The non-profit’s board members were told the store is open to donations at a lunch meeting of its community stakeholders Tuesday.
“I just want to thank everybody for hanging on, because we’re about to burst,” said Sandhills Habitat Executive Director Elizabeth Cox at the end of the meeting. “Between the house and the store, things are really starting to cook in Richmond County.”
“If people want to make donations, they can drop them off now,” Sandhills Habitat Director of ReStores Ken Pierson said. The store is located in the Lowe’s Shopping Center on Broad Street.
In addition to taking donations now, Pierson and Rockingham ReStore Manager Jo Ann Thurman touched on the continued need for volunteers to help complete renovations to its location at Lowe’s Shopping Center.
The agency has arranged for carpet, paint and virtually all the materials it will need to get the store open, and the work is being done on Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We need carpet-layers,” Pierson said. “If we can get two good carpet-layers, it wouldn’t take two or three days to have the whole project knocked out.”
“We also really need people with framing experience and people with drywall experience,” Thurman said, adding that more painters would help as well.
“Right now, our most reliable volunteer is driving up from Bennettsville (South Carolina),” Pierson said. “We’d love to have more folks from Richmond County come see us.”
With the ReStore beginning to gel, the agency is also beginning to turn its attention to soliciting donations of materials for the store and land on which to build Richmond County homes.
Sandhills Habitat highlighted the growing need it has for Richmond County land at its July stakeholders meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Habitat Richmond County Area Manager didn’t mince words, explaining to those in attendance there are four homeowners waiting in the wings with no lot to build on.
“We need land,” Carpenter said at the lunch meeting. “If any of you run across any lot that someone may want to donate, or even sell to us at an affordable price, please let me know.”
The agency has a site identified for the Davis family, its next project, on Everett Street in Rockingham, but there are additional families the agency has approved, but is yet to find a place to build.
“We have four families who are approved and are getting their sweat equity up waiting,” Carpenter said.
The group discussed two properties that have been offered for donation or sale, as well as the possibility of forming a land committee from among its members.
There was further discussion about the agency’s September golf tournament, which Carpenter called the group’s “signature annual event.”
Holes for Habitat is presented by Exit Realty and will be held at the Richmond Pines Country Club on Sept. 17.
The cost per player is $60, and $240 per team. Lunch and dinner will be provided, and there will be hole prizes including a brand new car from Griffin Toyota for a hole-in-one on Hole #1.
Anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the Rockingham ReStore is encouraged to call the store’s at (910) 817-9576, or Carpenter at (910) 334-1162.
Carpenter is also fielding inquiries about the golf tournament at the same number.
Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.
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