Attention all golfers!  Sign up now and mark your calendars to participate in the first Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity (RAHH) golf event! 

This exciting event is scheduled for June 4, 2007, at Rochester Golf and Country Club. All proceeds will go to RAHH.  We encourage you to take part in this event as it will be a great opportunity to network, enjoy the day and support the important work of Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity. 

There will be a 1:00 p.m. shotgun start to this "Texas Scramble" format golf event.  A reception, dinner and silent auction will follow, starting at 5:00 p.m.  The cost for golfers is $175 per person, $500 per foursome.  This fee includes a box lunch, 18 holes of golf, a cart (per pair), dinner, entertainment, and silent auction. 

Not a golfer?  You can still sign up to attend the dinner and silent auction. Cost is $35 per person. 

For a list of donors for the silent auction, see the RAHH Web site at www.rahh.org.  For other questions, please contact Patricia or Kevin at the Habitat office. 

To sign up to golf and/or attend the dinner and silent auction, please call RAHH at 252-0849 ext 2.  We are located at 2200 2nd St SW Suite 310, Rochester, MN 55902. We look forward to seeing you there!

IBM celebrated its 50th anniversary by allowing employees to take off during the week to build our 50th house.  It was the perfect partnership — IBM employees provided leadership and volunteers; RAHH provided the land, materials, tools and a partner family.  900 IBM current or retired employees provided 2800 hours of labor. IBM’s commitment to the community will be appreciated for a lifetime.  Thank you to IBM and its employees!  Congratulations to our new homeowners Said and Saynab  (pictured bottom right). May the light of God’s blessings illuminate your home with love and good cheer.
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Pictured to left: Joan, Dan, Saynab, Kevin (turned to side), Said, Doc, Al, Mike, and Dan.   Pictured below: Paul, licensed electrician for the house and an IBM employee. Evangeline is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist women’s group who supplied the basket of cleaning supplies for the new homeowners.

RAHH is gearing up for its first ever "Women Build" home in  2008.  Habitat Women Build homes are most often built in partnership with the local Lowe’s store, and as the name implies, all of the construction work is done by women.  We’ve got a lot of planning to do to make this happen, so if you’re interested in getting involved, please come to one of the upcoming informational meetings: 
 

• Thursday, May 10, 12:00 Noon, RAHH Office 
• Saturday, May 12, 10:00 a.m., RAHH Office 
• Friday, May 18, 7:30 a.m., Canadian Honker  Restaurant

We are grateful to Think Credit Union for displaying a Habitat for Humanity door at the Home Show. Think contributed $10 for everyone who signed the door. A check for $4500 was presented to Kevin Worden, our executive director, from Karen G. (new Habitat board member) and her staff at Think Mutual Bank..	The first construction class for youth was held at Home Depot in February. Youth are excited about the summer build and other building projects. Bill and Josh from Home Depot did a great job of showing the youth how to construct and deconstruct walls. Craig, one of our adult mentors, also helped the youth. If you are interested to learn how you can participate, call Cody at 252-0849 ext 5.
	The youth hosted a luncheon at Outback Restaurant on Feb. 16.  Thanks to all who joined us for a delicious lunch.  Your support netted the youth house $1100.  Very special thanks to Outback for sponsoring this wonderful fundraiser.  Tracey, the manager of Outback, is featured with our Steering Committee member, Efram.

Following the June 4th golf event and dinner, a silent auction benefiting RAHH will be held. This event would not be possible without the contributions of many wonderful local businesses that have donated items to the auction. We encourage you to check out our Web site (www.rahh.org) for a list of items donated. The following businesses have already made donations.  Please plan to attend.

Amish Store of Rochester 
Appliance Village 
Arrowhead Resort
Byron Pet Clinic 
Callaway Galleries
City Café
City Looks
Comfort Inn LaCrosse/Onalaska
Creative Creations
Deer Creek Speedway, LLC
Discount Tire
Dison’s Cleaners 
Fast Frame Gallery
Goonie’s Comedy Club
Great Harvest Bread 
Great Lakes Aquarium
Green Mill
H&R 5 Star Cleaning.

Zumbrota Ford is providing a 2007 Ford Focus for our silent auction. (Thank you Zumbrota Ford!) Bids for the car will be accepted online and at the office during the month of May.  Contact Patricia for specific information. Final bids will be accepted the night of the auction and the winner will be announced at that time. You do not have to be present to win. 

  The vehicle is a 2007 4-door, 2.0L DOHC engine, automatic transaxle.  Cost of the car is $17,055. The starting bid is $13,000. For information regarding the entire package, check out their web site at www.zumbrotaford.com. Or better yet, Steve Johnson, President, invites you to come to the show room for a test drive. 

Questions you may be asking yourself:

• What if the color I want is not in stock? Mr. Johnson says that the car can be the ordered to the bidder’s specifications. 
• What if I can’t be at the silent auction – can I still bid? Yes. We will have specific information related to bidding on www.rahh.org in May.

Sign  your group up to participate in the first annual Youth United 2x4 fundraiser.  For more information please contact Cody at 252-0849 ext. 5.

The Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity is very excited about starting the Youth United Adult Board.  Be part of a core group of adults who will help strengthen and sustain the Youth United program.  Requirements include attending one monthly meeting and taking ownership of a YU event or mentoring one of the YU committees. 

There will be three interest meetings on April 11th.  If you are interested in joining the Youth United Adult Board please attend one of these meetings at the following times: 7:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.  Meetings will be held at the Habitat office located at 2200 2nd St. SW.a

Kathryn W. is a senior at Mayo High School.  She has been a member of the Youth United program since October 2005.  Kathryn has taken leadership in the program by being head of the Public Relations Committee and was just recently elected Chair of the Steering Committee.

How did you get involved with Youth United?
I called the Habitat office and talked to the volunteer manager, Patricia McCleese.  I told her that I wanted to start volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.  She told me about the YU program and invited me to a meeting. The rest is history.
 

What leadership roles do you hold?
Now I am the Chair of the Steering Committee.  Some of my duties include running the committee meetings, preparing agendas, making sure the committees are communicating with each other and making sure everyone is following up with tasks.

What were some of your favorite projects / activities / events?
Trick-or-treating for change on Halloween, making banners for Rochesterfest, and of course our committee meetings are always fun.  I enjoyed painting the Youth United house. It was my first time painting and I wasn’t very good when I first started but I learned a lot. 

If there were not a Youth United program, would your involvement with Habitat be the same as it is now?
My involvement with Habitat would not have been the same if it wasn’t for Youth United. I probably would have volunteered on-site once in a while, but now I feel a sense of ownership because this is "our" program and "our" house that we are building.

What do you like most about the program?
The enthusiasm of the people you get to work with.  It’s a fun atmosphere and it makes me feel very proud to see other youth and their passion for Habitat for Humanity.  Some people think youth don’t care about what happens in their community, but YU shows that we really do.

Since you joined what have been some of the big changes you have seen in the program?
There have been a lot of changes since the beginning.  We are getting more members which is great. We have youth of all ages, schools and backgrounds.  We’ve raised a lot of money and we built a house!  I think we’ve accomplished a lot.

What is your hope for the future of Youth United?
My hope is that people will continue to be as passionate about Youth United as they are now.

What would be your advice for someone who is thinking of joining?
Try it.  You don’t even have to build or like building, there are many other things you can do like fund raising or public relations.  You might end up really enjoying something you never thought you would, and it’s good to have something that you can be passionate about.

Currently she cares for residents of Charter House at Mayo Clinic as a Nurses Assistant.  She and all of her children are very excited to moving into their new home.  They have enjoyed living here in Rochester because it is a city which isn’t too big while at the same time not being too small. 

The Habitat for Humanity home is of the utmost importance to her and her family.  They are extremely grateful to be receiving such a generous opportunity of becoming homeowners.  Rahma noted that she is very appreciative of the Habitat for Humanity home.  She would like to express her thanks to everyone who has helped with the construction of the home and would like to personally thank each of the volunteers and contractors, as well as the donors and sponsors, who have made this project possible.  Their gifts of kindness have eased a lot of tension and stress for her.  She is amazed and awestruck by the generosity of everyone involved. She even noted she would like to give big hugs to everyone who has helped.  "Please keep up all of the great work," says Rahma. 
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Our mission is to partner with God’s people in need to build simple, decent, affordable housing.  We expand the meaning of the mission by also stating that we are: Building Homes, Building Lives, and Building Community.  It sounds simple but it means so much.  When we work together, each of us in God’s image, there is no limit to what can be accomplished.  Whether we are building with lumber or more efficient business practices or developing relationships with families, volunteers, or the community, it is the Lord’s hand that guides us.  Let our trust and faith focus on the higher mission of showing forth our love of God through action and service.  We are proud of our newest partner families.  Each family has an interesting story which will be shared throughout the year.  We hope that you will be able to meet them on the work site. 
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Support Our Supporters

THANK YOU!

Arby’s	Bread Baker	Café Deli at the RAC
Culver’s	Daube's Bakery	Domino’s Pizza
Dunn Bros	Erbert and Gerberts	Famous Dave’s
Godfather’s Pizza	Grandma's Kitchen	Jimmy John’s
John Hardy's BBQ	Kwik Trip	Leo's Pizza Palace
Noodles	Olive Garden	Paradise Pete's
Perkins	Pizza Hut	Quizno's
Subway	Valentino’s

Group information sessions:  Have a group that would like to learn about Habitat?  Contact Patricia at 252-0849 ext. 4.

June 4 - First Annual Habitat Best Ball / Scramble Golf Event, Rochester Golf and Country Club. 

June 16 - 2nd Annual Pancake Breakfast at Applebee's North.  $5.00 for a great breakfast. Proceeds support the Youth United house.  Contact Cody 252-0849, ext 5 for details or go to www.rahh.org. 
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