I have so much great news to share with you, I don’t know where to start!
At the end of August, we welcomed a new family into their Habitat home in Peachland. This family is related to the one that recently moved out our program. By helping the original family to build equity and by providing a ‘hand up’ they were able to move into their new home with a traditional mortgage. This proves our ownership model works and we look forward to seeing the new family thriving.
It was a pleasure to give back to the many volunteers that give their time so generously to Habitat by hosting a BBQ and lake cruise. Well….almost a cruise! Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and it was deemed too hazardous for us to set sail, plans are in place to reschedule. A big thank you to Courtney for organizing the day, going above and beyond by preparing a huge quantity of onions!
The Kelowna ReStore celebrated its 10th anniversary on the 6th September. We had lots going on in the store with a live radio broadcast, raffles, a BBQ, and lucky discount ducks. Thank you to the organizations that kindly donated prizes, Rona, Big Box Outlet, Copper Brewing ,Predator Ridge and to Peter’s Your Indepedent Grocer for donating all of the food for our BBQ.
At the beginning of September, the ReStores unleashed their fall product and what an amazing response we had. Thanks to our volunteers that were instrumental in preparing the donations for sale and Trina and Courtney for creating the social media marketing frenzy.
The IPE was a lot of fun. We spent 5 long days there meeting many people, sharing Habitats mission and enjoyed seeing the thousands of people having a great time. We sold $25,000 of 50/50 tickets, thank you to the volunteers that ventured out to Armstrong, helping the affiliate team to achieve this. As we head into the fall we have lots more community events planned. We are attending home shows in the valley and beyond, promoting all things Habitat and we have openings for volunteers to join us in the fun and meet new people. If you are interested, please sign up for a shift.
The ReStore 50/50 is sold out again and the online 50/50 is nearing $50,000. This is drawn on the 17th December and last year we gave away $91,000, it is a game changer for your finances to win this. Tickets are available HERE.
The next big event for us is the Jingle Bell Build in November. Returning to the Laural Packing House for its 3rd year it’s the highlight of our winter calendar. Information will be released soon detailing how organizations can participate in this very popular event.
Andrea Manifold
CEO, Habitat for Humanity Okanagan
