E&H, Habitat for Humanity Break Ground on Glade Spring Home

E&H President Rosalind Reichard speaks to a crowd at the groundbreaking.

Emory & Henry College joined Monday with Washington County Habitat for Humanity to break ground on a home for a family in Glade Spring.

This is the second Habitat for Humanity home to be built in Glade Spring and the second time in four years that Emory & Henry has helped organize a Habitat building project.

The new three-bedroom house, which will be located at 617 Azalea Drive, will be the home of James and Jennifer Smith and their two children.

“Emory & Henry is proud to be a leader in this effort,” said E&H President Rosalind Reichard. “This is part of what we do as a college to transform the lives of students as well as the communities they serve. Emory & Henry students take service well beyond volunteerism. They engage with the people and leaders of communities to make those places stronger.”

For Emory & Henry, the building project represents Emory & Henry’s commitment to helping Glade Spring move forward, said Dr. Tal Stanley, the director of the Appalachian Center for Community Service at Emory & Henry. “Emory & Henry has a strong connection to the people of Glade Spring, which was highlighted by the overwhelming response of E&H students and employees to the tragic storms that hit the town almost a year ago.”

In the spring of 2008, Emory & Henry led in the construction of another single-family home. In what organizers called a “blitz build,” volunteers constructed a three-bedroom home in less than one month.

Founded 1998, the Washington County Virginia Habitat for Humanity has been helping provide simple, decent and affordable housing for over ten years. Habitat for Humanity relies on donated material and volunteer labor to build homes. This allows those in need to have a decent home that they could otherwise not afford.

Habit for Humanity International  (HfHI) is a worldwide ministry to combat poverty housing through volunteer construction of interest-free-mortgage homes.  Washington County Habitat is an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International.  Local affiliates operate independently and in conjunction with HfHI.