ROANOKE, Va. – There were a lot of familiar faces at the WSLS 10 News “Home for Good” site on Wednesday.
Members of the WSLS team, volunteers with Bateman Home Inspections, LLC and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley all teamed up to build a home for Roanoke native Clarence Caldwell.
Bateman Home Inspections is one of this year’s “Home for Good” sponsors.
“It just feels good to be out here and give back to someone that needs a home and experience this,” said Douglas Cash, the owner and operator of Bateman Home Inspections. “We can get out here and give back to the community, get some experience with building the house itself. It’s just good.”
On Wednesday, volunteers framed the walls for this year’s home and then raised the walls. Even those with little to no construction experience can give back through Habitat.
The WSLS 10 News crew spent the day building the walls of this year's Home for Good house! 🏠 See any familiar faces?
Posted by WSLS 10 / WSLS.com on Wednesday, May 12, 2021
“On the sites, volunteers are doing everything and you don’t have to have experience to do that,” said Gina Dunnavant, Volunteer Manager with Habitat. “We’ve got a wonderful staff that can direct you and teach you some new skills.”
Habitat says volunteer labor accounts for more than 70% of the work done on each home.
“The volunteers help us keep our houses affordable and help us keep them on schedule and between those two things they’re the core component of our Habitat program,” said Brian Clark, Construction Director for Habitat.
Before the pandemic, total volunteer hours for Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley averaged 30,000 hours each year.
Work on this year’s “Home for Good” is expected to wrap up in late summer.