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'Women Build' program plans November homecoming at Noble Avenue site
By Kathy Antoniotti
Beacon Journal
Published on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008
If women are the nurturers of the world, a group of local women take that axiom to the extreme.
For three days each week over the next few months, female volunteers will take power tools and build a new house for an Akron family through Habitat for Humanity's Women Build International Program.
Make no mistake, these ladies know how to wield an automatic nail gun — even if some are skittish when it comes to heights.
''We crawled around on our bellies on the second floor because there weren't any walls up, yet,'' said Sharon Sledzik after helping raise walls on the West Akron two-story home on Friday. Sledzik, of Rootstown, usually spends her days representing Schlabig and Associates, a certified public accountant firm as a tax manager.
Tim Crozier, of Mogadore, a site supervisor for Habitat for Humanity of Summit County, was one of the few men at the site. He said he has no problem working with the fairer sex.
''Men want to do it twice as fast and they get it twice as wrong. With women — I'll probably get in trouble with the men I work with for saying this — they usually get it right the first time because they listen,'' he said.
The 1,149-square-foot Noble Avenue home is being built through a program that aims to have 100 percent of the work completed with female volunteers, including fundraising efforts and site supervision, said Rochelle Fisher, executive director for Habitat for Humanity of Summit County.
The women have already collected nearly half of the $80,000 needed to complete the home, Fisher said. Lowe's is the national underwriter for the program.
Thursday, the crew was working under volunteer site supervisor Lesa Lillibridge of Lillibridge Homes, a custom home builder based in Kent. Most of the women working with her are teachers and professors at Kent State University and all but one play golf together in a league.
The women are building the three-bedroom home for Warren and Kay Meredith and their two sons, Caleb, 16, a junior at Buchtel High School, and Daniel, 14, an eighth-grader at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.
''It's a milestone for us,'' Kay Meredith said of her family's move, expected in November.
Warren Meredith said the couple are not first-time home owners. They sold the house they have lived in for the past 16 years to members of their church, House of the Lord, rather than risk losing it to foreclosure when he lost a job. Now, they pay rent to the family who bought it, Meredith said.
To qualify for a 20 to 30-year, zero percent mortgage in the Habitat program, the couple must provide sweat equity by doing community service, working on Habitat homes or through educational classes.
For information about Habitat for Humanity programs can call 330-785-2700.
Kathy Antoniotti can be reached at 330-996-3565 or kantoniotti@thebeaconjournal.com.
If women are the nurturers of the world, a group of local women take that axiom to the extreme.
Get the full article here.
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