News
Cookbook Sales Support Habitat for Humanity
A new community cookbook, Just Desserts, is on sale now to raise funds for Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity. The cookbook was compiled by volunteers at St. Catherine of Siena Parish and includes recipes from Deanna House, Full City Cafe, Equal Exchange, and The Moosewood Restaurant.
The cookbook is available for $6.00 just in time for holiday giving and feasting. You can purchase the Just Desserts cookbook at the KVHH office, 525 E. Kalamazoo Avenue, Kalamazoo, 8 am - 5 pm, Monday-Friday, and at the Habitat ReStore, 1810 Lake Street, Kalamazoo, 9 am-5 pm, Tuesday-Friday and 9 am-2 pm, Saturdays. For more information, call (269) 344-2443, ext. 206.
2008 Holiday Parade
Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity volunteers and home buyer families joined the 2008 Holiday Parade in downtown Kalamazoo on November 8. The theme of our entry, “A Harvest of Hope and Homes,” recognized our mission in the community and our 25th anniversary. 
Like a Habitat for Humanity home, our float was the collective product of in-kind donations of materials and the good work of many volunteers. Volunteers assembled our float at the KVHH warehouse with donated pumpkins and gourds the morning of the parade. The pumpkins were donated by Roger and Nancy Kortokrax of Otsego who sell pumpkins in front of the K-Mart on Westnedge. The hay wagon was borrowed from another friend of Habitat, Rob Richardson, of Vicksburg. Carol Yager, a local artist, lettered the signs with our theme.
Home buyer families, volunteers, and staff braved the weather to share Habitat greetings (and pumpkins) with the crowd along the parade route. This is the fourth consecutive year Habitat has participated in the parade, the traditional start of the holiday season in downtown Kalamazoo.
New Staff Join KVHH Team
Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity has hired two new staff leaders. Theresa O'Neil is KVHH's first full-time finance manager. She brings more than 12 years of financial and business management experience to KVHH. Tom Tishler is KVHH's new construction manager. Tishler worked with KVHH in 2004-2205 as construction field manager and led field teams during the Jimmy Carter Work Project.
Fast Built Open House Celebrates 162nd Family
A local family dedicated their new Habitat for Humanity home on Sunday, November 2 at 2409 Corlot Street, Kalamazoo. The ceremony celebrated Habitat’s 162nd homeowner family and honored more than 300 volunteers from the Home Builders Association of Greater Kalamazoo who built this home in partnership with Habitat and the home buyer family in just 24 hours. The 17th annual Fast-Built House project began at 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 18. The new two-bedroom, energy-efficient home at 2409 Corlot in Kalamazoo was completed at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, September 19. The house will be purchased by a qualified Habitat home buyer who has contributed more than 300 volunteer hours or “sweat equity” to help build her home and the homes of fellow Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity home buyers. To purchase this home, the home buyer, a single mother with a young daughter, demonstrated a need for better housing, an ability to meet KVHH’s income guidelines and to repay the no-interest mortgage KVHH provides. She also completed more than 30 hours of MSHDA-approved financial literacy and personal financial management classes at Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services and more than 70 hours of homeowner maintenance training provided by KVHH. See photos from 2008.
Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity (KVHH) celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2008. KVHH has helped 161 families build and buy affordable homes since it was founded in 1983. KVHH is one of more than 1,700 affiliates of Habitat for Humanity International. There are Habitat affiliates in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and 100 other countries.
The Home Builders Association of Greater Kalamazoo is the professional association for members of the housing industry in Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Van Buren Counties as well as the southern halves of Allegan and Barry Counties. Builder members consist of residential contractors, remodelers, and developers. Associate members represent all professions that support the home building industry. The HBAGK exists so that members of the residential construction industry can ethically and efficiently provide our communities with safe, quality, affordable housing and to promote home ownership. It is affiliated with the National Association of Home Builders and the Michigan Association of Home Builders.