Raising a wall

Published 1:49 am Saturday, October 29, 2011

Ron Nall, Ryan Barnes, Andrew Crane and Russell Walker help support what will become an interior wall.

When the Habitat for Humanity people say “building blitz,” they sure do mean it.

The proof was evident Friday in Florala as a team of volunteers began constructing the new home of Sherrie Stewart and her family.

The day marked the start of the first Habitat home in the area and the third in the county.

“It’s finally happening,” Stewart said. “You see the walls going it and becomes real. Just think, I’m poking my head out of my window. It makes me laugh to think about it.”

Work went quickly in the morning, as members of the LBW Community College baseball team began standing up walls and laying decking on the roof. By the end of the day, a dried shell of a home stood where only yesterday a slab of concrete sat.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it, to see it go from nothing to a home?” asked Dale Pancake, county Habitat director. “When you have help, like the baseball team, construction goes quickly. We’re grateful to have them.”

Another estimated 25 volunteers were also on hand working at the site. Some did simple jobs like clearing the site of sticks and rocks, while other followed directions from the skilled laborers. The morning’s work earned volunteers lunch from David’s Catfish House served at Florala’s First Baptist Church.

Today, the build will resume at 8 a.m. and end at 4 p.m., and volunteers are needed.

“We won’t have the baseball team here (today), so all the help will be greatly appreciated,” Pancake said.

Volunteers are asked to wear work clothes and sturdy shoes, and if possible, to bring their own work gloves; however, some gloves will be provided.