Blog

Mitigating the Cost of Maintenance

Becoming a first-time homeowner is both exciting and challenging, and one of the biggest challenges that Habitat homeowners can face is handling home maintenance for the first time in their lives.

For that reason, we make every effort to equip program participants with all the knowledge and skills that they need to be successful in this area. Participants spend the majority of their time in the program on our construction sites, where they learn about all the working parts in a home, gain experience with a variety of tools, and build relationships with amazing volunteers who are willing to be there for them as supportive resources going forward.

Pat and Jim Sawyers are two such volunteers. “They are great volunteers for our ministry and we are super appreciative for all the little things they do to make us successful," said Volunteer Coordinator Carrie Vaughn.

Pat and Jim started volunteering with Habitat Spartanburg in 2010 and have since spent more than 1,700 hours supporting our mission in a wide range of ways. One of the most valuable ways they currently support us is by restoring lawn equipment so that we can sell it to raise funds for our ministry.

Capitalizing on this skillset, they also agreed to teach a Lawnmower and Weedeater Workshop to Habitat homeowners in April. Attendees ranged from current program participants to homeowners of more than 15 years, and Pat and Jim gave them a hands-on introduction to the basic use and maintenance of these tools.
Habitat Spartanburg's goal is to prepare our program participants for success in home maintenance, but we simply cannot pull that off without volunteers like Pat and Jim.

Thanks to volunteer support, we are able to provide an extremely in-depth education on home maintenance at absolutely no cost to families that go through our homeownership program. Habitat Spartanburg is also able to build up the social support systems of these families, so when something breaks and they don’t know how to fix it, they can call on one of our trustworthy volunteers for hands-on help, instructions over the phone, or even a reliable referral.

So thank you to our amazing volunteers, including Pat and Jim Sawyers, for your faithful service! Thanks also to the Neighborhood Support committee at Habitat Spartanburg for coordinating the Lawnmower & Weedeater Workshop, in particular Dr. Camille Bethea for her work in spearheading the event. And thanks to our awesome team in the ReStore, who allowed us to use their equipment and their backyard for some hands-on experience in the lesson. The Habitat community is deep and wide, and everyone has a special part to play in making our mission possible.