Habitat Calaveras Happenings
Habitat Calaveras: What have we been up to?
Written by Habitat Calaveras President Bonnie Hollinger:
As the year 2022 comes to a close, we at Habitat For Humanity Calaveras are all excited and eager to break ground on our 107-unit housing project off Copello Drive in Angels Camp. However, we would love to encourage some moments of reflection — to look back on what Habitat for Humanity Calaveras has done as an organization and as a community dedicated to building strength, stability, and self-reliance through shelter.
In 2022, we invested $200,000 in essential home repairs for Calaveras County low-income residents, helping many seniors continue to safely age in their homes. We were awarded a $5.042 Million Infill Infrastructure Grant Program from the State of California Department of Housing & Community Development Administration & Management Division here to begin planning, breaking ground, and installing infrastructure on our Copello Drive project. We hired an exceptional executive with organizational and community-building skills like no other. We added staff to help meet the increased demands in our office, and even expanded and remodeled our office thanks to local donors and support.
This brings us to the heart of this message: THANK YOU! From donating auction prizes or being top bidder at our 18th annual Hoedown, we THANK YOU for being the essential piece of the puzzle that allows us to make dreams come true. We’d like to bestow a special thank you to the following community leaders: Dignity Health/Mark Twain Medical Center for their generous donation of $40,000. Calaveras Community Foundation awarded a $10,000 grant for the Home Repair Program, Cal-Waste Recovery Systems donated $10,000, and Aspen Street Architects and El Dorado Savings Bank donated $5,000 also. Additional gratitude goes out to Angels Food & Sierra Hills Markets, Cascades Vacations, Tim and Sarah Oskey at Edward Jones, Pinnell’s Carpet One, Abbott & Kindermann, Greenhorn Creek Resort, Prospect 772 Wine Company, Angels Sewer & Drain, Crafty Chicks, Creative Cookware, Four Winds Cellars, Ironstone Vineyards, Middleton’s, Native Daughter’s Parlor No. 46, Neimuth Manor, Newsome Harlow Winery, Sonora Ford-Subaru, Valley Springs Grocery Outlet, Wildflower Events, American Legion Ambulance, Calaveras Historical Society, Fine Things Boutique, Froggy’s Auto Wash & Lube, Hinterhaus Distillery, Neriah Fox Photography, Phillip English Golf Lessons, Pickled Porch Cafe, Pickle Patch Deli & Gardens, Sequoia Woods Country Club, Skin Care by Kara, Sunset Automotive, Susanna’s Life and Style, Tipsy Frog, and Yorba Wines. A final thank you goes to Mark Sweeney at Fine Line Construction, Pinnell’s Carpet One, and Kevin Fisher who helped us put the final touches on our office expansion.
With more than 65% of Calaveras County low-income residents having unmet housing needs (California Statewide Housing Needs Data Dashboard 2020), you can see why we do what we do, but YOU are the how. You are the essential piece of the puzzle that allows dreams to come true and helps our struggling neighbors build that strength, stability, and self-reliance they so desperately need. Your support is what makes all this imaginable and allows us to think broader, dream bigger and challenge ourselves to do better every day.
Thank you, Calaveras family, for all that you helped with in 2022 and all that we’re working toward in 2023.
With gratitude,
Bonnie Hollinger, president
Habitat For Humanity Calaveras
