Meade County
RECC
Like An Old-Fashioned Barn Raising
May 1996
Tim
Gossett and a group of several other people from Meade County are
looking for a place to build a house. Then they’ll be looking for
people to help them build it. The family selected to live there will
earn the house by helping with the construction, and by repaying a
no-interest loan.
“It’s
one of the best programs I’ve ever seen,” says Tim. “It helps
people who are willing to help themselves.”
The
project he’s talking about is Habitat for Humanity, in which
volunteers help build a house for families that need housing, and
are willing to contribute “sweat equity” to make it happen.
Habitat started in Georgia in 1976 and now has 650 affiliated
projects in the United States and another 100 in different
countries. Its most famous proponent is former President Jimmy
Carter, who helps publicize the effort that aims to “eliminate
poverty housing from the world.”
Tim
Gossett is vice president for public relations and marketing for
Meade County Rural Electric Cooperative, a consumer-owned utility
that provides electricity for about 20,000 people in all or parts of
six counties. Tim and others at the co-op have been actively
involved in the local Habitat projects.
The
Meade County Habitat effort got started in 1993, with the formation
of a local board. Tim was among those chosen for the board, and soon
became chair of the construction committee. The board chose a family
of a woman and two children, selected a site, and broke ground.
People from all over the community helped, including several
employees of the Meade County co-op. The day after Thanksgiving was
a “blitz build,” in which food was donated, and nearly 50 people
showed up for a major push that took the house from little more than
a foundation to having a roof in just one day. “It was similar to
an old-fashioned barn raising,” says Tim. By February 1994, the
house was completed.
A
second house was completed last October. This second house, with
encouragement from Tim, was an “All Seasons Comfort Home”--an
all-electric house with the latest in insulation standards and other
energy- efficient, money-saving technologies.
Tim
and the Meade County Habitat folks are still at it, looking for a
site for a third house to be built this year.-Paul Wesslund |
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