunteers, Habitat homes do not come free of charge.
“It’s not a charity,” said Laura Swanson, executive director of Holston Habitat for Humanity. “Our families put in a real investment, and they pay back the mortgage. It’s not a giveaway.”
Swanson said houses built by Habitat typically cost about $60,000. Applicants must meet three sets of criteria for acceptance.
“The first qualification is that they are in inadequate housing,” Swanson said. “The second is their income, and the third is their willingness to put in 500 hours of sweat equity.”
Sweat equity translates to on-site labor – driving nails, erecting walls, painting rooms, etc.
No problem, said Lawson, a single mother of three children who works as a certified nurse assistant at a local nursing home.
“I’ve worked on the Hill Street home,” she said. “I’ve put in 385 hours so far. I helped put trestles on. I helped do the floors and helped put the walls up. The site supervisor taught me how to use a nail gun.”
Sweat equity typically materializes as labor on theirs and the houses of fellow recipients. However, exceptions are made for those with disabilities, such as the Millers. But they too are required to meet the 500-hour mark, Swanson said.
“We have quite a few families that are on disability, and they can’t do the sweat equity,” she said. “You don’t have to swing a hammer, but there are other ways they can serve.”
For the Millers, those “other ways” included helping out with a Habitat newsletter. However, Raymond Miller also worked on-site.
“I have good upper body strength, so I hammered nails and helped to hook up the receptacles,” he said. “I helped to paint the kitchen, dining area and laundry room. A couple of weeks ago, we stained the front porch and ramp.”
Come Oct. 5 when on-site works begins on her house, Lawson will be there with sleeves up and ready to work. When her house is completed and she hits the 500-hour mark, her sweat equity aspect of the program will have culminated. However, Lawson said that the process has changed her, and she wants to do more.
“I told them I want to continue with the program and donate my time after my house is built,” Lawson said. “I want to help other people. It’s brought me closer to my faith in God. It’s an awesome program.”

VOLUNTEER
Anyone can help Habitat. Swanson said that while skilled workers such as carpenters and plumbers are in demand, even those who can do little more than drive a nail are needed.
“There’s lots of opportunities,” Swanson said. “You can prepare food for the workers. There are leadership opportunities. You don’t have to be a carpenter to help.”
Volunteer, said Central Presbyterian Church fundraising chairperson Tyler Franklin, and the benefits are numerous.
“You can’t imagine how uplifting it is to hand someone their keys,” Franklin said. “I get rather passionate about it. It’s what our Christian religion is all about, helping people who are in need.”
Lawson and her three children live in a cramped two-bedroom house with a friend and her child. The Millers sweat inside a house with poor air-conditioning.
Not much longer. And do they appreciate their coming change of fate?
“I was working on Hill Street [the Millers’ house] and saw some of the workers sweat profusely,” Lawson said, “and to me it was their heart going into the house.”
Coming soon, sweat and heart poured into the foundation and walls and wood of her house that isn’t simply a house. It will be her home, her children’s home and so very much more.
“It’s a blessing from God,” Lawson said.

YOU SHOULD KNOW: FUNDRAISER AND MORE
What: Holston Habitat for Humanity fundraiser featuring the VW Boys and David Browning, the Mayberry Deputy
When: Aug. 12, doors open at 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m.
Where: Central Presbyterian Church, Bristol, Va.
Admission: $10 for adults, $5 for children
Info: (276) 669-3157
Web: www.cpcbristol.org

TO VOLUNTEER ON THE LAWSON HOUSE
Info: Ann Landis at (423) 968-4606
Work dates: Oct. 5-24

TO CONTRIBUTE TO CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN’S FUNDRAISING FOR HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Info: Central Presbyterian Church, Re: Habitat House, 301 Euclid Ave., Bristol, VA 24201
Phone: (276) 669-3157
Web: www.cpcbristol.org

TO VOLUNTEER WITH OR CONTRIBUTE TO HOLSTON HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Info: P.O. Box 5265, 100 Greenwood Lane, Kingsport, TN 37663
Phone: (423) 239-7689
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
E-mail: info@holstonhabitat.org
Web: www.holstonhabitat.org or www.habitat.org

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at features@bristolnews.com.